A hymn.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:30)

A 'hymn', ladies and gentlemen. A hymn. Not a praise song with a repeated chorus and a bridge, with an instrumental solo that causes at least 5 people to come in early because you had to guess, and the song 'leader' gave no indication.

Children's ministry principle one

I wrote an article on children's ministry for the Briefing:

Over the course of nearly 20 years in children’s ministry (not including his own childhood), Bruce Linton realized that the establishing principle behind starting a children’s ministry in a church is usually this: noise must be contained so that we, the grown-ups, can get on with church.

Here's the rest. It's part one, so more to come.