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When I first started as a youth pastor in the early 1990s, I followed the lead of many other churches for direction in planning youth worship gatherings. These gatherings primarily consisted of the one-way presentation of a sermon, video clips, fancy lights, and a few songs by a pop/rock worship band. Most of the churches at the time believed that to be relevant to youth and young adults, a church needed to show that it was connected with contemporary culture. So there was a focus on making sure there were movie clips from current movies and pop/rock bands and songs that sounded and looked similar to MTV. The strategy was to create a “hip” worship gathering that young people would relate to – hopefully leading to the opportunity to teach the Bible and share the Gospel with them.

Everything went wonderfully for several years, and we saw God changing the lives of youth and young adults. However, as we were going about this ministry, the outside world was changing rapidly; a cultural shift was taking place. Among the many things changing, there seemed to be a saturation of media and rock music, to the point of overload. It seemed that the inborn hunger for God that is within every heart was not satisfied simply by creating “hip” or “relevant” forms of worship.

There was also a significant change in thinking about “church.” As we moved more from a modernistic and rationalistic approach to life and values – people really began seeking the “spiritual” again. There has been a growing hunger for God and an openness to Jesus. However, the irony is that many contemporary churches, in order to be “seeker sensitive,” removed anything that felt or looked like anything “religious” or “spiritual.” The motives were pure, but now instead of church being a sanctuary of prayer and refuge and deep teaching about what it means to follow Jesus, many churches felt more like a business pep rally or pop concert. What has been occurring is that the values and thoughts of the “seeker” have been changing. What was once “seeker sensitive” can now be just the opposite in terms of what is attractive and what people are looking to experience when they come to a church. 

So, in our church setting, we began bringing back ancient religious symbols and some rituals used throughout church history. We began using some forms of liturgy and responsive readings. Instead of “hiding” the fact that we were gathered to worship, we began praying more, having times of quiet, and teaching more deeply. The more “religious” we got, the more we saw response! However, we didn’t just use liturgy without freshness or explanation – but tried to breathe new life and meaning into them, so it didn’t just feel like dry ritual in our worship gatherings. But we definitely realized that values and culture have changed – and if we are serious about teaching and leading people in today’s culture, we need to be aware of these changes.

Of course, this is the Holy Spirit’s doing; I don’t want to make this sound anthropocentric. However, what church leaders decide to do in worship impacts what happens during that time. We still use pop worship songs, but we now blend many types of traditional forms of worship. We do this not just to be cool, but because these practices really do connect with the hearts and minds of younger people. These forms of worship have history. They have depth and breadth, and emerging generations hunger for that.

Also, we began to learn more about how people learn and communicate. So we’ve started to add other expressions of teaching – using art and visuals, for example – as well as creating more participatory ways for people to express worship. We still preach, sometimes even 35 or 40 minutes using large sections of Scripture or going through books of the Bible. But we’ve provided more ways for people to worship, to reflect the different ways that individuals express worship and learn. We’ve added some interactive prayer stations and ways for people who may not like to sing to express praise and prayer in art.

Each person is different, and that’s the point. I think we in the church have overlooked how people express and learn when we’ve limited worship to preaching and singing. A high school superintendent I know commented recently that the school is changing their approach to teaching in order to be more experiential and interactive and less lecture-based. Could this change be something that churches need to pay attention to as well, if we are serious about emerging generations learning the Bible and growing in faith?

A nightmare I have is that these changes will be seen as “trendy” or the new hip thing to do, so I want to offer a few suggestions and some food for thought:

1. Study the theology of worship, so that worship is biblical regardless of the surrounding culture.
It is far too easy to hear about an emerging type of worship and try it out for the sake of trying something new or of keeping up with the latest trend. I admire the desire, but leaders in the church need to be theologians and thinkers, especially in a fast-changing culture. It is crucial to understand worship theologically, so that what we do in worship methodology is more than a gimmick. Not only do church leaders need to fully understand worship; the people worshiping in our churches also do. How would most of the young adults and youth in your church define “worship”? In designing a worship gathering, the leaders’ understanding of worship serves as the starting point. Before we introduce new ways of worshiping God, it is important to understand the biblical basis for doing so.

2. Understand the history of worship in the church.
Take time to learn the history of various expressions of worship. We need to challenge ourselves to grow beyond an understanding worship planning based on our own previous church or denominational ministry experience. There is a richness to be found in looking back in church history and implementing ancient forms of worship, in addition to more recent ways. When choosing to implement something like *Lectio Divina* (a contemplative praying of the Scriptures) into a worship gathering, though, take a moment to teach worshipers the history of the practice so that it isn’t perceived as just a gimmick.

3. Think beyond preaching and singing.
Our culture is changing, and emerging generations are accustomed to learning in more experiential ways. The church needs to take this seriously. In planning a worship gathering, how can we provide worshipers the opportunity to do more than just sit and listen to the sermon and sing a few songs? Your church can instead incorporate visuals into preaching and teaching. And you can allow time for young adults to express their worship through art.

In fact, you can use the worship space itself as an expression of worship by attending to the notion of sacred space. Use religious symbols and artwork created by those in your church as décor. Create interactive prayer stations where people can stop and pray, or reflect on Scripture and interact with it in a concrete way. For example, if you are preaching about being salt and light (Matthew 5), set up a table with salt crystals and a map of your town, and have people pray for your community as they drop salt on places on the map.

There is a multitude of creative ways for people to participate in prayer and worship. I believe worship gatherings that focus primarily on the one-way presentation of sermon and song lead to a consumer, sit-and-watch, passive response. We need to turn passive spectators and consumers into active worshipers and servants.

4. Make Jesus the centerpiece.
In our setting, there is an empty cross front and center in our worship space. The focal point is the risen Jesus, not the worship leader or preacher. When I speak, it is from off to the side or down among the congregation. The music leader and band are off to the side as well. The cross is the main thing people see and focus on during worship.

Pay attention to what is happening in the culture, as all effective missionaries do. Dan Kimball

In our setting, we meet once a month in a group called “The Palette,” named thus because our goal is to see worship as a colorful expression of various forms (music, art, photography, sacred space, and so on). Each “color in the palette” has a leader. We gather to think together and have fun interacting and planning out the next month. This team ensures that the load of worship leadership is not on any one person.

I believe that the emerging generations in today’s culture are hungering to worship God holistically with all their being. This calls us to look at worship in more ways than we perhaps have in recent years. However, if our hearts are longing to set the environment for emerging generations to express their worship to God and learn the Scriptures, then rethinking what we do isn’t a threat or a burden. It is something to be excited about.