How does your family worship together? My family never risked visiting an unfamiliar congregation when on vacation or otherwise out of town. But we rarely missed worship. We brought our Prayer Books, usually the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, and bibles along. We preset the time for worship and when the time arrived, the family would gather around the kitchen table, living room floor or onto our parent's bed. Someone looked up bible verses and someone determined the prayers, and sometimes we would begin with a song.
Mark and I have continued this tradition with our kids from time to time. As they've grown (Lane is 9 and Duncan, 14), family worship takes on a whole new dynamic. They make the decisions, they read the scriptures and they lead the service. They ask questions, wonder and explore the text. And together we grow.
What opportunities do you have to explore, in a new way, the worship that is familiar to you? What setting can you create that will allow yourself and others to look in a new way at the creeds, the prayers, the readings, the songs? I believe family worship offers us this opportunity because we are able to experience the scriptures and the liturgy through our children who are exploring it in a brand new way. As adults, sometimes it is hard to seek so purely when we've build so many walls of protection. At nine and fourteen, exploration is the norm. Worship becomes a block of clay that can be molded rather than an article to be viewed from a distance. When we can mold our worship, mold our prayers, our songs, select our readings, share leadership and responsiveness . . . When we create worship, it becomes a gift for God, like a messy finger painting of a preschooler. Here God, we made this for you!
Writings about community; leadership; worship; congregational and organizational dynamics; program evaluation; strategic planning; organizational assessment; change; growth; connecting with and serving one another, our world, and our God
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This blog is about life as we grow together . . . in community, within our organizations, our churches, our volunteer groups.
Growing - maturing; learning about ourselves and our environments, about God and about others; engaging, respecting, nurturing, balancing . . . the process, not the outcome
Together - in community, along side those we love and care for as well as those who frankly annoy us
In community, we face the challenge of growing, changing, learning, making decisions and getting along. These challenges are endless. The possibilities and promises are also endless!
Growing - maturing; learning about ourselves and our environments, about God and about others; engaging, respecting, nurturing, balancing . . . the process, not the outcome
Together - in community, along side those we love and care for as well as those who frankly annoy us
In community, we face the challenge of growing, changing, learning, making decisions and getting along. These challenges are endless. The possibilities and promises are also endless!
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2 comments:
Thank you Beth. This lets me know that your Mother and I did something right.
Daddy
Letting children lead in worship involves an element of risk. When our four-year-old granddaugher, Erin, was asked to lead in the blessing before a meal, she asked if she could use one of the songs she had learned at WEE school at church. Knowing that they use prayer songs before meals, we said, "Sure."
We bowed our heads but lost our composure when she began, "Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man . . ."
The spirit was right, anyway, and we need to encourage our youngsters not only to participate in worship but to lead it as well.
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