Worship Weblog

Holland Book Group – Third Meeting

Posted by cicw

Monday, November 30th, 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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Key Theme: “Well done – keep going”

The theme of our last few meetings of the book club was summarized by Dewey, our Children’s Ministry pastor, who, when asked to summarize what he had learned from our study of The Church of All Ages, said. “Well done – keep going; transfer the page to life.”

Through this entire study, our group has excitedly realized that we are well positioned to take advantage of what we are learning. Our vision statement says that we are to minister to all ages, abilities, backgrounds and cultures.” And our congregation and its leadership accept and even welcome the worship team’s efforts to make worship multi-generational and multicultural.

However, we all now see that with “vision, intention, and means” (the ingredients of ongoing discipleship pointed out by Dallas Willard in Renovation of the Heart), our efforts at being inclusive will increase, flourish and bless beyond what we had imagined. In this process we need to remember the negative “drivers” that cause conflict and the positive “drivers” that nurture continuing experimentation and maturity in worship. These are:

Negative “Drivers”
Fear
Music Preferences
Consumerism
Valuing numbers
Denial
Ignorance
Getting Something for “Me”

Positive “Drivers”
Conversation
Authenticity
Relevance
Participation
Intergenerational Needs
Leadership
Getting to God
Passion

Comments from book club members at our last session are instructive. Adam, a college intern who at 20 is our youngest member, said that these discussions have helped him to be “less of a punk.” As a member of the high school praise team in his home church, he felt, somewhat resentfully, that he had to “cater to the ‘old folks.’” Now his eyes have opened to the fact that “the generations are worshipping together and we have to learn from each other.

Brian prompted us to remember that we still have an age group that we have not integrated into our services – teens and early 20’s. He said that having high schoolers participating in the service doesn’t mean that we are creating a meaningful experiences for them.

This team has been empowered with vision and intentionality and the creativity to ensure that the means will continue to evolve. In the worship services since this book study ended we have seen a middle school child beating a drum along with her father in the orchestra, a teen-ager playing violin with the adult choir, a group of five elementary school girls singing a hymn, a 60+ staff member and a mid-twenties staff member reading scripture and two elementary students sharing the scripture reading with an adult. A mentally challenged adult lit the advent candle with his mother, middle school students did a sacred dance, and a gospel choir composed of singers of all ages enriched the worship service.

Worship promises to be a rich adventure for this “church of all ages” in Holland, Michigan.

Tags: bgholland, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational