Worship Weblog

Vancouver Book Group – Third Meeting

Posted by cicw

Tuesday, November 17th, 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

We focused on the last 4 chapters.
General consensus: the contents of chapter 7 had as much of a focus on scripture reading as on preaching. We appreciate the emphasis on the importance of the public reading of scripture.
Brian: in preparing for a talk for children grades 1-7, he was aware that if he were giving the same talk (sermon) to adults, his outline would have been no different. He had to be sure of the core or the ‘bottom line’ of the sermon in order to communicate it well to children. Distilling a sermon so that children would understand would make it understandable to all ages. Katie was present at the ‘children’s talk’ that Brian gave and added that if the 3 points of a sermon were that clear and re-iterated as often as with the children, she would remember sermons throughout the week.

All found chapter 8 interesting and it raised various questions. Edna expressed appreciation for the foundational focus of worship as being God-centered (as opposed to consumerist or performance –oriented). Andrea observed that the church study revealed what many of us already know to be true: people tend to stereo-type youth – ie. youth want a certain style of music, or that adults don’t like a certain style. The church discovered that passion for God is most important and that sermons and preaching style were more important than music issues.

Brian: why is this whole question of inter-generational even being raised? Hasn’t intergenerational worship been the biblical norm since the beginning of time? Is there now a fear of decline in church membership that motivates this study?
Other questions: Are we dealing with the fall-out of having bought into the whole consumerist mentality in our churches? What does faithful worship look like?
What is our motivation for trying to be inter-generational?
Andrea: the church study referred to capturing the “ allegiance” of youth to the church. (p.145) Should we not be more concerned about allegiance to Jesus Christ?
Brian and Andrea: churches should be authentic to who they are as well as who they are becoming. ie. Who has God called us to be? We can’t be something that we are not. Examples:
a church that insists on hiring a youth and children’s pastors when that is not their demographic; a church in a neighborhood with mostly young families and no where near a college to insist that they need a college ministry

Katie: observation that throughout the readings there is an emphasis on people needing to take responsibility for what happens after a worship service. (discussion groups, parents teaching children, etc)

Perhaps the challenge of the future will be, not how to keep the young people, but rather how to minister to the baby boomers who will soon form a large population of seniors.

The book is thought provoking and interesting and it has stimulated in us a desire to continue the conversation in our own worship contexts.

Tags: bgvancouver, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational