Worship Weblog

Iowa City Book Group – First Meeting

Posted by cicw

Tuesday, October 13th, 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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Eight people from three Presbyterian churches in Eastern Iowa met together over breakfast to begin our study and discussion of The Church of All Ages and its potential impact on the congregations we serve. We began by reading from the prophet Joel (2:28-29) and Revelation (4 + 5) to focus our attention on worship that includes “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them (Rev. 5:13).”

Five questions were sent out to participants to contemplate over while reading the first five chapters of the book before our first meeting.

1. Vanderwell defines intergenerational worship as, “worship in which people of every age are understood to be equally important.” How do your current worship habits embrace this statement? How do your current worship habits fall short of this statement?

2. What specific attempts have been made to be more intergenerational in your community of faith. Were they helpful?

3. Which insights on intergenerational worship from any of the first five chapters were most helpful to you in understanding your own congregation? Did they help you assess your strengths and weaknesses?

4. What are the major challenges you face in planning intergenerational worship?

5. What questions do you hope we discuss during our three meetings together?

While many of us knew each other from other ministry events, we first began to share about our congregations, ourselves and our roles within the congregations we serve. Within that sharing flowed the joys and challenges of ministry within a congregation of multiple generations.

It was discovered that the participants also bring with them the opinions and experiences of their own children (ranging in ages from 2 years old to college age). This will prove helpful for discussions about worship with the various ages represented in our congregations. It was clear that all involved brought a passion for worship and equipping others to enter into this holy act. Much of the material found within the first five chapters of the book assisted us all in better identifying and articulating our current strengths, challenges and potential goals for each of the communities that we serve. The following are some of the many challenges faced:

• Involving children and youth in meaningful ways – moving beyond novelty to authentic worship. (All)
• Scheduling of music rehearsals to promote intergenerational groups. (Kip)
• Struggles finding capable leadership to lead children and youth. (Tim)
• Integrating a sense of intergenerational involvement in all of life. (Kip)
• Moving beyond “special” one-time services that highlight certain age groups to complete integration. (Kip)
• Leadership within the church that lacks representation from the older generation. (Patti)
• Keeping the goal of intergenerational involvement at the forefront of more congregational activities. (Heather)
• Being doers of the Word, not simply listeners – being poets of the Word, not simply audiences. (Kip)
• Expressing the importance of God-centered worship vs. “me”-centered worship each and every time we gather. (James and Sarah)
• Educating the congregation about the purpose of worship within their lives. (James)
• Doubts as to the appropriateness and advisability of having a “Children’s Message.” It tends to separate children from the rest of the congregation, and sometimes the content is questionable. Often the congregation will laugh at something “cute” that a child will say in response to a question – how that child feels when everyone is laughing at him or her? (Helenka & Kip)
• Discovering the subtext to people’s complaints and desires – what are people really lacking in their worship when they request more “contemporary” music or worship that “speaks to me”? (Matthew)
• The practicalities, including the time and resource requirements, of trying to “do it all.” (Matthew & Helenka)
• Distinguishing between change with purpose and change for the sake of variety and novelty. (Kip)
• Congregations now are largely comprised of people from many Christian traditions. (Helenka)
• Awareness that there are seasons of change within congregations. As with the seasons, we know they are coming, we just don’t always know what they will be. (Tim)
• Respecting the context of every congregation – helping it to find its own voice without being tempted to try and be all things to all people. (Kip)
• Preaching for a wide range of ages and maturity levels. (Kip)
• Communication between pastors, musicians, children’s leaders, artisans. (Heather)
• Helping people enter into worship by assisting them to make the connections between each element of the service. (Sarah and Matthew)

At our next gathering we hope to add the perspective from a new church plant along with additional pastoral representation of the congregations participating.

Tags: bgiowacity, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational