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Re-imagining how we worship
Now that we can gather together again, Nick and Becky Drake share their thoughts on returning to the church building and how we can re-imagine how we worship intergenerationally.
In this blog post, you will find Nick and Becky Drake's thoughts on 'Re-imagining how we worship' and an extract from their book Worship for Everyone.
‘As we begin to gather again, let’s not waste this opportunity. Over the past year we’ve adapted and changed how we worship together. Young and old have gathered around their screens to worship and pray together in their households. As we return to church buildings, now is the time to stick together, to re-imagine how we can worship intergenerationally and not just drift, without thinking, back to the way things were before. Let’s continue to pursue worshipping God as one body across the generations! We need each other and God loves unity and diversity!’ Nick and Becky Drake
Crafting an intergenerational time of sung worship [An extract from Worship for Everyone]
One of our goals in leading sung worship is to take the congregation on a journey from revelation to response. The beginning of our time together focusses on who God is. Then when our minds have focussed on God’s attributes, our hearts naturally open up and respond to his goodness and love. It’s no different when children are in the room. We want to help them on the same journey towards an encounter with the risen Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit through how we craft the songs flowing together.
In case, like us, you have the opportunity to lead a time of sung worship with your whole church, it might help to outline how we would go about preparing this. Here is an example of a song list we have used in the past, with our reasons for selecting these pieces. The songs are from our own collection unless stated otherwise.
Worship song list and flow
1 ‘Big Family of God’: This serves so many purposes and is a great choice for an opener. It focusses on God’s unconditional love. It also reminds us that he’s a Father and we are part of his family. It immediately says to the full congregation, ‘You belong here! You are loved by God!’, so it also communicates the Worship for Everyone vision from the outset. The actions create a sense of unity among everyone.
2 ‘God Is Love’: This continues the theme of God’s love, teaching Jesus’ central command to love God with all we’ve got, but the chorus releases praise by singing out our love directly to God. It provides a good flow thematically from the first song but encourages all to move towards heart-to-heart praise. The actions in the chorus are so worshipful and simple that adults are totally happy to engage as well; we always find it brings a real sense of togetherness in worship and God’s presence with us as we worship.
3 ‘King of My Heart’ (chorus only): This is one of our favourite choruses for singing with children present. Here we take the music level down and just start simply singing, ‘You’re never gonna let me down.’ We often ask the children to first sing over the adults and then swap parts. It’s incredibly powerful. Then we come together singing, ‘You are good!’ This can naturally segue into a prayer led by a child or a child and an older member of the congregation, and then we end the sung worship. Or if there’s time for another song . . .
4 ‘Every Step’: This is a good song to move into next as it is simple and repetitive, so not too jarring after the quieter moment of intimacy we’ve just had, but the pace picks up slightly, bringing everyone back together to finish. It continues to remind everyone of God’s presence with us, and again we sing over one another that God is with us every step we go, so it serves as an encouragement to the body. The song is set to sign language, so the actions are beautiful and very inclusive for an older congregation. The feel is upbeat and positive, ending the time on a note of joy and the hope that comes from staying close to Jesus and following his ways.
Obviously the specific song examples we’ve given may go out of date, but the principles behind our choices will help guide you regardless. They hopefully illustrate something of the importance of choosing songs carefully, working out a lyrical and musical flow and thinking ahead of time about when a moment for intimacy or ‘pressing in’ may fall. Having expectation in advance of what God may do, and having faith that God will be at work in the midst of the congregation no matter what our outward eyes see, is so important.
Worship for Everyone contains all the resources pastors, children’s workers and church leaders need to run all age worship services. Service plans, talks, recommended songs, Bible readings and more are all included, so you can make your all age worship engaging and significant for every generation.
Multi-buy discounts available.
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