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Generation Gap?
Started by mark c on 6 October 2008 - 8:31pm
| 6 October 2008 - 8:31pm | |
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Hi I have been blogging and asking the question about 'How to lead an all age service?' How to you gather the varied generations on a sunday morning service? Here are some thoughts...and a question? I may be a idealist but my understanding of church is that it is suppose to be a vibrant, life filled, people giving a powerful witness to a broken world around it. It is a place to find acceptance and forgiveness. It is a place to find mercy and grace. It is a place where the GENERATION GAP is closed not widened. It is a place where YOUNG and OLD, rich or poor and different cultures meet to glorify God and worship Him for who He is and what He has done. It is a place where we are to get a glimpse of what is to come. One day every generation, every tribe and every tongue will gather in the most awesome all age worship service ever!!! Revelation 7:9 We are not there yet? The church is not there yet? In the psalms we see the older generation telling the next generation about 'the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, His power, and the wonders He has done.' Psalm 78. The older generation are role models to the next. We also see that God has 'from the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise' Psalm 8. Jesus tells us to come like little children. Matt 18:3. We have things to learn from the children and young people in our church when it comes to worship. I struggle to see a generation gap in the bible. Old or new? I struggle to see two services??? So as worship leaders is this a question we should be asking......... 'How as worship leaders do we encourage our churches to bridge the cultural generational gap and build based on kingdom values in regards to worship together?' This one has been brewing for a while. Sorry if it sounds a bit preachy. God bless |
Hi Mark
In our church they have the 'normal' every sunday service and a service especially for youth (but all ages are welcome) every 2 weeks. Lately a lot of adults have been going to the 'youth' service because it's not as boring (forgive me for saying that) as the regular service. In my opinion the church needs to grow and adapt to the time we live in. I think worship should be fun for us and for God. Look at Tim Hughes or in my country Kees Kraayenoord they are becoming more and more popular.
Hope this helps a bit (my English is far from perfect)
Gods bless
Bert
Mark - good question! I suppose one way to go about things could be to try and break down the prejudices the different age groups have against each other (adults are boring, youth/teenagers are rebellious and disruptive, etc). By getting everyone involved in something together - be it small groups, working on projects, mixing up the age groups in the band, or other cooperative things - people get to know each other and I've found personally that when people get to know, love and respect each other the barriers of prejudice get broken down.
Music-wise, I think that every generation has it's favourite style of music, depending on what the people are used to/were used to. We could use a variety of songs in our singing, from different 'eras', rather than making them all the latest ones. There are some great older songs as well as the new stuff, and using older ones includes those who don't know or aren't into the new stuff.
On another practical note, I remember my church letting the students or the youth lead a service about once a year, and were received very well by the rest of the congregation. Maybe getting different groups of the congregation (you could cross the different age groups here) to lead a part of the service (if not the whole thing) would be a good idea?
Just a few ideas there!
Bert - your English seems fine to me :)