Part II: Multi-generational worship
Corporate Christian worship is the most important event that brings a Church family together. As I wrote before it is the second most important thing, besides doctrine, in choosing a Church. So I decided to post a little series on worship, especially since it has become a renewed focal point in our Church.
I posted a definition of worship yesterday and promised to tackle three main aspects of it. So today I’ll focus on the first one of those: Multi-generational worship.
If you are a member of our Church, you may have seen and heard this statement as one of the four pillars around which our Church’s is re-building their purpose. And I’m sure it has generated the necessary head scratching as to what that really means. It did so for me. Now please remember this is my personal blog and not the Church’s official blog. These are my musings and thoughts and not necessarily the Church’s leadership. So if you should have questions, I would continue to invite you to reach out to an elder and get more answers there. That disclaimer out of the way, here’s is what I think multi-generational worship means and why it’s important.
As a family gathers on a regular basis, young and old tend to gather together. Imagine your family at dinner time. Usually, barring the obstacles and challenges of busy days (kids practice, dad’s working late, you know of which I speak), the family would gather together at the dinner table and perhaps recount the days’ events. It sounds rather obvious, but consider the opposite. Imagine a family dinner time where kids eat first, a meal of their choosing. Hotdogs perhaps ? Or spaghetti-O’s ? Then the teenagers, with perhaps some pizza or burgers. Then the parents, something more sophisticated and tantalizing to the palate. And then finally the grand-parents. Four different groups, getting together at four different times, having four different meals. Sound odd ? Then why does it not sound odd when a Church family decides to meet separately with different worship styles, different music, different liturgy (we’ll get to that later).
The fact that young and old can worship together is significantly important. It’s important that we can share our worship together as one family where young and old, children and youth, adults and …. well… non-adults, can all get together to praise Him. Worshipping together, may ultimately lower the barrier for our youth to ask questions. I would actually urge our younger members to ask questions. Never be afraid to walk up to someone and ask what they thought of a certain passage or sermon. There are certainly items we, as more “mature” members try to cope with as well, and we should not be afraid to admit that. Likewise, it is important for us to understand where our youth has questions or ideas. It will promote our mutual growth in Christ.
Granted, Sunday school classes or study time can and should be different. One cannot expect first graders to get in a class and understand the intricacies of let’s say a discussion on homo-ousios versus homoi-ousios. Or do a deep dive in 1John and discuss what it really means to “walk in the light”. Likewise fellowship and prayer time is better done in separate groups. It may be good to know for your teenagers you are praying for him or her, but perhaps not so good to hear that you are struggling in other areas. So there are definitely aspects of our Christian family life that we tend to separate into our appropriate age groups. But if use the worship definition I put forth yesterday as being
Worship is the weekly gathering of our Church family to bow down and glorify Him, expecting nothing in return because he is our one true God.
Then there is nothing more beautiful than seeing young kids make the hand motions to “Hear Oh Israel” or an older person raise their hand to “Awesome God”. After all, we are one family, coming together to worship Him. And I for one am glad I have the freedom to go do that tomorrow with the rest of my Christian family.
Next up: Liturgical worship ? What’s that all about.