Worship Weblog

Fredericktown Book Group – Third meeting

Posted by cicw

Tuesday, September 15th, 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

Our third and final session included three men and three women, ages 22-83 and represented four different denominations. We started with the question—What are the characteristics of intergenerational communicators? Answers included:
“energy”,
“communicates a solid belief”,
“uses the power of story”,
“makes message relative to our lives”,
“includes humor”,
“weaves several different things together such as art, multimedia, etc.”……
Carol: “A speaker should not read his sermon.”
Mary M. felt it was ok to use a manuscript but don’t get stuck to it. She also felt it important to use illustrations that fit all ages but they should not make fun of any specific age group.
Tim: “Make eye contact with the congregation.”

Other comments about preaching included the following:
Carol: “Pastors try to make too many points. Reinforce points in different ways. A sermon should touch the heart.”
Tim felt there should be a calling for preaching….that if others besides a pastor preached, each needed a level of experience to give him credibility and his messages should have a level of accountability to them.
Jack said a lay person could give a “temple talk” and the pastor would expand on it.
Mary M added that testimonies are ok, but should not replace preaching.

Our next topic focused on teens in worship. All of our churches had had special services in which teens had planned the service, but we did not have ongoing teen planning in worship on a regular basis. Tim, our youngest member, felt that an open discussion with teens about worship to get feedback was a good idea. He thought a “dropbox” where teens could write anonymous suggestions about worship might be tried. “They wouldn’t feel threatened that way.” When asked if congregations evaluated their worship services, very few said that they did. Jack said, “only by hearsay.”

Almost everyone answered affirmatively when asked if churches put out scriptures for the next week to their members. Some used bulletins, many used newsletters and a few sent emails. Mary M, a Baptist pastor, says she’s going to start using “tweets” soon. Mary M also suggested to connect generations in worship to use an online children’s bulletin service that is interdenominational and can be set up by scriptural text.

When asked if people design bulletin covers, Jack replied they did for their 50th anniversary. Mary M. added she has done that with children. The rest of us had not done this and don’t do it on any regular schedule.

Another conversation topic was about how to avoid spiritual osmosis. In what ways do we educate people about worship? Jack and Carol agreed that in the Lutheran Church, two years of catechism covers a lot of worship education. Mary M. added that she tries to replace “churchy lingo” with more common language during worship time to aid those who come to church with no previous church background experiences. Family devotions were mentioned as an aid for worship education as well.

Our final topic focused on how we could help people come to worship with a mindset of giving instead of getting. Everyone agreed that this was of huge importance, yet we were short on answers. Jack felt that teaching people about spiritual gifts and helping them to identify their spiritual gifts was important. Mary M. emphasized that we must remember that God is the audience. Ed said, “to have a heart for worship, we must live it and educate others.” Jack summed it up with, “when raising kids, start early with worship education and be persistent.”
Two book titles came up in our conversations as good books to read. One was 90 Minutes in Heaven, and the other is titled, Unchristian.

Finally our group really liked one of Mary M.’s suggestions. Each year at her church, they make prayer cards for all of their members from birth to college. They take the children’s pictures and include on the card basic information such as name, birth date, grade in school, interests, etc. The cards are laminated and put in the pews. After a month, they are shuffled and rotated to different pews. Adults are reminded to pray for the child on the prayer card in their pew. Children know people are praying for them and feel a part of the church body.

Our group bonded well, and had lively discussions. We even stayed thirty minutes past our closing time because we had so much to share. Carol closed us with prayer for each other, our churches, and for this worship renewal project.

Tags: bgfredericktown, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational