Why "The Gathering"?
When I was a child, I went to church every Sunday. But, when I was in my late teens, I recall feeling that church no longer spoke to me. At least not in my language. It seems I may have passed that legacy on to my children. My twenty year old daughter, a member here at Trinity, no longer comes to the service here. And as I looked around the sanctuary one Sunday morning, I noticed that few of our young adults regularly attend worship on Sunday morning. That did not make sense to me. The worship at Trinity is so much more engaging than services I recall attending in my youth. The sermons are enlightening and evocative. The music is varied in style and always performed with polish and grace. Sunday morning worship is marvelous here! Why wouldn't all of our kids attend? Why would we not be drawing carloads of late teens and early twenty-somethings in to worship? Particularly when we are surrounded by college age students in the neighborhood?
In reading about and discussing this phenomenon with others, I have found that many churches are "losing" their young adult membership for long periods of time. Some place the biggest loss of membership between the ages of 16 and 36 (the "YA" group). As one person put it to me: "We lose them from high school until they are married, with a child, when they decide that they need to 'get the kid done [baptized].'" At this point, it struck me. How wonderful would it be to keep that age group connected with the church?
In an effort to grow the YA membership at Trinity, I approached Dan with an idea. My thought was to design an additional worship service that would incorporate popular music, dynamic imagery, modern technology, postmodern thought and reformed theology, all in an intimate setting conducive to discussion and sharing. Above all, I wanted to be sure that we incorporated all the elements of worship as set forth in the Presbyterian Book of Order, without losing an element of spontaneity. I also approached Janet Mote, asking for both her input and her support by allowing me to begin this new experimental worship style with the Trinity Senior Highs. I was thrilled to have their prayers and support. Since then, I have also discussed the service with Worship and Music, and received resounding support of the Session, calling me into a Lay Pastor relationship with Trinity which will allow me to celebrate the Lord's Supper during the service.
With so much loving support, we have begun this "supplemental" worship service, called The Gathering. We have met twice, and plan to meet once a month for the next year, including the summer. We are meeting in homes of various members of the congregation, much as the emerging church did almost 2000 years ago as "they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God." We have been spending about 3 hours together in worship each time, focusing on current movies, popular music, scripture, and God's place in our lives. Our discussions have been lively and meaningful and prayerful. We have truly been blessed to share our time together, to draw parallels between psalms and modern poetry, and to recognize God's ever presence in a world that can sometimes seem un-Godly.
It is my prayer that, in offering an additional worship opportunity, more specifically geared toward the fast paced, multi-media, instant messaging, multi-tasking ever questioning youth (or at least those who seek spiritual nourishment in a language different from what we offer), we can establish and/or maintain the importance of Worship and fellowship in their daily lives. Perhaps, for those who have never "gone to church," we can demonstrate that Trinity is not a place to go, but a community of faith - church is not where we go, but what we do. And if there are some who cannot hear our message because our language is becoming foreign to them, perhaps through another style, we can show that the language and message are universal, only the dialect is different.
On March 7, we will officially recognize this ministry during both our Sunday morning worship, and at The Gathering. I thank God for the opportunity to continue to expand and broaden the diversity of our community. And I thank God for the support of this community.