There are many kinds of drama and performance teams you can start in your children’s ministry. These teams allow children the opportunity to minister in front of a congregation and is a great way to give children the opportunity to do outreach. Here are some steps if you would like to start a team.
Decide what children will be on the team. Are you going to have every child in the church participate or only those that are interested? Will you have auditions? Also determine the ages of those who will participate.
Decide a schedule of practices. Make sure every parent receives the schedule in writing. You may also have to do some follow-up phone calls.
Decide on an identity. Name your performance team or allow the children to choose a name. Assign a logo. Also decide what the children will wear. T-shirts with the name of the team are a great idea.
Make a list of guidelines. Guidelines are needed not only for behavior, but also for dress code, missed practices, etc.
Decide what type of performance your team will do. Your team can be a general performance or drama team. It could also only specialize in a couple of genres. But you need to decide that ahead of time. If you do different genres, you may want to start with one easier genre and proceed from there. Jeff Smith of Salt and Light Ministries has a number of resources for performance teams at this link. Here’s a list of performance genres and some more resources.
Acting: Acting is the type of genre where the children do skits that require talking. Here’s a link to find great Christian drama skits for free.
Mime: Actors wear white paint on their faces and white gloves. They act out their parts, but they don’t use words. This can be to music, but it doesn’t have to be. To find out more about this, click this link.
Human Video: This is where children perform to music using facial expressions, sign language, and other actions to tell the story of the song. Karen Wheaton’s ministry has a number of DVD’s with human videos at this link.
Flags/Banners: Children use flags and banners to perform to a song. For more about this ministry, click this link.
God Rods: Children use dowel rods as props in human video style performances. Jeff Smith of Salt and Light created this ministry. You can find out more at this link.
Dance/Movement: Children don’t act out a song as much as they perform with the music. It is generally not a good idea to start this kind of team unless it’s led by someone who has some dance training. If you decide to go forward with this, here’s a blog link that has useful information.
Keep it Ministry Minded: Spend some time at the beginning of each practice to pray and praise God. You could also allow the children to take turns sharing a Scripture, testimony, or devotion. Emphasize the reason for doing this ministry is to glorify God and minister to others.