I recently ran across the first article I had published. It has never been available online, so I thought I'd share it. It is about Millennial youth and written in 1995, so you can decide what applies and what doesn't!
It was entitled "Making Worship Youth-Friendly," and I wrote it when I was on staff at Vestavia Hills UMC as Associate Pastor and Minister of Youth and Worship.
I still believe much of what I have written here, though I would definitely say things differently now.
As she left the sanctuary after the Youth Sunday service, she asked me, "is there going to be preaching at the next service? I haven't 'been to church' yet!" This was the most creative Youth Sunday service we'd ever had; but for her, it wasn't "church." On the other hand, passing out parts to read on Youth Sunday doesn't feel like "church" either.
Sunday worship in the average congregation is "R-rated"; it is for adults only. As pastors charged with leading the worship of the Christian community, how can we make worship more "youth-friendly" without compromising the integrity of the liturgical tradition?
Why Change?
Worship is where memory meets practice. The memory of grace through history, celebrated through sacred stories, symbols, and acts, meets our everyday fears. hopes, experiences, and dreams. In worship, God meets us and we meet God. So renewal in worship must happen precisely because of its purpose, which is bringing the gospel to bear on modern experience.
We tend to see youth as basically nontraditional and bored with anything that looks or sounds "old." Sometimes, in an attempt to appeal to a new generation, we try to replace traditional liturgy with something "new."
Boredom with the old and fascination with the new is not the way to make worship youth-friendly. First, it departs from the power of the commonality and familiarity of the liturgy. In a world where youth are exposed to myriad images, ideas, conflicts, and choices, worship is a "sanctuary" for adolescents. It is a place of comfort and familiarity, where they can come home. Second, the attempt to give up on traditional liturgy is based on an inaccurate assessment of the needs of today's youth.
The emerging generation of Millennials (those born after 1982, some of whom are now entering their teens) are more "civic oriented" than their immediate predecessors. In practical terms, this means that they will value optimism, cooperation, community, structure, and tradition. Efforts to form a liturgy that assumes that youth are cynical about tradition are outdated.
I am not surprised to find Millennials described as neo-traditional. More and more, I have found that youth have a loving relationship with tradition. They simply want to be a part of making it. To make worship more meaningful for a new generation of youth, we must go deep into our past and discover where it meets with our experience in the present. We can do this in at least three ways:
Take a New Look
In our quest for innovation, we must remember that our own tradition is our best resource for change. Millennial youth will find greater value in the central structures of worship, such as creeds, psalms, the sacraments, and traditional forms of prayer. However, we need to find new ways to revisit these elements creatively, as if exploring them for the first time. It is important for youth to experience a balanced diet of the new and the old in hymns, music, prayers, and other acts of worship as they connect their lives with our common memory of God's work in the world.
Plan Experiential Worship
Today's youth receive and process most of their information in fast-moving visual and audio images. It is no surprise, then, that Millennial youth are described as activity- and experience-oriented. Our youth will help us rediscover that when we worship, we are
doing something, and we are doing it together.
Responsive singing, reading, and praying will be more and more meaningful for our young people. We will need to explore or re-explore forms of communication such as drama, dance, television, congregational movement, and electronic art in worship as these provide opportunities for experiential participation. Our sermons will need to be planned knowing that youth respond better to meaningful images than to formulated doctrinal statements (so do adults, for that matter).
Be Youth-Inclusive
If the trends are correct, youth will increasingly want to move from the periphery to the center of involvement in the worship life of congregations. It is no secret that youth learn more through involvement than through any other form of education. They need to be included at all levels of planning and organizing. Youth choirs, when available, need to participate regularly in Sunday worship. Youth leaders need to be called on to assist younger choirs. Sacred dance and visual art groups are other creative opportunities for involvement. Youth also enjoy instrumental music and may be able to contribute in that arena. Serving as lay liturgists or ushers is another important option for youth. We must also be careful as leaders of worship to make sure our language is intentionally inclusive (for example, youth are not just "our future," they are part of the present congregation).
Worship is, by definition, both expressive of who we are and formative for spiritual growth. So all worship planning must keep our diversity in mind as we discover the needs of the youth among us. The practice of old traditions and the development of new traditions, along with experiential involvement by youth in the worship life of the congregation, are a must for "youth-friendly" worship.
Originally published in Circuit Rider: For United Methodist Clergy from The United Methodist Publishing House in March 1995.
