Biblical Foundations

Moving OVER, but not OUT

Dr. Will Whittaker1 Comment

I wish we sang something in my church that I know.
I don’t know any of the new songs and no one around me does either.
I wish we would sing some/more hymns…you know, something with lyrics that don’t repeat 700 times?
We want the young people to participate, but we don’t want them to play too loudly.
We want the young people to participate, but we don’t want them to take our solos, spots on instruments, etc. 

Have you ever heard phrases like this? I’m sure I could fill much space with comments from our older generations. I’m not deceived, even as a Gen Xer, I’m officially an “older generation!” Let’s face it; we’re all prone to preferences. We all long for the music and worship atmosphere that feels safe/holy/familiar. Certainly, none of us “older” saints wants to feel irrelevant, either! I’d probably still think I was cool except my teenage sons remind me daily that I’m not. Truthfully, I never was, but I digress…

From a worship setting standpoint, I believe worship settings should err to the “younger look” while still maintaining an older presence. Here’s what I mean: I’m not advocating a particularly musical style. I’ll say it again, the local church musical style should reflect the context and demographics of the church and surrounding area more so than just what’s popular. That’s why we do old and new, because that’s who we are as a suburban, intergenerational church. BUT, the platform should include YOUNG and OLD worship leaders. There should be intentional opportunities for the young to learn from the older worship leaders (vocal and instrumental). Further, this intentionality goes beyond just platform presence, it should reflect the musical interests of our emerging generations, as well as tried and true. Sing to the Lord a new song (Psalm 96) AND The great hymnody of the faith.

Scripture is clear; it is the responsibility of the older generation to teach the younger generations, but doesn’t mention anything about music style, right? Nevertheless, the opening of Psalm 78 paints a beautiful picture of the what it DOES mean to investing in the young:

2I will open my mouth in a parable;
    I will utter dark sayings from of old,
3 things that we have heard and known,
    that our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
    the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders that he has done.

5 He established a testimony in Jacob
    and appointed a law in Israel,
    which he commanded our fathers
    to teach to their children,
6 that the next generation might know them,
    the children yet unborn,
    and arise and tell them to their children…

The other day, I read an interesting portion of a book that really brought this home to me. The author referenced Numbers 8:25 as he reminded the reader than the Levites were to stop working at age fifty, but should switch their role as “leader” to assisting, empowering, inspiring, etc. While I hope I’m still “working in the service of the Lord at age 50,” it does bring home an interesting point…once we’ve reach a certain age, hopefully wiser as well, we need to mentor the next generation(s) to do the work of the Lord. Will their work be different than our work? Absolutely! But, we aren’t trying to create musical clones of ourselves, we are to teach/invest in their lives spiritually and, if you’re a worship leader like me, perhaps incredible musicianship rather than a particular style. At some point, my friends, each of us will realize that it’s time for us to move over and hand the “baton” to someone else. Don’t lose heart, you aren’t washed up, you’re role has just shifted to being a helper to the next generations.

We Must Reflect the Glory of God to the Next Generation

Dr. Will WhittakerLeave a comment

Religious people are a very noisy, wordy, and active people. But activity for activity’s sake is not of God. We might first clear away the idea that church is a social club…We are a holy people, a royal priesthood, a holy generation called out of darkness to show forth the glory of the One who called us out…a sanctified people that are mirrors of the Almighty to reflect the glory of the most high God…to do less than this is to fail utterly, to fail God and to fail our Lord Jesus Christ who redeemed us. It is to fail ourselves and it is to fail our children…if a local church in one generation fails of its high design of worship, the next generation in that church will depart from the faith altogether. As a result the present generation succumbs to liberalism and does not preach the Word of God at all.

selections from A.W. Tozer from The Purpose of Man

 

A few weeks ago, my two teenaged sons went to another church with a friend’s family. Like a good father, I asked them what the experience was like. Their comments, which were not coerced, were enlightening to me.  Here are some of the things they said:

  1. We went with our friend’s family but as soon as we entered the building, we all headed to various worship experiences. It concerned my boys that the family did not worship together (I’m glad they recognize that!)
  2. Once they got to their “youth worship experience,” they were not welcoming at check-in. The check in person simply wanted their information and offered no special word of greeting to them as first-time guests.
  3. The musical portion of their worship experience began with a secular song, which my kids found odd. They didn’t understand the purpose of doing a song that didn’t at least have a biblical theme.
  4. The band members were younger adults and not youth themselves. In their words, “there wasn’t any youth in the band.”
  5. The “lesson” portion of the experience only included one bible verse and was only loosely connected to the theme of the lesson.

After talking with them about it for awhile, numbers 1 and 5 seemed to bother them the most. They didn’t understand why the worship experiences couldn’t be combined, especially since they felt the music for all the services was similar in “style.” I tried to explain to them that the church they were attending believes the Sunday morning experiences is not the same as having a small group or Sunday School class…although they felt they were in a Sunday School class more than a worship service. I also mentioned that grouping in affinity/age stratified groups helped make the learning environments more “appropriate” for “educational” purposes. Still, they weren’t buying the idea of being apart (good boys!) Nevertheless, they had a blast. This church gets big points for making church fun!

Secondly, the lack of biblical depth concerned them greatly. They wanted more meat; they wanted to be challenged and changed from the Word (good boys!). We are thankful to be in a church fellowship that values the exposition of the Word. The Word doesn’t have to be dressed up to be relevant!

My concerns, which I already knew existed in this church and others like it, is the lack of biblical discipleship in the worship experiences. This lack of biblical discipleship affects the lack of intergenerational ministry as mentioned in the first point. The surface level biblical teaching does not bode well for our rising generation of believers. Knowing only some biblical concepts creates confusion for the young believer who does not know the Truth in its fullness. Just as Tozer rightly states, without a strong biblical foundation, liberalism abounds. It’s time we reverse this trend and take the in-depth study of the Word seriously…for future generations.