Worship Weblog

Surrey Bookgroup (Tom's 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.
Learn more

In our group are worship leaders, a worship elder, musicians, a youth and a pastor. We represent five different CRC churches in the suburbs of Vancouver, BC.

Why this Topic?
What interests us about intergenerational worship is the challenge of making worship relevant. We have so many different people in worship and we want to make sure all ages are included. All of us agree that this can also be frustrating, since we all feel pressure to “make everyone happy,” while knowing that not everyone is going to be happy.

Should Worship Be for All Generations?
Some of us told how growing up church was not something that seemed to be “for” them. Church was for adults and children had to sit still and quietly kill time folding bulletins and bugging their mothers for peppermints.

One of our members spoke about her sense of urgency for this topic. How can it be that our children can go through the whole church “system” and not stick with church? Did they not feel included? Is corporate worship irrelevant to certain generations? How can we keep trying to make church inclusive for all ages. We agreed that it is important for all generations to be included in worship. We need to keep all groups.

Are we Sensitive to All Generations?
We spent significant time talking about how our churches have been sensitive to the different generations in worship, such as:
• worship bulletins for children, with discussion questions for parents to ask later
• children at the Lord’s table
• scripture readers of all ages
• involving a 13 year old in the preparation for communion
• personal connections between pastors, elders and youth
• mission trips with three different generations
• sermon series focused on worship as a way to teach all ages
• blending contemporary and traditional music
• sharing testimonies from all ages
• funerals that speak to all ages, including the grandchildren
• using art to get generations talking to each other
• having the children come back into the service after they have had Sunday school are all examples we shared with each other.

Why Children’s Sermons?
Some wondered why we have children’s sermons. Why do they come up for a message only to leave for another message? Is it so that they can be cute and make the congregation laugh? Perhaps there are other ways they can be involved without singling them out in front of the whole congregation. Yet this is an opportunity for children to interact with another person and make connections with adults. It also tells them that in the special worship space there is room for them.

Churches as Communities of Grace
There seems to be a need for all generations to be gracious with each other. Each generation needs to give up something for the other. How can we become more accepting and tolerant of each other? Why is there such a stigma about singing hymns? Why does seeker friendly seem to be equated with contemporary? One member spoke about the fact that there are sometimes Bible readers that do a poor job of it. But we have to accept that this is important for them and we can tolerate it. The same goes for music. It doesn’t always go well, but the congregation needs to be gracious.

Does Size of Church Make a Difference?
We discussed the differences that size makes regarding multigenerational worship. One member from a small church spoke about how they have a feeling of being a large family, with adults teamed up with teen worship leaders, and potlucks with all generations rubbing shoulders with each other. Another member from a large church spoke about how they have to be intentional about keeping a good mix of Bible readers and worship leaders.

Other Boundaries Present Challenges, Too.
We noticed that there are other boundaries that present challenges to worship. Not only age/generation, but also economic, Christian school kids/public school kids, ethnic groups, single/family, seeker/saint boundaries present a challenge. As well, there are different faith stages represented in the congregation.

Worship Isn’t Necessarily Music
So much of the battles about worship revolve around music and style. But worship isn’t only about music and style. Sacraments, greeting, confession, offering, etc., are all are part of it. Some of our group spoke of the painful stories their churches have regarding worship. Those in the group who are from a non-liturgical church sense the need for going back to more ancient practices and are interested in the idea of worship as a back-and-forth dialogue between God and his people. Those from a liturgical background want to make sure that children learn more about what it means to worship.

We are off to a good start and we look forward to going further in this discussion.

Tags: bgsurreytom, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational