{"id":6360,"date":"2011-10-14T09:18:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-14T09:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=6360"},"modified":"2019-08-02T11:25:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T11:25:16","slug":"worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/","title":{"rendered":"Worship Wars 7: Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"diversity\"<\/a>Many churches seem to have landed on what they feel is a solution for worship wars\u2013provide differing styles of worship so that you can provide an option that meets most people\u2019s personal preferences for worship. Indeed, Saddleback Church in California offers eight different worship styles\u00a0options. As\u00a0Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale,\u00a0writes in his book,\u00a0Unfashionable<\/em>, \u201cBuilding the church on age appeal\u2026or stylistic\u00a0preferences is as contrary to the reconciling effect of the Gospel as building it on class, race, or gender distinctions.\u201d Is our effort to reach many through offering a variety of options in worship actually being counterproductive to the message of the gospel?Consider Dr. Tchividjian\u2019s words:<\/p>\n

\n

Most churches would agree that racial or economic segregation runs contrary to the very nature of the Gospel. Most would also acknowledge that any sort of class bigotry is antithetical to the Gospel and should therefore not be tolerated. But there\u2019s another, perhaps more subtle, type of segregation that many churches today have actually adopted and embraced. Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others. For years now churches have been organizing themselves around generational distinctives: busters, boomers, Generations X, Y, and Z. Many churches offer a \u201ctraditional service\u201d for the tribe who prefers old music and a \u201ccontemporary service\u201d for the tribe who prefers new music. I understand the good intentions behind some of these efforts but something as seemingly harmless as this evidences a fundamental failure to comprehend the heart of the Gospel. When we offer, for instance, a contemporary worship service for the younger people and a traditional worship service for the older people, we are not only feeding tribalism (which is a toxic form of racism) but we are saying that the Gospel can\u2019t successfully bring these two different groups together. It is a declaration of doubt in the reconciling power of God\u2019s Gospel. Generational appeal in worship is an unintentional admission that the Gospel is powerless to \u201cjoin together\u201d what man has separated. Plainly stated, building the church on age appeal (whether old or young) or stylistic preferences is as contrary to the reconciling effect of the Gospel as building it on class, race, or gender distinctions. Negatively, when the church segregates people according to generation, race, style, or socio-economic status, we exhibit our disbelief in the reconciling power of the Gospel. Positively, one of the prime evidences of God\u2019s power to our segregated world is a congregation which transcends cultural barriers, including age.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Some great thoughts to weigh in as we look at the issue of worship wars. I welcome your comments.<\/p>\n

Kenny Lamm<\/em>,\u00a0senior consultant for worship and music for the <\/em>Baptist State Convention of North Carolina<\/em><\/a>, is a frequent worship conference leader with a strong focus on equipping leaders in North Carolina (USA) and Southeast Asia. His blog, <\/em>Renewing Worship<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0features posts that\u00a0explore ways to renew–impart new life and vigor to–the worship in the local church.<\/em><\/p>\n

Other posts you might like:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Worship Wars \u2013\u00a0Part 1<\/a>,\u00a0Part 2<\/a>,\u00a0Part 3<\/a>,\u00a0Part 4<\/a>,\u00a0Part 5<\/a> and Part 6<\/a><\/p>\n

How can the the older generation attract the younger generation to church?<\/a><\/p>\n

Dealing with the challenges of leading worship in a small church<\/a><\/p>\n

Under resourced, under staffed and playing songs that looked dated 15 years ago<\/p>\n

How to move a church from traditional to contemporary worship styles<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many churches seem to have landed on what they feel is a solution for worship wars\u2013provide differing styles of worship so that you can provide an option that meets most people\u2019s personal preferences for worship. Indeed, Saddleback Church in California offers eight different worship styles\u00a0options. As\u00a0Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10197,"featured_media":6290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-14T09:18:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-02T11:25:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/08123139\/WORSHIP-WARS-med1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"267\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kenny Lamm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kenny Lamm\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/\",\"name\":\"Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-14T09:18:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-08-02T11:25:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/61d82eba8d5b950f2254429916c16eaf\"},\"description\":\"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Musicademy\",\"description\":\"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/61d82eba8d5b950f2254429916c16eaf\",\"name\":\"Kenny Lamm\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity","description":"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity","og_description":"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/","og_site_name":"Musicademy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy","article_published_time":"2011-10-14T09:18:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-08-02T11:25:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"520","height":"267","url":"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/08123139\/WORSHIP-WARS-med1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kenny Lamm","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@musicademy","twitter_site":"@musicademy","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kenny Lamm","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/","name":"Unified Worship \u2013 Breaking Down the Barriers of Age and Ethnicity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-14T09:18:54+00:00","dateModified":"2019-08-02T11:25:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/61d82eba8d5b950f2254429916c16eaf"},"description":"Following the lead of the advertising world, many churches today (and more specifically worship services) are targeting specific age groups to the exclusion of others.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/worship-wars-unified-worship-breaking-down-the-barriers-of-age-and-ethnicity\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/","name":"Musicademy","description":"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/61d82eba8d5b950f2254429916c16eaf","name":"Kenny Lamm"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6360"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22741,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6360\/revisions\/22741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}