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Worship Across the Generations

During the years of my childhood and youth, my family worshiped faithfully every Sunday. I remember clearly how I would always be sitting there sideby-side with my parents and two brothers. The only two exceptions that were allowed were sickness and the occasional time when I received permission to sit in worship with my friend and his family. For the rest there were no questions—we worshiped as a family. It’s different today. Not only does the average churchgoer attend worship less often (too many other things to do!), but other worship options for family members are available. Each has his or her own place to go—children’s worship, youth worship, and so forth. In contrast to my experience of always worshiping with my parents, my nephew attends a church in which the parents, young children, and adolescents all go to separate buildings for worship. They never sit together as a family. Intergenerational worship is an issue on our radar screen that wasn’t there a generation ago. And, a generation ago we never anticipated how big an issue it would become. How did that happen? Why did it creep up on us? What has changed? Perhaps if we examine some of the changes we’ll be better able to deal with them.