Worship Weblog

Brights Grove Book Group – First Meeting

Posted by cicw

Tuesday, September 22nd, 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.
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We met for the first time last night, September 15th, at Shiloh site on a lovely warm evening. Eleven of the twelve people in the group were present: Cindy, Joanne, Kay, Ruby, Christine, Irvine, Corey, Marie, Gloria, Nancy and Susan. Three members of the group attend Central United Church, a church in the city of Sarnia. The remaining members attend Shiloh~Inwood United Church, a congregation that shares two sites, both in rural settings.

After introducing ourselves and our “roles” in the church, the meeting began with a review of Vanderwell’s definition of Intergenerational Worship: Intergenerational worship is worship in which people of every age are understood to be equally important (p11). We agreed that often this term, in practice, is limited to being inclusive of the youth and children. We agreed to be mindful of people of all ages.

The question was asked: What was worship like when you were six years old? What memories do you have? Many commonalities were expressed that would seem to indicate that most congregations were not very sensitive to the needs of children in worship until they were in the Sunday School class, if one was held. An exception was a fond memory of graduating from each Sunday School year and the song, “Open the Gates.” The “code of silence” for children was a common memory as were large Sunday School classes.

We discussed the common theme of the same people in attendance, increased longevity and not many new, young people. Two insights were noted from chapter one. The first was that children who attend Sunday School get their roots and values in that place and then take those out into the world. This is a missional view of children leaving the church and planting seeds in other places, rather than a view that we are “losing” them from our congregations. The second insight was the concept of looking at the number of years people have been church attendees, as opposed to their ages, and looking at the diversity within each group. For example, rather than bemoaning the fact that there is no one in the congregation under sixty, celebrate that there are people who have been attending for five years, ten years, twenty years, and seek to be intentional about discovering the diversity within these categories.

Who is overlooked or left out? This question began an energetic discussion of Jane Rogers Vann’s differentiation between “worship experience” and “worship event” (p.xiii) A younger member of our group felt that “experience” was more descriptive of developing and nurturing a relationship with God. For example, if worship/church included opportunities for music one could participate in, challenging conversations, opportunities to talk about one’s faith and ask question together then she felt included in worship. For children and youth there was a difference noted between the city church and the rural church. The city church folk felt that children and youth needed other children and youth to be present to feel comfortable and return the next week to worship. The rural church folk noted that children and youth felt comfortable regardless of their numbers because most of the members of the congregation were either family or well known to them. In both situations it was felt that the gospel needed to be contextualized for the different culture that the youth now live in….the culture of youth who can listen to iPods, use MSN, write essays and talk on the phone (all at the same time!), but who find silence and long lectures very hard to sit through.

When speaking of the biblical values in chapter two, it was noted that there has been a huge shift in the church and its function in society. In the past the church was the hub of activity in a community and new people coming to a community would automatically go to church to become acquainted with people and involved in their new home. Now the church is on the margins and this means that if there is to be a Continuing Community then we, the church, need to go out into the community. It was also noted how difficult it is for people to talk about their faith and that this would be an important area of Christian Education for one and all, not just the youth.

Intentionally age inclusive services have included Christmas pageants, services with children carrying symbols of worship and the creation/presentation of prayer flags. Sensitivity to all ages is shown in such ways as children taking up their own offering in “miniature model churches,” pairing the older members with the younger to bake for meals, giving newly baptized baby to member of congregation and inviting people to Sunday School to be guests. It was questioned whether the elderly people feel left out and how to be sensitive to their involvement.

Tags: Book Group - Brights Grove, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational