Reinventing Worship for a Post-Television Generation

Well, I've got Carmichael, CA, and Tacoma left on the Maniacal Melheimian Mystery Tour - and then the 79 cities and 2009 tour is history.

I'll do a complete recap of what I learned on the road, but here's a sneak peak:

The hottest hot button I hit this year on the road was the concept of re-imagining worship for a post-television generation with our brain-based learning on arts-based platforms. I.E....

Bible Song AS worship.

The reasons this seemed to resonate with people on the tour this year:

• Most Christian education directors get NO time in worship.
• Most Senior Pastors spend NO time in Children's Ministry.
• Most families are doing NO intentional Christian education in the home.
• And most Worship Leaders KNOW that the so-called "contemporary age-segregated let-me-put-on-a-show-for-you" worship service isn't impressing the baby boomers, isn't drawing the baby-busters, and isn't engaging the hearts and minds of the post-television generation.

Basically, I'd like to launch a national conversation about reinvisioning worship (Old English weorthscipe, from weorth worthy, worth + -scipe -ship) as an activist, constructivist, engaging community vehicle that brings worth to God by unveiling the key Bible theme for the week on Sunday with a blurring of worship and education where parents and kids stay TOGETHER, followed by sending the theme home to households committed to "every night in every home" FAITH 5 faith encounters seven nights a week. What we must create is an worship/education blur where instead of trying to put on a show for the post-television generation in worship, and instead of sending kids and parents into separate rooms for education, families (and adopted grandparents, singles, etc.) come together an hour-and-a-quarter  GIFT (Generations In Faith Together) event that looks something like this:

    1.  Open with the theme/song/verse/story for the week unveiled in an energetic, fun, engaging encounter with the text where the brain meets the body meets the environment (20 - 25 minutes), then
    2.  Break into small group to model the FAITH 5 every week (5 - 10 minutes of modeling and connecting this week's text with their highs and lows), then
    3.  Engage in the creation/interpretation of the key theme through the arts (15 - 20 minutes)
    4.  Celebrate the week's new theme through a "show and share and tell and prayer" closing - with sacraments and the prayers of the people coming directly from each group's "highs and lows" (15 - 20 minutes), then
    5. Send the theme home seven nights that week  - now that they have a frame of reference... Er... Frame of reverance -  to form the core of the FAITH 5 nightly encounter with the text (the theme verse) and the context (their highs and lows). Explain that Sunday is just the time to get the new "play" for the week. Now that you know it, go and live it!

This, of course, means the preacher isn't going to be the only preacher and interpretor of the text on Sunday morning. The preacher is going to have to be willing to share the spotlight with a whole church full or people engaging with and interpreting the text. The IHS (one hour service) is going to have to shift from a spectator sport attempting a quickie religious fix into the kick-off of a week of the Bible theme followed by a week-long engagement with the text and context (the peoples' highs and lows).

SIDEBAR: What preacher in his or her right mind wouldn't want the majority of the households engaging with and applying Sunday's text to their lives seven nights a week? What worship leader in his or her right mind wouldn't want the majority of households singing and signing the text from Sunday seven nights a week? What Christian education director in his or her right mind wouldn't want to send Sunday's theme home for 5 - 10 minutes a night - every night? What Christian education board in their right mind wouldn't want a highly motivated teaching team engaging in faith incubation every night of the week in caring, intimate, loving settings? A GREAT teacher to student ratio? And faith encounters at the most effective time for Christian education - the five minutes each night before the brain goes into Maximum Meaning Mode on a good night's sleep.

Now that's Christian education. That's worship. That's family ministry as families DOING ministry rather than families doing programs! That's faith incubation.

I've got two days off in Tacoma next week and have started putting the RCL texts and Bible Song texts together on a spreadsheet to see how they meld/mix.

I'll post it when I'm done, then let's look at some dates in the cold, dead winter to gather some movers-and-shakers-and-systems-breakers in Florida or Puerto Rico to think this through.

Maybe we could kick off a post-Lenten experiment with a dozen churches ready to blur the lines between Worship and Education... and finally create the worship to education to home link that will replace Sunday School forever.

Kill the drop-off Sunday School before it kills the church.

Comments

[Dawn Reisig]

I would love to see what you come up with for the RCL. We are using a lectionary based curriculum for Sunday School this year and bought Spark Bibles for every child. The teachers love it, kids are so excited about having their own Bible and some (ideally it would be all) are reading their Bibles at home with their parents. We have planned special Sundays when parents come with their kids to Sunday School. Since what they are learning in Sunday School is the same text we have in worship - many are seeing connections. I sometimes use the children's sermon time to have them tell the story. BUT there are those parents who hardly ever come to worship and I don't know how to reach them. GIFT sounds wonderful but having tried GIFT in another church I know that many will resist it. They are just so used to dropping their kids off and using the time in other ways. BUT I am all for trying again in this place. We are a small rural church with about 30 children. Currently we have 5 youth in confirmation and parents are attending with them and I think enjoying it. I am thankful to your parents for how they helped to shape you and I am thankful for all of your work in this area. It has been sorely needed. Blessings to you! Dawn Reisig

[Joe Patterson]

Hey Rich,

Check out The ReThink Group weekly Family Experience component of their curriculum. It has a bunch of the components that you are talking about. The worship plans are very flexible and have fantastic drama and storytelling portions that engage the entire family.

[Rich Melheim]

Will do. Thanks. I've always liked Group... ever since Tom and Joani cooked me spaghetti at their house in 1983.

[Debra Bird]

Hi Rich! Thanks for all your sharing. Are you familiar w/the book The Spontaneous Spread of Home-Discipleship Christianity by Henry Reyenga Jr.? Here's a link to the free download. I'd love to hear your thoughts. http://www.fofc.org/links.php

[Rich Melheim]

Haven't run across Henry. Looks like good stuff, though. I'll dig deeper.