If you're bothering to read these almost daily posts you'll notice the quality varies from day to day. That's my updated disclaimer...
I had an interesting conversation with my 16 year old daughter yesterday. She asked me about my blog and we got talking about church and a little about why she doesn't particularly like church. (She invites her friends to the house for our Monday night meals which is usually about half Artisan.) She's been through the most changes in her church experience and visited more youth groups than my other kids did. I suggested she read the blog and comment. She said, nah, you can write about this.
Jenny's in a program in her high school that's preparing kids who want to be teachers so they learn alot about how kids learn. She made the comment that most kids are visual before they develope their language skills so worship should have more visual elements. I have to say that surprised me a little because the guys at Artisan are using the overhead posting art and photographic images and using far more visual elements than the other churches she's been part of. Claudia spends a lot of time decorating and setting up the candles and we often have an enacted prayer station for communion. We meet in a space that in itself is fairly simple so it's pretty versatile.
My daughter is an artist so she's a very visual person, herself.
"And you know, Mom, with a name like "Artisan" you'll probably have a whole congregation of visual learners." I'm wondering if Selah is for those moments when all you can do is sit with your mouth open and let such morsels of profound wisdom work it's way through your being...
I talked alittle about what I'm hoping we do with story and she perked up her ears. "And you can just do it as drama or...." and she went on with other visual presentations of the story. The bottom line was, she doesn't like sermons so she was thinking in-place-of. This also surprised me because I thought our young fun pastors sharing every Sunday would appeal to my kids. My son on the other hand used to tell me he really liked sermons and it didn't matter which church he was visiting or who he was listening to... Again, Jenny is visual and she's talking about visual learning...
Our conversation continued. I told her that someone might be asking her and her siblings about their experiences in a public city high school. She went through this long list of all the things they should know. Then she got talking about school and various postions she took in her US govt. class and I just listened. I probably would have taken similar positions but they weren't your typical Christian positions. When we were done she said, "Mom, thanks for just listening and not telling me what you think and whether you think I'm right or wrong." Again, selah...
My generation and my parents' generation didn't do a lot of listening to kids. We have friends in their 40's. I watched them do alot of listening to their children. The other day I watched an early 30's mom guide her preschooler through a challenging decision by asking him questions about his feelings and how someone else might feel and he came to the conclusion she hoped he would come to.
I'm sharing this because all of these people are significantly younger than I and I'm learning volumes from them. I think that generations listening to each other and learning and deciding together will shape the church differently than only top down or old to young leadership models. Maybe it will enable the church to lay groundwork for the future in ways that haven't happened before. I'm not just talking about encouraging and listening to young up-and-coming leaders in the churches. I'm talking about listening to children.
With some wise oversight, let your children take initiative and run with it. . . but that's another conversation...
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I really appreciated this post. It was great to hear Jenny's thoughts on these subjects, and she certainly does have a unique perspective because of the artistic and visual person that she is.
ReplyDeleteI will admit that I don't read all of your entries in their entirety, but I do at least skim them. I'm thankful that there's someone else out there besides us "pastor's wives" who cares about how our children experience worship and recognizes our much our children have to offer!
When I started going to (then) Capax Dei, I think the visuals were one of the appeals although not the primary reason I came (and we were meeting in Bethel's old sanctuary, which is very pretty).
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly when I go anywhere, churches, plays, etc, I analyze the way they lay out their programs, and I appreciate it a lot when it's nicely done. And I tend to buy books based on how many pictures they have ;)
This weekend at my parents' church in SC, I was reminded of something Jason said after visiting another church somewhere once: he observed that the service was a fine example of Christian worship, nothing really "wrong" with it...but that he could have had the same experience if he were listening to an audio feed of it.
ReplyDeleteWe were all glad and quite proud of ourselves that we (Capax Dei at the time) had not avoided four of the five senses in our worship planning. But the fact is, we can do more with that. The sermon is the obvious place where we could expand our multi-sensory experience. But as someone who prepares these sermons from time to time, I recognize that it's quite difficult. There's so much you want to say, to impart in those moments.
Note I'm saying "multi-sensory" instead of just "visual." Scent, taste, and touch may not improve the quality of experience for an artist as much as sight does, but for children it can be pretty incredible to layer those other senses in.
To pick up on Scott's "multi-sensory" improvements, I'd like to say that it's one of the reasons I feel communion is so important. One hears the explanation, sees the broken bread and the cup of wine, and smells and feels before tasting. Every sense is therein engaged, and though I'm no expert, I'd venture to guess that many learning styles are thus engaged.
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