Generational Worship?

I have been posting a lot of iMonk lately. What can I say, I like the way this guy writes. He just posted this essay on the need for our churches to quit paying so much attention to a generational approach to worship services in the church. I like what he says here,

I’m a great believer in the wisdom of Ecclesiastes: there’s nothing new under the sun, and whatever is today’s big breakthrough has probably been around before, maybe several times.

I don’t reject all the insights of sociology or its implications for church planting, worship and ministry. I simply believe that human beings have always been more alike than they have been different. Absolutizing generational characteristics makes more focused leadership, and it often gives a ready defense for all decisions that might be vetoed by traditionalists. But it also moves us towards kinds of practices that are exclusive, judgmental and bizarrely narrow.

I’m not surprised that anyone who studies the likes and dislikes of the present moment and shapes a church around those characteristics experiences a fair amount of success. And I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I’m sure not endorsing the way things used to be done as superior per se.

I am, however, ready to challenge notions that deny important truths of human nature and what it means to be made in the image of God.

For example, the famous short attention span of recent generations seems to be a rather flexible item. What’s happening in churches like Mars Hill, where the sermons are more than an hour? Is that a “generational fluke,” or is it evidence that humans are a lot more adaptable and flexible than we think?

I know a lot of Americans who have spent significant time in Africa. There “generational characteristics” are laid aside and they adapt to the culture and community they find themselves in. I have yet to hear one say “I couldn’t worship over there without a video projector.” (If I hear one more person say “I can’t worship without projection,” I’m going to do something illegal and embarrassing.)

Read the whole thing.