Worship Weblog

Santa Ana 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.
Learn more

To Include or NOT to Include?

From Youth Sunday, to announcements, to “Blowin’ in the Wind,”
what is appropriate for worship and helpful to the Body of Christ?

1. Youth Sunday services.

While agreeing with our authors (p. 147) that having an annual Youth Sunday (YS) service can imply that the other 51 Sundays each year are not for youth, many benefits of YS services were noted. The education for the youth is invaluable, and younger children aspire to the time when they will have this leadership opportunity (Jenni).

There is obviously great strength and integration when YS services flow from a context in which the youth regularly are present in corporate worship. This offsets the “51” effect mentioned above, instead simply allowing the youth to take a turn leading the body of which they are a part. This is the context in which some of our book group members remember experiencing YS during their own teen years (Jenni, Hanan); but today such a context is much less common.

Two of the many benefits of participation in graded choir programs is that students feel more at home both in corporate worship services in general (Hanan), and also more comfortable in up-front leadership (Rebecca). Of course, such leadership can and should be used many Sundays in the year, not just on YS.

Drawing teenagers into the intergenerational-worship vision is a huge challenge today (Rebecca). YS services, regardless of context, may be a step in helping students toward this end and helping them identify with the broader community of the church.

2. Litanies, corporate prayers, and age-specific elements/references.

Litanies and responsive prayers contribute to involving the congregation actively, yet the effective writing of these is an art form (Rebecca). Short lines, as on p. 155, are preferable to longer lines, as on p. 153. The Iona Community has some excellent resources.

The inclusion of images/references to the spectrum of ages represented is key (e.g.,
p. 156). But what if children/youth are not (yet) present in the corporate worship service: should the church include age-specific worship elements/music/references anyway? (Hanan) Varied opinions were expressed:

• know your congregation and include what is appropriate to who is there (Greg)

• know which services children/youth will likely attend and include elements for them at those times (Joseph)

• put these elements in even before children and youth are present so that parents
recognize that corporate worship is a place in which their children are welcome (Blake)

The corporate prayer of confession was a radical innovation of the Reformation (no need to have a priest involved in confession of sin). It is an important part of the Reformed Tradition (Rebecca). Some churches include confession of sin weekly, but not always in the form of a unison prayer (Hanan). Keeping unison prayers general (e.g., “those who struggle with addictions”) vs. specific (“those who struggle with alcoholism”) is important for relevance to all present (Lynn).

3. “Blowin’ in the Wind.”

A recent incident in which a self-run music group in a church (Greg’s) prepared the secular, Vietnam-era Bob Dylan song “Blowin’ in the Wind” for presentation in corporate worship led to our multi-faceted discussion of what is appropriate for inclusion in worship, who decides this, and how to be both pastoral and pragmatic in keeping people within desired boundaries. Key points follow:

• Theology and context are important. This song is pantheistic (Julie), and therefore inappropriate unless re-interpreted within a given service context (e.g., “wind” ? the Spirit at Pentecost). The pastor (at least in the Presbyterian context) has authority over all elements of the worship service and should determine what is/is not theologically correct/appropriate (Rebecca).

• Throughout the history of the church, secular culture has been reinterpreted for Christian purposes: e.g., Luther using secular tunes for his hymns (Blake), the church taking secular holidays and remaking them into Christian celebrations. But care must be taken with text and interpretation to truly Christianize what once was secular.

• Even if reinterpretation is given, the original context of the song is not erased from people’s minds (Greg, Jenni). This tension may provide a teachable moment for the group wishing to include the song in worship (Greg, Blake), providing an opportunity to explore the nuances of a text and what others will take from it, regardless of the intensions of those proposing it (Blake). Some secular associations may be too daunting to overcome, at least in some settings (e.g., songs w/ militaristic imagery, the tune “Austrian Hymn’ connected w/ “Deutschland ?ber alles” and Nazism). (Jenni, Rebecca)

• Not only secular songs need to be subject to theological scrutiny: everything needs this kind of examination. This includes songs from our hymnals (Rebecca: like “In the Garden”), songs from Christian radio (Blake), etc. Certain materials may be appropriate in some church traditions, but not a particular denomination (e.g., the very personal nature of many songs may be less appropriate to worship in the Reformed Tradition, where great emphasis is placed on the corporate body and serving Christ in the world.) (Jenni, Rebecca).

• Pastoral sensitivities sometimes require theological compromises (Rebecca). Some of the gate-keeping we do is not seen in scripture, and it is important to do our best not to squelch another person’s passion, but gently guide/educate (Lynn).

• Pragmatic steps, such as approving musical choices/texts before a group has invested time and energy in preparation, are key to avoiding emotionally-charged conflicts in values (Hanan).

4. Announcements.

It was agreed that the inclusion of announcements in corporate worship is problematic, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of the service. “Don’t do them at all” (Blake); “but people won’t read them, and they’re an open invitation to visitors” (Jenni); “if church is a 7-day-a-week event rather than Sunday-morning only, announcements are important” (Hanan); “they’re family business” (Joseph); “only print the top 3 announcements and verbally give only 1” (Blake).

Giving an announcement sheet to people on their way out the door could be an effective way to reinforce “Go in peace and serve the Lord” (Blake, Rebecca). Move toward placing the emphasis on empowering the lay people to hustle to promote events during the post-service social time rather than on bombarding people with ads during the service itself (Blake).

5. Intergenerational Worship Idea-Sharing.

• Have the children learn the musical segments of the Great Thanksgiving and lead
the congregation in worship. Use the learning process as an opportunity to teach children about communion and to introduce them to the church’s organ. (Lynn, Rebecca)

• Have youth choir write a brief reflection following participation in a worship service; what was most meaningful to them, and what was most challenging. (Hanan)

• Easter Vigil Service naturally lends itself to multi-sensory experiences that will be meaningful to all ages. (Rebecca, Lynn)

Tags: bgsantaana, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational