Worship Weblog

Brookline Book Group – Third Meeting

Posted by cicw

Monday, January 18th, 2010

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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What are some of the cultural and familial challenges when it comes to intergenerational worship and how can the church address these more effectively?

We reflected on the realities of living in the Boston area, where the pace of life is perhaps only rivaled by NY City—is it really possible for parents to take the time at home to cultivate the practices/habits needed for children to be prepared for worship? It seems out of reach for many if not most. How does the church respond?

We talked about how church leadership at times unwittingly supports the notion that the Christian nurture or involvement of children in worship is primarily its responsibility or, more indirectly, the responsibility of good church programs. For nominal or non-Christian parents it is sometimes true that the church is the source of Christian nurture—Tina and Carol both shared that their childhood and adolescent faith was formed by going to worship, Sunday School, youth group, etc. with friends who invited them, and churches that welcomed and nurtured them. There wasn’t much if any support or nurture at home.

But for Christian parents who are members of a congregation, we discussed how important it is for the congregation to offer educational programs and take other practical measures that equip parents to fulfill the responsibility to which they are uniquely called, and to actively combat the notion that parents can punt all responsibilities in the area of worship and nurture to church staff/leadership, effectively checking this responsibility off the to do list on the way home from Sunday worship. This gets at the interconnectedness of leading, planning and learning about worship noted in the book (p. 180), and the need for both action (worship) and reflection (learning about worship).

We also touched briefly on how the liturgical calendar can help to undergird a church’s and a family’s practices of worship, in part by “sanctifying” or setting apart certain seasons that order our days and weeks in terms of the Gospel story. For example, Godly Play has a wonderful way of interpreting both the Advent and Christmas seasons: “Christmas is so important we need Advent to get ourselves ready,” as Tina recounted.

There used to be more mainstream cultural supports to help preserve a sense of Sabbath, a day set apart for worship in the week. However, now we find ourselves less propped up by such mainstream cultural features (of what some have referred to as Christendom), and we are rather like the early church, returning to rituals and routines that can order frenetic, chaotic lives and protect us from complete conformity to the patterns of the prevailing culture, helping to create a contrast culture.

Carol observed (in the context of this community that has a very large Jewish population) how our Jewish friends have many rich practices that might be adapted for our own observances. We could embrace certain routines and rituals in Gospel freedom because we get to, not because we have to (e.g., lighting a candle at sundown Saturday, reading the passage of Scripture for the next day, praying a Psalm together, etc.), and thereby be reminded of who we are and whose we are, even as we prepare to do the same together with the whole community of faith the next morning.

Finally, in the context of briefly discussing a book entitled Free Range Kids: Giving our Children the Freedom We Had Without Going Nuts With Worry (L. Skenazy), we noted how ironic it is that we are so overprotective, over-involved, and neurotic in our children’s lives in certain areas that are not all that important (e.g., academics or athletics), and distant and disengaged in the areas that matter most (practices of worship, service, prayer and Scripture study). May our gracious God continue to have mercy on our skewed priorities and passions and lead us more and more in the ways of Christ Jesus. Amen.

Tags: bgbrookline, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational