Intergenerational Worship

The tune was lovely, the text deeply moving—an honest expression of grief rooted in faith with a declaration of hope. It was a poignant text for a funeral. A week later, snippets of the words and tune were still in my mind: “Your name is ‘I am’ and ‘I will be there.’” I wanted to get a copy of the music, so I emailed the pastor, who told me a bit about how the song and others like it came to be part of his congregation’s repertoire. During the pandemic, some parishioners of Dutch descent in his southern Ontario church had begun listening to the radio program Nederland Zing (Netherland Sings). The song from the funeral—“Ik Zal er Zijn / I Will Be There” (tinyurl.com/IkZalerZijn), by the group Sela—was among the songs that had found their way into the sung repertoire of churches in the area. I did some further digging on Sela’s website and was so impressed that I asked if they would be willing to have a conversation with the goal of turning it into an article to share with our Reformed Worship audience. They responded graciously, and I was able to meet online with James MacMillan, the bassist for Sela.I am the daughter of Dutch immigrants, so my cultural connection may be what initially piqued my interest, but the more time I spent with the music and texts, the more I appreciated their quality and message. Yet it wasn’t until MacMillan and I talked that it became clear that something bigger and deeper is going on. Sela’s overarching mission is to write new songs for the church—which encompasses all followers of Christ. While the theme of our unity in Christ wasn’t meant to be the focus of our conversation, it may have been the most important part.Sela’s desire to build bridges is evident in how songs are written, the diverse audience they have in mind, and in the texts themselves. Below you will find parts of my conversation with MacMillan (adapted for this article), in which he shared more about Sela’s mission, illustrated by three songs he chose from their repertoire for Advent and Christmas. Consider introducing one or more of these songs to your congregation this year. —Joyce Borger, senior editor Sela’s MissionThe Netherlands has a long and complicated tradition of church schisms, including one that happened in the middle of World War II. Some churches in the Netherlands are working to undo that division, and denominations are joining back together. Part of the reason behind these reunifications is the reality of diminishing resources, but it’s also about healing. The church I (James) am a part of has recently merged with the denomination it split from sixty years ago. For some people, the wounds from that split are as fresh as the day it happened, but they have chosen to let them go, to forgive each other, to forgive themselves, and to let Jesus take over. The people have chosen to find the things that bind us together to be more important than the things that hold us apart. That’s the future of the church.That is the context out of which Sela was born. Sela bridges the Protestant denominations in the Netherlands, from the most orthodox denominations—where people only sing psalms and the women all wear skirts—to the most charismatic. Our events attract a really wide spectrum of Christians. They don’t come to talk about what makes them different. They come to celebrate what keeps them together.What’s beautiful is that these songs are used more and more in all kinds of churches. That’s one of the great blessings of playing in Sela. Jesus asked us to believe and to embrace the unity of the church, which would be a sign to the world of what the church is, of who Jesus is. In the past, churches have said that a lot of other things are more important than that unity in Christ. But what if we were wrong? So we write our songs for the whole church.We deliberately choose language that isn’t particular to a certain denomination and try to encompass truths we hold in common. For example, we have a song called “Doop/Baptism” that articulates scriptural truths about baptism that are true whether you believe in infant or believer’s baptism. It can be used at any baptism. Expressing the unity of the whole church is important to us, so we work hard at it. I read once that we don’t have unity because we all think the same thing; we have unity because we have the same God. That is a powerful truth. Bridging LanguagesMagnificatPiano and choral arrangements are available to purchase at www.sela.nl/liederen/33/magnificat.“Magnificat” is a paraphrase of Luke 1:46–55, Mary’s celebration song. It was written by Anneke Van Dijk-Quist, our violinist, who also writes some of our lyrics. Written in 2009, it has become a popular song in our congregations during Advent.You may notice that with the English version there is the option to sing the refrain in Dutch. Up to this point, Sela has been a Dutch-language band. (The English translations of these songs were prepared for this article.) In the church in the Netherlands, the younger people know so much English-language music that when they get to choose a song for worship it will often be in English. But English is not the people’s heart language, so Sela writes new songs in Dutch. When you go to our concerts, we all sing in Dutch. That’s been a part of our identity. At the same time, we welcome the growing international awareness of our songs and mission. For English-speaking churches, learning to sing the refrain in Dutch helps honor its roots and gives expression to the breadth of the church.A Gift for the ChurchWhen we write songs, we do so with the goal of their being used in the local church. Every time we release songs, we still put out a CD, and with the CD comes material about how the songs might be used in worship. Typically we write songs that are meant to be sung corporately, that are accessible vocally and rhythmically. We also provide sheet music for free, post the songs on YouTube, and make them available through streaming services. We want the songs to be used in the church. That’s what they’re for. For additional resources for these songs and many more, go to sela.nl. Bridging GenerationsKerstnacht Boven Bethlehem / Christmas Night over BethlehemPiano and choral arrangements are available for purchase at www.sela.nl/liederen/193/kerstnacht-boven-bethlehem.“Kerstnacht Boven Bethlehem / Christmas Night over Bethlehem” is is both the name of our latest album and one of the songs on it. The song is the story of the angels coming and announcing Jesus’ birth. The text writer, Matthijn Buwalda, is not in the band but writes lyrics for us. For him, this was the ultimate assignment—to write a pure Christmas song, a song about angels and Jesus’ birth.Writing a new song for Christmas is tough because the story is so familiar to almost everyone. But there is room for something new because the culture is always changing. This song is now among the songs churches in the Netherlands sing at Christmas; they want to sing something new.I had a conversation with a couple of older pastors who were saying that it was a shame that kids aren’t learning the traditional hymns of our faith, like “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” And yes, on one hand it is a shame, but they also don’t understand it. It doesn’t speak to them. The mission of Sela is not to teach the old tradition, but to give younger people music that speaks to them now, in this culture, with the problems and challenges they have now. I love “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” but preserving the hymn is not as important as preserving the gospel story. Sela is working to find new ways to tell the story that speaks to people today. Bridging the Whole ChurchGaudeteArrangements for gospel and sacred choirs are available at www.sela.nl/liederen/220/gaudete-wij-verheugen-ons.About our song “Gaudete,” a friend of mine said, “Now that’s good church Latin.” The word gaudete means “Rejoice!”—the traditional message of the third Sunday of Advent. The  song was written by Lars Gerfen, our new lead singer, and Arnold Dekker, who plays organ and piano. Dekker is a member of a Protestant denomination with roots in the conservative wing of the Dutch church. Gerfen is our first Roman Catholic band member. This creative cooperation between Protestants and Catholics is not the norm. The Protestant Reformation in the Netherlands was marked by theological separation not simply between Catholics and Protestants, but between various factions within Protestantism. It was a violent and destructive time leading to the Eighty Years’ War (1568–1648).This is our church history. But now this Catholic and Protestant got together and wrote this song, using Philippians 4:4 in Latin—the language of the Western church from before the Reformation. It’s a song about hope, and it provokes our expectations as we look forward to Jesus’ coming.“Gaudete” was recorded in a Catholic church in Haarlem, the Netherlands. with students from a Catholic choir school. Making the video with these students has inspired and reached many people because it’s so hopeful. It’s about the reality of Jesus coming for the whole church.

My husband and I moved eight times in the first seven years we were married. Our early marriage was marked by a kind of instability and precariousness that had been foreign to both of us before. Once we moved states so that my husband could work at a new job, which he ended up losing just nine months later. We were blindsided and reeling from grief and fear.One night, a friend texted us that his five-year-old had prayed for our family at dinner. “He prayed that you’ll remember your baptisms,” the friend wrote. This memory still can move me to tears. We were so young and scared. We were feeling deep rejection from the community we had moved to join, and there were so many practical things to worry about: our three young daughters, groceries, a place to live, and new jobs. That five-year-old’s prayer was a gift. In the midst of some of the worst circumstances our family had yet faced, we were reminded of our belonging—to God and to God’s people. Our baptisms remind us that our belonging depends upon Jesus, not on our worthiness or our efforts. Though my husband and I were still very unsure of what our future would hold, we were reminded that we were, in a deep and unchanging way, beloved by God and a part of his family. BelongThe first question of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” The answer begins with belonging: “That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.” That we belong to Jesus is a foundational truth of Christian identity. In the Reformed tradition, because we believe that this belonging is not contingent on our behavior or even our consent, we baptize our infants, declaring with both our words and our actions what is true about them even before they are able to declare it for themselves. At their baptisms, we commit to helping children experience this belonging and to understand the gospel story, and we pray that they will choose to participate in God’s work in the world.But how do we actually live these promises as a community? Whether or not we baptize our children as infants, how do we continue to communicate to the children in our churches this message of belonging? Are we sending mixed or confusing messages to the children in our churches about who belongs among the people of God, whom worship is for, and what a child’s place is among God’s people? If we are honest, children are probably some of the last people we think about when we plan a worship service. In many churches, children are not even present for the worship service. However, there is not a single time in Scripture when God’s people worship God in age-segregated groups. When God’s people worship, they do it all together. In many churches today, instead of treating age segregation as a contextual consideration that we must navigate as the people of God, we often elevate it to a foundational position of our church (Holly Allen and Christine Lawton Ross, Intergenerational Christian Formation, 2012, p. 114.). To put it another way, we often assume age segregation based on our cultural position rather than allowing our theology to shape the way we gather to worship. But if we believe that in worship God’s people gather to rehearse the story of Scripture and respond to the God who calls us to himself, then it makes sense that we would want children to be present with us. Who knows the language of story better than children, and what better way for them to learn a story than to live it—to experience it with all of their senses?Yet even if children are present in our services, we rarely think about them when we plan our worship services, and the idea of having children help us plan or lead our worship services is completely foreign. We are not suggesting here that worship services be changed to be more appealing to children. We are instead suggesting that children can learn to appreciate a worship service and, even more, that it is the job of parents and churches to help them do so. Furthermore, because of the way God made them, children offer unique gifts to congregations that are willing to see, include, and learn from them as they rehearse God’s story together. When we age-segregate our worship services, well intentioned as we may be, there are consequences for every generation.Resources for Intergenerational WorshipIt can be difficult for a church to locate resources designed to help multiple generations worship together. More resources are becoming available that are created to appeal to the strengths and interests of children while also encouraging adults to exercise childlike faith, to remember that play can be a part of worship, and to practice coming to Jesus as little children. At Word & Wonder (wordandwonder.org), we’ve created resources that we hope will help your church and families enjoy entering into worship across generations in rich, authentic ways.Our Advent Cards provide an opportunity for households to gather together, use wondering questions to reflect on Scripture and on an image, and pray in response. This simple weekly practice can help people of all ages slow down and wait during this season of preparation. Each card has an image on one side and Scripture and suggested prayers on the other. The cards also suggest a weekly hymn and a practice or activity to help people of all ages engage with the themes of Advent. These are available to download at wordandwonder.org/shop/free-advent/.The Gospel Story Hymnal organizes a collection of more than 150 hymns by the movements of the gospel story. It is intended to help churches welcome children into the sanctuary and to provide households with a beautiful way to share the story of Scripture as told through hymns. It includes beautiful illustrations, child-friendly and family-focused hymn notes, and a three-year plan for working through the hymnal in weekly family worship. More information can be found at wordandwonder.org. Our prayer is that these tools would serve you and the households in your church as you take the next step toward encountering God as people of all ages. Planning Worship with Children in MindFor some of us, imagining intergenerational worship is difficult. The idea of planning worship with children in mind seems gimmicky at best and downright chaotic at worst. But what if planning intergenerational worship isn’t about gimmicks or catering to different age groups, but instead about telling the gospel story and helping people find their place in it? We would want to think about what kinds of accommodations will help the people in our churches experience the story of the good news of the gospel and offer their response to God together.This doesn’t necessarily mean that our liturgy will change. In my experience, children respond very well to a set liturgy that is predictable and has lots of parts they can memorize. Dr. Robbie Castleman has pointed out that for children who are exposed to worship from a young age, church becomes like a familiar bedtime story (Dr. Robbie Castleman, interview with Lindsey Goetz and Dr. Ahyuwani Akanet, The Child in Our Midst, May 6, 2024, pod.link/1738960877). What an image! Isn’t that what we want for everyone in our churches—to so identify with the flow and feel of worship that we can somehow both relax into familiar rhythms, remain poised for what is next, and just know when something gets skipped? If children aren’t experiencing the story of scripture in our worship, something has gone wrong. We ought to help everyone in the congregation enter into the story week after week. This can be a daunting task. Many Christians admit to not reading the Bible regularly. The worship leader’s job is a big one. However, collaboration is key. Who are the people in your congregation who can help you consider the ways that people in different life stages and social locations will most naturally enter the gospel story? The idea for intergenerational worship is “something for everyone,” not “everything for everyone” (Sarah Bentley Allred, “An Introduction to Intergenerational Worship,” Intergenerate, May 24, 2021). We are formed as we worship, and a part of that formation is recognizing that we are gathered up among people who are different from us.Belonging is also a vital part of worship, and it is important that the implicit messages we send as we gather to worship tell everyone that they belong and that they are beloved by God. Including people of different generations and abilities in worship planning can help us create worship services that authentically engage people of all ages. We can also think carefully about the scripture passages we choose, how we present them, the way our spaces are set up, and what the environment communicates. How are we showing hospitality to the people in our churches, both young and old? Practical SuggestionsSpecial seasons of the church year are excellent times to experiment with intentionally intergenerational congregational and family worship. Certain seasons of the church year just feel different, and we can use that to our advantage. The colors of the church calendar, special symbols, and stories from the life of Jesus can fuel a child’s imagination. And some seasons are only a few weeks long, making experimentation a bit easier. We can put up with almost anything for four weeks! These seasons also offer us a chance to become like the children among us as we watch and learn from the wonder and awe they bring to these stories of salvation history. During Advent, for example, a church might choose to focus on different characters in the Christmas story. At our church, we chose four narratives, in part because narratives are easier passages of scripture for children to connect with. These passages were assigned to the four weeks leading up to Christmas and were included in a guide for households worshiping at home. They also dovetailed with an intergenerational Sunday school class in which participants reflected on and engaged with the narratives in different ways each week. The idea is not for your church to replicate what happened at our church, but to imagine what it could look like for a group of people to collaborate—to include representatives from different age groups in the planning of worship and learning experiences. The synergy that can come from a group of people thinking ahead about sermon series, education, and household discipleship resources for a focused period of time can bear great fruit in the life of a church.One of my favorite services of the church year is our church’s family Christmas Eve service. It’s a very light version of a Christmas pageant. There are no rehearsals and no lines. We sing short parts of several carols, and we hear the Christmas story. Throughout the service, children wearing very simple costumes picked up on their way into the sanctuary slowly walk to the chancel to create a living nativity. Sometimes I read the narration; sometimes older children in our church do it. In all the years I have read it, I have never made it through the story without crying. This service is chaotic, but the gospel never seems truer to me than when I’m reading that the congregation will “find Jesus in the streets, in their homes, and in their hurts and broken places” while I’m sharing the stage with the children I have come to love and worship with Sunday after Sunday. I’ve never felt more commissioned for weekly work than when the children process out of the sanctuary carrying the baby Jesus and charging us to “Go Tell It on the Mountain” or when the service ends with the words of Revelation 21 read in a booming voice: “I am making all things new.” Every year, these children help us remember the Christmas story in a truly authentic way. Both of these examples are just the beginning of the fruitful worship that can occur when a group of people at a church collaborate to plan a season of the church year, intending to make their worship accessible to everyone in the congregation.