Doing Church Together

Over the past few months we’ve changed the way we do our church services to allow everyone, of all ages, to stay together for the first half of church.

We have done this deliberately and strategically because we believe that church is best when old and young people grow together.

For our church, it means that everyone of all ages will be together for three of our four songs, for all our Bible readings, for our public prayer, for question time, for our creed and confession, for the Lord’s Supper, for updates and interviews, and for our church news (which include birthday shoutouts!)

During this time, our younger members will truly experience church with the rest of our congregation, and they will grow up richly experiencing church as a normal part of their Christian life.

At the same time, since our children learn in a way that’s different to teens and adults, we provide a special program for the final 45 minutes of both church services, where we teach and nurture them in a way that is best for their learning and growth.

We also know that there are benefits in drawing together similar people from time to time to focus on their special opportunities and needs, such as our youth group each Saturday after dinner, and various men’s and women’s ministries in our parish.

And we know that doing church intergenerationally is good and natural because when Paul wanted to get a message to the kids in the church at Ephesus, he directly addressed them in his letter, knowing they’d be in church when his letter was read (Ephesians 6:1).

That’s why our church loves being together as much as possible, as our children and adults learn and grow from each other, united in Christ.

JODIE McNEILL

(Credit: freestocks.org via Flickr)