Young People and Worshop
Children LOVE to worship. All children may not know what's 
going on during an entire church service, but they love the mystery & they love being a part of it. They become formed by the community, by the words spoken & the prayers they can recite back to you without even knowing it.
Youth (young people over the age 11 or so), like being a part of the service. They like to be ushers and part of the altar guild, they like to be in the choir or acolytes. They like to (and need to) know that they are full members of the church, and as such, have a part to play in the service.
Liturgy Planning with young people
Children and youth can help plan the service, preferably in an on-going way as a member of the liturgy committee. Or you can work with them seperately to write specific prayers.
The following are some tools to help the adults and young people work together to create a Eucharist.
Incorporating young people in the service
With proper training and a true call to do a ministry, young people can take part in all aspects of the church service that adults can. Our Bishop encourages & approves of the licensing of young people to perform these ministries. As we no longer delegate specific tasks by gender, we encourage you to delegate tasks by gifts & skills, not by age or gender.
Here are some ideas
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Eucharistic Ministers
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Eucharistic Visitors
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Ushers
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Greeters
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Healing Ministry
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Readers
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Prayers of the People leaders
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Acolotye
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Choir
Some ways this can be incorporated into your church
Mentors don't have to be designated by age, but rather by experience. Have an experienced person work with the mentee to make sure that things are done correctly. If you have a young person reading, an experienced reader can stand next to him or her in case difficult words come up. And with the acolytes, a younger person can mentor an adult. This is a wonderful way to cross generational lines and have some much needed relationship building.
Practice is the most important part! If the child is unpracticed and nervous, it will show. A practiced child will have confidence and will want to do it again. He or she will also impress the congregation, and perhaps show the nay-sayers that children can do many different ministries in the church
Many churches have "youth Sunday" perhaps once a month or once a year. This can be a wonderful opportunity to do something special. But by using that term, does it infer that every other Sunday young people aren't welcomed? It can be a great way to slowly move the congregation to accepting young people in the church. But we believe the goal should be to incorporate them fully and have young people on the regular rota for all ministries.
Looking at what people have to offer using a "gifts assessment tool" (an example can be found here on the ELCA websire), and then using those gifts to help the young peope discern what ministries they may be interested in.
Most young people probably don't even know the opportunties out there. Let them see them, by either having a one-day fair, or a weekly presentation. Perhaps at the formation time for a few months, each ministry group can present what they do, why they do it, how they do it, and what it means to them.
Connecting young people to worship
Young people need to see the action! I firmly believe that the further back they are that more difficult it become for them to pay attention & truly believe they are part of the service. Put the children up front - where they can see! The following links have some ideas & suggests for ways to get young people more truly involved in the service
Resources to plan and put together a child/youth-friendly service
Children often need to keep their hands busy. And when their hands are busy, they are often listening more closely. The following links have activities that you can use.
Resources to help make children comfortable in the Sunday service
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Prayer mandalas (give these to the children with colored pencils)
