What I Want From Worship
February 19, 2012
Last fall, we did a book study on the book by Gordon McDonald called Who Stole My Church. It was a fictional account of a church in one of the New England States that had undergone a number of changes – contemporary music, changes in the order of worship, the choir was replaced with a praise band, etc. As a result, a lot of younger people came, and the older folks that used to run the church we’re feeling as though their church had been stolen out from under them.
While it was a fictional account, it brought out some very real questions concerning how we do church, and why we do it the way we do it. This morning I think we’re in for a special treat. Audrey Connell, at 93, is our eldest member here at Almond Union of Churches. Sarah Dygert, at 16, is our youngest actual member. Together they will be doing our service. To help make things a little easier for them I came up with a number of questions, and we’ll do this sort of as an interview, so we can get their ideas on what’s important for them, and hopefully, their answers will reflect on what’s important for the generations they represent.
I do want to apologize right off the bat for the title. What I Want From Worship makes it sound like worship is about us, and it isn’t. Worship is about our offering something of value to God. Our praise, our very selves is offered to God. But as I worked on this, I never come up with a better title. So that being said, they have each prepared sort of an opening statement on their thoughts of the ideas of worship and the Book Study we did…
Audrey – read your statement…
Sarah – read your statement…
Pastor: We hear a lot about the differences between the generations. What characteristics do you think best describe your generation?
Audrey: OLD! We don’t like change. Let’s sing the same songs, sit in the same seats. Church for only one hour. Let’s keep everything the same! Even the hard seats! We just don’t like change.
Sarah: My generation lives “in the world” probably more than any generation before it. Pain, violence, drugs and sex are in some ways everywhere we turn. It’s practically impossible to get away from. We know of great needs in the world and are willing to help, but we also know of great greed in the world so if we are giving of our money we prefer to donate to a specific cause rather than a big organization, so that we know exactly where our money is going and how it’s helping. A lot of teens my age come from broken homes, and that’s not just the non-Christian families. We are always stressed about school, problems at home or our friends homes, and what the future holds, among other things. Christian teens have to rely on God everyday for everything, because He is the only reliable one to lean on. And with the prevalence of pain, violence, drugs and sex, it’s really hard to be a Christian out in the world today.
Pastor: How do you think these characteristics effect the way you worship?
Sarah: Without a doubt these characteristics affect the way we want to worship. One example: We’ve never lived without technology – we’ve never lived before computers or TV. Our’s is a very visual generation, and we want to use that technology in worship, always looking for new ways to incorporate it. And technology changes so fast that we are always on the lookout for the next new thing, and find a way to use it. We aren’t stuck on the old ways, we’re always looking for something better. We are perfectly okay with abandoning a program if it isn’t working anymore. After all, God’s the only One without an expiration date.
Also, something else to think about here, we come to church tired from the stresses of the week. The stress of life doesn’t magically disappear on Sunday morning. That’s why we like our music loud in worship, we want to blast the unwanted thoughts out of our head and fill it with 100% God centered music. It fills our heads and our hearts and pushes out the world in way the old hymns just can’t. That allows us to worship God fully and honestly.
Audrey: I’d like to suggest something new! What NEW! How can this be Audrey ? Let’s get rid of the old hard seats. Sell them (who wants them!) Perhaps a church that burned down or was flooded out. Buy upholstered seats with arms. Put chairs in groups and discuss material provided by Pastor for 20 minutes or so. Everyone must have a Bible and look up passages and read it aloud. Possibly a circle of sons and daughters? May get younger people? Advertise.
Pastor: Music in a worship service is a major dividing line in some congregations. What kind of music do you like to sing in worship?
Audrey: Choir or individual singing, and the hymns. The Organ is very important – it’s important to keep it the organ going.
Sarah: I like contemporary praise and worship songs during worship. They are usually played with guitar and drums, and sometimes loud. My favorite praise and worship songs talk about God’s love. They talk about how amazing God is and how he makes beautiful things out of broken people. They tend to emphasize a great, all powerful, loving God who saves broken people, or they talk about giving God glory and praise. Though these are common themes to my favorites, there are many others. They directly quote scripture, putting it music in a new way. Some are even remakes of the old hymns.
Pastor: Why does this type of music speak to you in worship?
Sarah: These songs are written by people who have gone through the same things I’m going through, and made it through by the grace of the same great God. They use the same language I use so I can understand what God is trying to say to me through that song, and it can refocus my attention directly and fully on God.
Audrey: When we sing the old favorite hymns I always get a warm, comfortable, loved feeling in my heart. Old songs bring back memories. We find courage and assurance in old songs. Many songs we sing reflect being lost and found again. (read other story sheet here???)
Pastor: What unique stresses do you feel in life – what do you think is unique to your generation? Do you expect worship to speak to these issues? How can the church help?
Audrey: I think age enters here. Stresses I feel at 93 are far different than stress of younger years. Right now as we get older we think a lot about health. Staying independent enough to stay in my own house is also a worry. It’s all related to the health issues we have as we get older. My second husband and I used to spend winters in Florida at a campground of mostly retired people. We soon learned not to greet people with “How are you?” because for half hour or so we found out!
Sarah: In day to day life, the biggest stress would be school. But I also worry about what to do after school (college, job). I wonder if my friends believe the same things I do, and if they are striving to follow God the same way I am, and if I really am following God the way I should. I do expect worship to speak to some of these things but it will more so be God speaking through the worship. I don’t think you can plan for that.
Pastor: What do you see is the role of church in someone’s life today?
Sarah: I think this question can be taken two ways. What is the role of the church in someone’s life today? And what should be the role of the church in someone’s life today? In my life, the church is someplace I go on Sunday to try to worship God, but unless there is a meeting, there is really nothing on a regular basis other than Sundays, and certainly nothing in our church specifically for teens. I know the reason why that is, but I enjoy doing things at church. In Florida, we were at church three or four days a week, or more, and I miss that. What the role of the church should be is a more difficult question. I think the role of the church should be far more than Sunday. It should be the people of the church, being used by God for whatever His purpose is. The church should make a difference; otherwise it’s really just a building.
Audrey: I guess we need to change our thinking on many issues or the church isn’t going to be in anyone’s life. Very sad.
Pastor: In closing, what would your ideal worship service be like?
Audrey: As much as I love what we’re doing now, I do see that we need to change some things. That book brought out a lot about the need to change. I would like to see a combination of half what we have today and half what the younger kids would enjoy. All of it to the glory of God.
Sarah: The kind of worship service I would love would be mostly music. The music would be played on guitars and drums, never organ! It would be all contemporary praise and worship songs, and we would probably be standing most of the time. It would seem loud to most of you. The message would be interesting and fun, but memorable and meaningful. This service may not seem like what you think of as a good service, but this church would be filled with amazing people that God is using to impact the world with His love. This kind of church is far more than Sunday morning.
Pastor: In preparing for today, I came up with a number of questions to ask these two. I was really impressed by the answers. They both really thought about what’s important to them, and respectively, to their generations. We only looked at a few of their answers today, but I think you can see that there is a big difference between what’s important to these two generations. Inside and outside of church, there are some fundamental differences.
But the importance of God in their lives is very evident. It looks a little different to each generation, the biggest concerns in life are very different, but the need for God is very real in both cases.
The question for us as a congregation then is this: Can we accommodate both generations here in Almond. Can we really reach out to younger people and families, knowing that what’s important to them may be very different than what’s important to us, and knowing that they are going to want to worship a little differently than we do.
There is certainly room for all generations in the Body of Christ. Can we make room for them all in our little part of the Body?
