Why Youth Take Part in Our Worship Services

I recently received the following email that was addressed to me and to the SPRC.

I am really concerned that you have relinquished a big part of your responsibility to children and others by allowing the Prayer of Illumination and Scriptures to be read by them. Most of those who are charged with this responsibility are not prepared to present this second most important part of the service in a manner that compliments your sermon. Over the last months, this very important part of the service, from the Prayer of Illumination through the Scripture lessons, has been so poorly done that the impact of the sermon is diminished. Most of those “leading” this cannot read the Scriptures properly, they loose (sic) their place in the text, studder, mispronounce and stumble over the words, they read in a monotone sound i.e. no inflection or enthusiasm toward the Word, and their voice projection is extremely poor. Many in the congregation do not understand or follow what is being read. I look around and see others staring off in space because of this. I have had several folks to express similar comments.

Your sermon today was good it had a strong message, but unfortunately I felt hanging out there when you referred back to the Scriptures that tied everything together. Why? Because I did not hear the Scriptures as they were so poorly presented.

I believe I understand that you are trying to bring more involvement by others into the service, but this is not the area that should be short changed. It is too important to be handed over to those unqualified to do that job.

I hope that you will take my concerns under consideration. They are given only with a sense of love and concern for all our Church family.

I do take these concerns seriously and I do understand the “sense of love and concern” in which they were given. I understand that some people believe that only the Pastor should lead public worship. In the old Caretaker Model of the church this would have been a principal expectation of the Pastor. While worship leadership is still the responsibility of the Pastor, there are newer expectations in a church that moves from the Caretaker Model to an Equipping Model.

Our youth are members of the Body of Christ. Those who have been baptized and confirmed have taken vows as Professing Members of the Church Universal and to Horne Memorial in particular. These are people who are “ordained” as ministers in the Body of Christ.

Youth and Young Adults today are very hands-on and desire activities that are more participatory and experiential rather than those you simply observe as spectators.

As with all people, some youth are better readers than others. Part of what we are doing is helping our youth develop the skills they need to be leaders in the church and in society. I work with our youth to help them develop those skills and with practice they will become proficient at becoming leaders in worship.

If you have been following all that we have been talking about these last few years you realize that we are serious in building an Acts 2 congregation. Pastors who are equippers of ministry are a central part of this process. We are not a church with one or two ministers working to make a difference in the lives of people, we are a church with a potential of more that 500 ministers making a difference in the lives of people. Just what is God calling us to do and to be?

Involving our youth in doing ministry is crucial to the nature of being the Body of Christ.