Starting an Alternative Worship Service at KCC

On August 29th we held an open meeting to discuss the initiative of starting an "alternative" worship service this fall, once a month, designed to reach people between the ages of 18 and 35. We had a good turn out and everyone present was very supportive and enthusiastic. The materials presented at the meeting are posted below. I encourage you to read them and you are welcome to write a response. The first two services will be held on November 3rd and 10th.


Kent Covenant Church Gathering to Discuss Reaching the Emerging Generations
August 29th, 2007


Theology of Worship in the Missional Church

In his book, Missional Church—A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Darrell Guder, a missiologist who has studied and written widely on the subject of evangelizing the West, asks the question, What is the relationship between corporate worship and a community’s mission? Here are some excerpts from his answer. He lays a good foundation for understanding worship in a church that is missional (believes it is sent by God to reach the world with the Good News of Jesus Christ).

“..Worship must be primarily the people’s encounter with the God who sends. We meet the missionary God who is shaping God’s people for their vocation, namely, to be a blessing to the nations…

“..The presence of the unbounded centered community (‘seekers’ or the ‘unchurched’), if taken seriously, will profoundly affect the public character of worship. We need relevant communication, language that can be understood, music that relates to the experience of the worshipper, who as a seeker is genuinely open to God’s call… Our postmodern society has come to regard worship as the private, internal, and often arcane activity of religionists who retreat from the world to practice their religious rites. By definition, however, the ekklesia (church) is a public assembly and its’ worship is its first form of witness. This is the emphasis that the covenant (Christian) community brings to worship. The reality that God is proclaimed in worship is to be announced to and for the entire world. The walls and windows of the church need to become transparent.

“It is worship carried out by God’s called and sent people. But it also welcomes and makes room for the curious, the skeptical, the critical, the needy, the exploring, and the committed. It practices the hospitality that is rooted in God’s presence and invitation, made known and experienced in Jesus Christ. It is that inclusive and open-ended hospitality that recognizes in everyone, whether mature Christian or first-time visitor, a person for whom Christ died. That is the alien dignity that the gospel grants all humans and which Christian hospitality demonstrates.

“Above all, the public worship of the mission community always leads to the pivotal act of sending. The community that is called together is the community that is sent. Every occasion of public worship is a sending event… Communities need to learn to worship missionally… the conversion of worship to its missional centeredness will come about as communities are gripped by their vocation to be Christ’s witness and begin to practice that calling.

Reggie McNeill, Church Consultant and author of The Present Future—Six Tough Questions for the Church weighs in with some important thoughts, like this one.

“Missiologists know that people must worship God in their own heart language. North American church club members are quite willing to deny this privilege even to their own church kids in order to preserve the club culture… A continuing failure to engage the culture will doom the church into a death spiral as the members of the church culture die off in the next twenty to thirty years.

“A missiological approach to the emerging world will take into account the largest cultural shift under way and its implications for the church. It is the transition from the modern to postmodern world.


Cultural Relevance and Generational Issues

Seniors—Before 1925

--Fought World War II
--Created modern retirement
--Tom Brokaw calls them “The Greatest Generation.”

Builders—1926-45
(65% say they are “born-again” Christians, according to Thom Rainier of the Billy Graham Center at Southwestern Baptist Seminary.)

--Largely inherited DNA of their parents
--Loyal and disciplined. Good team players.
--Change is difficult and they often feel like they’re defending the culture they built
--Tend to whine about change but prefer to work within the system. Sometimes called “Silents” because they didn’t protest anything.
--Like tradition because it feels stable and secure


Boomers—1946-64.
(35% say they are “born-again” Christians)

--Inherited a world of rapid, dramatic change.
--A big group—76 million
--Economy moved from manufacturing to service oriented
--Experience focused. Gave us the sexual revolution and introduced the drug culture
--Competitive and driven to succeed. Initiated the 70 hour work week
--In work they’re often frustrated that younger groups don’t want to work as hard or long
--Saw the rise of the program church—lots of activity
--Realize that change is inevitable and most don’t resist too strongly
--Some divide this group into two camps: Early or “Woodstock,” ’46-’54 are known for their tough questions about life and social conscience ; and late or “Zoomers,” ’55-64 have a greater focus on self, not as interested in social causes.


Gen X’ers—1965-1983.
(Among a sub-category called Busters, ’65-76, 14% say they are “born-again” Christians.
Among the rest 4% say they are “born-again” Christians.)

--Relationally oriented. Like to spend time in small groups of friends
--Many opting for simpler lives, less materially oriented
--Marry later
--Bore easily
--Flexible and like independence
--Won’t stay with one job. May have six or sever careers. “I don’t work for the company. The company works for me.”
--Vote with their feet in work and church
-- Authenticity and relationships are important

Millenials—1984-2000.

--75 million of them, another large generation
--Don’t like institutions, want things to be high touch and have a personal feel
--Prefer to work and socialize in groups. Like group dating more than pairing off.
--Technologically literate!
--Respect authority more than Gen X but want a relationship those in leadership
--Want to change the world—“one person at a time,” not through an institution
--Service oriented
--Like what they have heard about Jesus but see the church as too much of an institution



Conclusion: Reaching each generation with the Good News require a distinct approach by the church




Questions to Consider (Small Groups)

1. Which generation are you in, and which of the above characteristics are most true of you?

2. How and when did you come to faith in Christ, and what impact did worship have on you leading up to coming to faith in Christ, and in your first few years as a Christian?

What was the music like?

How would you describe the preaching/teaching?


4. To which generations does our current worship appeal most?

5. How missional is KCC in the way we worship?

Hospitality—welcoming those outside the faith who are seeking

Cultural relevance—

· Use music and language that speaks to those not steeped in Christian faith tradition?
· Vary approach according to the generation we’re trying to reach


The Vision

Start a service and fellowship gathering at an alternate time—Saturday or Sunday night—aimed at people between 18 and 35 (generally Gen X’ers and Millenials) once a month for three months starting in October or November. (Right now we don’t have the people resources for every week.) Rob Seims, a Young Life Area Director, has been asked to be the speaker. Ruby Varghese of the KCC staff will begin coalescing a group of leaders and participants. Ruby’s hours have been increased to 40, with about 10 each week available to give to this project. Let Rob, Ruby and the leadership group they gather design the service, choose the music, and recruit the musicians. Neither Pastor Keith or Dan will be directly involved in leading the service. Rob and Ruby will maintain an accountability relationship with Keith, and Dan will be available as a music resource, if asked for help. After three services the Leadership Team will evaluate how it’s going and what to do next. Some possibilities are: Stay at once a month for a few more months; Increase the frequency to twice a month or more often; Discontinue if it doesn’t seem to be effective.

My First Blog--Sermon Point Three

Welcome to my first blog. People have been telling me for quite awhile that I need a blog. Here it is. I will use it to display information and to make comments about important events in the church and beyond. I'm going to start by posting the sermon point I didn't get to preach last Sunday (August 12th) due to time constraints. Here goes.

New Wine Needs New Wineskins

Luke 5:33-39

Point One: The Shift from Law to Grace
Point Two: The Shift from Modern to Postmodern

Point Three: The Shift from Churchianity to Christianity

A. In the modern era the church managed to hang on to its’ established place in the center of society. Most people went to church on Sunday. Businesses were closed on Sunday. Before the rise of public education churches taught most of the population how to read and write. Churches were the source of census information. They kept the birth and death records. Up until a few hundred years ago the church was vital to the functioning of everyday life in Western society. It was an institution. That’s all changed. Now church is an optional experience in the minds of people. Most unchurched people can’t imagine why they’d want to give up a weekend morning to spend at church when they could be out on the golf course, or camping, or hiking, or even grocery shopping. McNeal (in The Present Future:Six Tough Questions for the Church) says he likes to get church leadership teams into a popular restaurant on Sunday morning and then ask them, “now how many of the people you see got up this morning and said, ‘should I go to church or go out for breakfast?’” The answer is none. Going to church was no where on their radar screen. Why?

1. Because in the minds of a lot of people church is a club for people who look alike, talk alike, act alike, and vote alike. It’s a place where people go and put on a front, act like they’re better than they are, sing old music, talk in a religious language you can’t understand unless you’re one a club member. It’s a place where someone gets up, lectures everyone, and answers questions most people (outside of the club) aren’t even asking. (Post-modern’s don’t like being lectured or preached at. They do like interactive conversations about relevant subjects.)

2. The church in the New Testament was a movement. A movement with a message that changed lives, transformed whole communities, reflected the values of God, cared for the poor and the outcast. A movement where people who had failed in life were welcome and people whose lives were in turmoil could find hope and encouragement. A movement that offered people help and healing. It was a movement that took risks to reach people. A movement that depended day to day on the power of God.

3. I heard a great sermon last Sunday at Mars Hill, an emergent church. The pastor was talking about what happens to movements. Movements of God are sort of messy and chaotic and no one’s sure what’s going to happen next because God is in charge and He doesn’t reveal it ahead of time. The problem is, movements eventually become institutions. People think they need to get better organized and they want to hang on to all the great things they’ve accomplished, so they start to focus on knowing how many people are here, and how are we going to fund what we're doing, what are the membership procedures, and we need some better bylaws. That’s accompanied by a mentality of we can’t rock the boat or offend anyone or they might leave, and if too many leave what will happen to the funding and morale. Institutions are by nature change-resistant, which means they don’t want to take risks. They manage to hold their own for awhile, sometimes quite awhile, but they eventually move on the next phase. They become museums. Nothing can change. People talk about back in the 60’s, when God showed up, some great things happened. And weren’t those days wonderful! All the focus is on the past. And they ask why God isn’t doing powerful work now, when they’ve kept everything the same. Somewhere they lost track of the Bible verse that says, “See, I am doing something new.” And, “Sing to the Lord a New Song.”

4. McNeal says we have to de-convert from Churchianity and that means finding ways to become a movement again, to get comfortable with some chaos again, to welcome change again, to take some risks to reach people again, to get our eyes off of the past, and on to the present and the future. Amen.

I welcome your thoughts and responses.

--Pastor Keith