Background
As a student entering my third year at Virginia Theological Seminary, I was invited to co-coordinate a Thursday evening Eucharist on campus. Our community “on the hill” includes students of various ages, spouses, partners, children, youth, faculty, and staff. In June 2018, my classmates Elizabeth Henry-McKeever, Andrew Rutledge, and I began gathering to imagine how we could hold space for this diverse community to experience the living God in the Eucharist. After three months of prayer, reading, reflection, and preparation, our first “Thursday Night Live” service was held at the beginning of September. The worship that has unfolded week by week since September has been both rich and imperfect, full of grace and uncomfortable at times. We have learned a great deal. Our hearts have been stirred, our imaginations ignited, and our curiosity sparked.
What is “intergenerational worship”?
I use the terms “intergenerational worship” and “worship for all ages” interchangeably. I define this type of worship as worship that seeks to equally value people of all ages. These are services that intentionally consider the needs of diverse ages in worship and the accessibility of full participation of different generations. Although I used these terms synonymously, I prefer “worship for all ages.” When Thursday Night Live began, we called it an “intergenerational service,” but all over campus we heard it referred to as “the kids service” or “the family service.” I wonder how our beginnings would have been different if we had used the term “worship for all ages” instead.
Journeying Deeper
In order to explore how worship for all ages looks in different contexts, I began visiting congregations practicing intentional intergenerational worship in January 2019. Below are a few of the commonalities I observed on this journey.
Six Traits of Congregations Practicing Worship for All Ages
1. Intentionality
There are many churches in which a diverse age span of individuals are present for the entire service. I would term this multi-generational worship, worship in which many generations are present together. Churches practicing intergenerational worship intentionally consider how accessible their worship service is for different generations. In many congregations this goes beyond exploring a children/adult generational divide to wondering how the silent generation, baby boomers, generation x, and millennials as distinctive generations can be invited to more full participation in worship.
These churches consider questions such as:
- How reasonable is the length of the service in terms of the attention span of various generations?
- How accessible is the music for people of various generations, especially non-readers?
- Are there images or stories in the sermon that connect with different generations?
- Are people of different ages represented in worship leadership?
2. Full Participation
In some churches a few leaders actively facilitate worship while the congregation is relatively passive. Churches practicing intergenerational worship emphasize the full participation of all worshipers. These churches look for ways to extend leadership invitations to as many people as possible and are deliberate about including a variety of generations. Encouraging full participation in worship might include using images or props during the sermon so that people can participate through sight and sound. It might include creative presentations of scripture such as Biblical storytelling or skits. It might include intentional times of quiet marked by a bell or inviting people to play percussion instruments during some songs.
These churches consider questions such as:
- During what elements of the liturgy is the congregation most passive?
- How can the congregation more fully engage with the liturgy physically, emotionally, and/or spiritually?
- How are all five senses (sight, touch, taste, hearing, smell) engaged by our liturgy?
- Are there any elements of the liturgy that could include more movement?
- How does our worship space encourage or discourage participation?
3. The Sound Factor
Beyond the organ, piano, hand bells, or singing voices, church is filled with the sound of the gathered body. From sneezes and coughs to dropped hymnals, churches practicing intergenerational worship are no different than any other group gathering. At any given service you might hear the beeping of someone’s hearing aid running out of batteries, the whoosh of an oxygen tank as someone breathes, or the clunk of a kneeler falling down, but what is almost certain is that you will hear the sound of children. Whether it is laughter, crying, “whispers,” shuffling paper, or dropping crayons, it is hard not to notice the presence of children in worship. And no matter how much you love (or tolerate young children) it is likely you will be distracted at some point. Churches practicing intergenerational worship acknowledge that this is a challenge and seem to focus on helping people find strategies for managing distractions. These congregations remind themselves that the gift of being together in worship outweighs the inconvenience of sounds that might be distracting.
These churches consider questions such as:
- Are there ways we could arrange the space differently to help with distracting sounds?
- Are there ways we could help worshipers hear better?
- In what ways can worship leaders best respond to loud sounds in order to help the congregation refocus?
4. Commitment of Time
In the Episcopal context (and probably many others) time spent on liturgical preparation can vary widely from congregation to congregation. It is not terribly time consuming to prepare a service of Holy Eucharist Rite II from the Book of Common Prayer using the same hymns you sang on the third Sunday of Easter last year with a few modifications. Churches practicing intergenerational worship commit a significant amount of time to preparing for worship. For some this time might be spent in training worship leaders from acolytes to lay readers, chalice bearers, intercessors, and ushers so that leadership can be shared work. For some this time might be spent in sermon writing so that diverse ages can connect with the preaching. For others this time might be spent in intergenerational relationship building outside of worship so that the Body of Christ can gather as a more intentional family in liturgy.
These churches consider questions such as:
- What aspects of our liturgy may need additional attention in order to best engage a wide range of people? Who in our community might have gifts for this work as well as time to offer?
- How might worship be different if we committed additional time in preparation? What would that look like?
5. Reflection & Responsiveness
Until becoming a student at Virginia Seminary, I had never participated in any type of intentional liturgical reflection, but this type of reflection seems common among congregations practicing worship for all ages. The leaders in these churches create opportunities for worshipers to articulate what they noticed and to be heard by the community. The emphasis is on “noticing” and “wondering” rather than expressing personal likes and dislikes. This reflection can take place in many ways. Some congregations gather for fifteen minutes weekly right after worship. Some offer a reflection gathering monthly. Some invite reflections in a weekly email. No matter the format, these occasions for reflection give church leaders a chance to hear the experience of people in the pews and give people in the pews a chance to be heard. Responsiveness to these reflections takes the form of active listening and joint curiosity rather than reactiveness. Liturgical leaders do not necessarily make changes solely based on community reflections, but the reflections provide opportunities to be attentive to where the Spirit is moving during worship and what is distracting people from encountering God.
These churches consider questions such as:
- What did you notice during worship today?
- Where have you been feeling most connected to God during worship?
- What aspects of the liturgy have hindered your ability to encounter God in worship?
6. Flexibility
There are many churches in which worship is led by a small number of highly trained individuals. In my experience liturgy tends to feel highly polished and orderly in these places. In churches practicing intergenerational worship, liturgy tends to feel a bit messier. It requires substantially more flexibility from both the leaders and the congregation. When the work of leadership is shared across the age spectrum and there is an emphasis on the full participation of worshipers, it is inevitable that something will not go “as planned.” Someone will read the wrong lesson, forget to take up the offering, spill the wine, or be running into church half vested at the last minute. Sometimes these small blunders are funny, sometimes embarrassing, and sometimes distracting. But the end result seems theologically sound: there is a sense that worshiping God is about presence and togetherness not perfection.
These churches consider questions such as:
- How can we respond with grace and flexibility when worship does not go “as planned”?
- What are the gifts of imperfection in worship?
- Are there ways in which we can better support worship leaders in the future?
Why it Matters
There is an extensive body of literature praising intergenerational worship. I concur with most of what I have read: worship with all ages is theologically grounded and a wonderful opportunity for faith formation of all generations. I could expound on the theological underpinnings of intergenerational worship or how it works as faith formation for all ages, but what seems more important is to articulate why it matters to me.
I care about more congregations adopting practices of worship for all ages because I believe that we belong to each other. We belong to each other as children of God. The image of God resides in each of us our whole lives long. We do not take on the image when we turn 13 or 18 or 21. And we do not lose the image when we cross “over the hill” or when our memory begins to fail. When we gather together as younger and older images of the Creator, there is a wholeness that would not otherwise be. As Paul writes, “the body does not consist of one member but of many” and we have need of all the members in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:14). We have innate value to the community even when we do not “contribute” anything visible in worship.
Furthermore, we have gifts to share with each other. Each generation of our lives offers us fresh insight, unique ways of connecting with God, and new abilities that we can share with the community. Older generations often have great wisdom to share and hold invaluable institutional knowledge. They may have time to contribute or stories about how traditions came to be. The middle generations often bring energy and professional skills to the community while youth bring a healthy skepticism. Children, as newcomers to worship, ask why. This forces us to question what we might otherwise take for granted, to reflect, and explain our practices. Teaching helps us grow and find new meaning in familiar places.
Every generation has something to offer. Substantial effort should be made to include everyone in the full worship service – both those who cannot yet bring themselves to church and those who can no longer do so. The weekly celebration of Holy Eucharist is our primary work as church. At its best, we enact the world as it should be through liturgy and this experience informs the work of the rest of our lives. If we claim that worship is the most important thing we do together as Christians, how can we justify leaving anyone out?
Special Thanks
Special thanks to St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, California and St. Dunstan Episcopal Church in Madison, Wisconsin.