Worship Bags for Kids

For years I’ve wanted to make worship bags for the kids in our church, and this Christmas I’m finally hoping to do it! Our kids ages 4-10 stay in the worship service for about 45-60 minutes (during the call to worship, greeting time, congregational singing, the prayer of confession, congregational prayer, and the sacraments), before receiving a blessing and heading downstairs to children’s church.

That’s a long time for kids, so I want to provide them with something that will help them stay engaged with what’s happening in the service. But I know that anything I give them could also become a distraction. So far, I plan to include a mini notebook (one of the little three-inch spiral top books), an 8-pack of crayons, and the children’s bulletin for the week.

I’d love to hear from other churches that already do worship bags. Here are a few specific questions:

• What do you include in kids’ worship bags?
• How did you introduce the bags and help kids catch the vision for staying engaged in worship? I don’t want to see kids scribbling in their notebooks when they could be singing with the congregation…
• Where do you put them in the sanctuary, or how do kids check them out and back in?