Worship Weblog

Zeeland Book Group – First meeting

Posted by cicw

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Book Groups

We invited 34 book groups across the U.S. and Canada to meet and discuss The Church of All Ages and its implications for their worship, and to share their notes here.
Learn more

After an initial welcome to all participants, Marc opened the meeting by doing two readings: one from Joel 2 and the other from Zechariah 8. Both texts imagine the future Kingdom with young and old persons together. The Joel text features visionaries and dreamers, as well as men and women actively engaged by the Spirit. The Zechariah text features the Kingdom as a city street where the elderly are present with canes in hands while children simultaneously play in safety in those same streets.

Each of us took some time and shared who we are and what draws us into this discussion. 9 people represent 4 congregations; 2 CRC, 1 UCC, 1 RCA

We went around the table and asked, “What kinds of thoughts or learnings has the book prompted for you?”

·John observed that the book prompted him to wonder about the “dark side” of specialized ministry; i.e. targeting ministries like children’s worship and children’s sermons can work against integrating an intergenerational blending.

·Val valued the insight that intergenerational means a “sensitivity to all generations”.

·Alyssa observed that many of her teenage friends have left the church because other friends did. She grieved not only this, but was saddened that there was a lack of appreciation for what other age groups had to offer her age group.

·Danielle acknowledged that it seems like it is awkward as kids and adults to reach across the generations.

·Dawn wondered “How do I craft an entire service while being sensitive to the generations – particularly kids – so that their place is not just a youth service.”

·Val – Key insight for the day: “We need other places – other than worship – to connect across the generations so that we know each other and each others’ stories. Without another ‘place,’ we don’t have any connecting points with each other.” We observed that this means that church needs to be more than “just about worship.”

·Eric – I really valued the idea of trying to see intergenerationally.

·Marc – do you ever feel like there is competition across the generations for emphasis or visibility?

·Jan – I think we wrestle with is worship a teaching time or is it about coming together as a community and wasting time in God’s presence?

·Alyssa – I love the quote on page xix that points out the difference between multigenerational and intergenerational – I think that is right on.

Marc – what are some of our success stories of intergenerational connectivity?

Jan – Are faith stories, testimony in worship important? Do we have examples of this?

Val – thanksgiving day open mic

Danielle – church education with adults and teens together in the same class

Dawn – epiphany eyes – invitations in worship during epiphany to publicly name “God-sightings”

Marc – Marva Dawn writes about how to do children’s sermons on the different parts of worship in either Reaching out without dumbing down, or, in A Royal Waste of Time. Perhaps if we regularly seasoned the liturgy with teaching / talking moments across the generations – or put children’s sermons in a variety of liturgical places – it might teach folks that the whole service might have something that engages you specifically.

John – I always try to pick 4 different people to think about as I am writing a sermon. This discussion about seeing with different eyes reminds me that I have never picked a child to be one of the four. I need to do that.

Marc – let’s get together next time and be thinking about what are some successes in intergenerational worship. As you think about those things, think about why they are successes. Also, if something has not worked, bring that too. Think about why didn’t it work?

Tags: bgzeeland, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational