Worship Weblog

Langley Book Group – Second Meeting

Posted by cicw

Friday, November 20th, 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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At this meeting, our discussion revolved around Chapters 5 (Intergenerational Culture), 6 (Story) and 7 (Preaching to All Ages).

In the church where Janice (Creative Arts Director) serves, a high value is placed on “knowing the Word,” which means that Sunday worship is definitely an “adult Bible classroom,” centered on a 50 minute sermon. Lindy (children’s director) expressed her agreement that clarifying the purpose of Sunday worship is essential to moving toward an intergenerational culture. In Cyndi’s (worship pastor) church, there are many different opinions about the purpose of our worship gatherings, and just as many opinions regarding the presence of children; most discussion revolves around whether children will be bored, or distracting to others. Cyndi argued for “raising the bar,” equipping children to aspire to full participation in congregational worship, through other contexts such as family worship. But for Tim, this raised the question: “How will families be equipped to worship together at home if the church never does it when it gathers?” Cyndi asked, “How can we ensure that each generation (children, seniors, young adults) walks away touched by God in some way during the service, not feeling like they always have to defer to another generation’s way of connecting?” Janice expressed the difficulty in her church of getting the pastoral staff and other teachers to adapt to a more intergenerational approach in their services. Tim commented that whatever the necessary changes may be, they need to occur, not just to placate certain individuals or to be more inclusive in a general sense, but on the basis of solid teaching about being the church.

This led us into discussing the concept of Story as foundational to meaningful intergenerational interaction. Janice has used congregational members’ stories in worship for a while, but is learning now that a meaningful story doesn’t always need to be edited to fit the service theme – something that often robs the story of its humanity. In the university chapel, Tim has introduced “Christ in the Commons” and “Last Lecture” Series as opportunities for alumni or faculty to share part of the story of their faith journey. Friday Praise Chapels are based on a Lectionary that aims to lead the community through an experience of the whole gospel story as they participate throughout the year.

Finally, we discussed some of the challenges and requirements involved in “preaching to all generations.” Tim mentioned that in his experience, the dialogue style requires a much higher degree of preparation and knowledge about the topic, for the sake of guiding the conversation purposefully. Lindy suggested that sermons be followed up by a “talk-back” with one or two congregational members who are responding, out of their own story, to what they have heard. Cyndi asked, “What if a person has a question about what they have heard?” Tim heard one sermon series recently by a well-known pastor where he and his wife fielded questions immediately after the sermon. Janice mentioned the fear of losing control of the situation; yet sometimes the “cringe stories” (the ones that are clumsy, not slick) are the ones most meaningful to people, because of their raw humanity.

As we wrapped up, Cyndi expressed some significant questions that have been raised in her mind: How do we combat the entitlement that any particular generation feels regarding how worship should happen on Sunday morning? How can we help everyone defer towards one another, instead of just one generation toward another? How can we promise each person that they will receive something they connect with, even if it’s not all the time, while we also help them to adapt and widen their own palates as they experience many different ways of connecting with God?

In a later conversation with Dave (worship leader and music teacher) and Dave (university professor), the discussion centered around the need to trust the Word to speak. In other words, our dependence on long sermons (which alienates children, not to mention others) places a high value on information. But if worship is more accurately an experience of intimacy with God, then perhaps we should give people an opportunity to just listen to the text of Scripture, with brief comments and observations. This leaves room for other kinds of intimate encounters with God as well, especially the Lord’s Table, which is inherently experiential and can be meaningful for children and adults alike. We struggled with where to provide the education and information that people desire, if it is not to be in Sunday worship. Tim mentioned “Secret Church”, an effort by The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, to educate people in depth about their Bible. Finally (and this seems to summarize the feeling in both conversations), Dave expressed his enjoyment of the book, but expressed the question on all of our minds – “How do we turn around this big ship that seems to be driven to facilitate worship on the basis of meeting the individual’s tastes?” What’s needed is a clarification of ecclesiology, which is so difficult to do in any community!

Tags: bglangley, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational