Thesis Chapter 1: Introduction

In our country’s twenty-first century culture there is a need for Christian people to be enabled to be “theological in their everyday relationships…and to connect it with daily living…[because]…life and faith are not integrated in modern U.S. society.”[1] This can be done when people are taught there is a process to learning…[and to]…religious growth…The question…[then becomes one]…of how to educate for faith…[how to]…transcend old patterns to respond to what God is doing new in our midst.[2]

Congregational life is structured by beliefs about its main foci, worship and education, and the emphasis of contemporary Christian educators has been on “empowering the laity to embody discipleship in the world.”[3] Attaining this goal involves the whole Christian congregation in the process of learning religious language, knowing the triune God, and the intimate guided discipleship experience of an existential method of worship and religious education, joined with fellowship. This paper concerns itself with these matters.

There are several predominant approaches to Christian ministry and congregational learning in the United States of America today. There is education for social transformation, the community of faith model, the education of individual people who are to become the spiritual salt of the earth, and the family religious educational model.[4] Each type strives to address postmodern American culture from unique viewpoints, yet none seems to provide the opportunity to intricately join the congregational mission of worship with the vision of community and discipleship found in intergenerational ministry and education. Intergenerational Religious Education[5] supports the paradigm of Intentional Intergenerational Ministry,[6] yet this theology of Christian education requires the selection of a curriculum that supports its aims. Readily able to support both intentional congregational ministry and Intergenerational Religious Education theology, Godly Play[7] worship education[8] can be utilized for the worship discipleship[9] of both child and adult because it is suitable for each member of a congregation, no matter what the age or history of respective generational groups. The Godly Play method of religious education evolved from Maria Montessori’s discoveries, and since it can be utilized to develop a discipleship ministry for all ages in the congregation, it unifies the large communal worship gathering and small group educational worship throughout the church body, enhancing a congregational vision of fellowship in a theological model suitable for the postmodern church.

A unique opportunity to clarify a congregation’s spiritual life arises from its desire to receive as its principal worth the call of God to worship. This means that an overarching mission of worship will surround and guide everything the church sets out particularly to express. The vehicle for the expression of this mission is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ himself breathed this person of the Trinity into his disciples (John 20:22), and, therefore, the Holy Spirit is found in the people of God.

Because the people of God have the Holy Spirit in their heart, the Spirit is manifested in the community of the saints,[10] and the comprehensive vision of the church is fellowship. God ministers to us with naturalness when we are intertwined with other people; therefore, the aim of congregations should be focused on interactive relationships between all the saints.

To maximize the Holy Spirit’s gifts within the church, all generations need to interact with each other and minister to each other through their unique individual qualities, whether through communal functions or homogeneous activities of congregational life. A body effective in the call of God has a guiding vision for the parish that promotes the ministry of the spiritual gifts lodged within each community member. This task, when undertaken with intention, allows no aspect of God’s call to worship to be overlooked. Intentional Intergenerational Ministry is an abundant vision for a body to have because it involves the seven generations in a particular time and place simultaneously, entwining them in church ministry.[11] This model of church worship, fellowship, and religious education has every generation sharing its nurture, knowledge, experience, hope, and vitality with every other generation. The work of God in a particular era moves forward through this shared perspective and the balance that results from that heritage.

Such a worship mission and fellowship vision supported by religious education and permeated with worship influences the theological architectural considerations of the church building and its environment. Thus, church building forms, spaces, and their relationships are re-thought so that they promote this energetic theological model of the body — in contrast to the typical church building of static and elaborate worship spaces attached to educational buildings that are given less consideration by the architect. Rather, in this reformed model, architectural concepts become intentional servants of all aspects of the worship discipleship community, providing restrained building forms that respond sympathetically to both the congregation’s internal theology and the external ecology of their surrounding community.

This theological model is a twenty-first century concept of the congregation and its church building, and it contrasts with the typical twentieth century characteristics of the Christian body still seen today. Congregations that adhere to a Modern, twentieth century type of ministry and cultural model are program driven, and find truth in absolutes and objective, or linear, thinking. Their culture is mono-cultural, they see the world as either “secular” or “sacred;” they believe in salvation, and therefore, that everyone is good. The people in these faith groups tend to have only a few close friends, as these are valued more than acquaintances. For them, families consist of two parents and two and one-half children, and are viewed as more important than friends.[12]

Postmodern congregations, on the other hand, generally are people driven, and they believe truth is circular and found in the life narrative. Their worldview leans toward the organic with connective communities at all levels, including the church, which is seen as both inside and outside the church community and their building. Postmodern Christians are multi-cultural, are looking to be engaged, included, and inspired, and they see no difference between the “sacred” and the “secular,” believing everything belongs to God. Most of them believe in sin, but not in salvation, and so are seeking the grace of Christ. Many come from broken homes; therefore, friends are important and are seen as family.[13]

This paper envisages a congregational model of worship, fellowship, and discipleship that is twenty-first century in its conception. It is not a prescription for American social ills, nor a solution for cultural decay, as Intentional Intergenerational Ministry and Intergenerational Religious Education were originally proposed to be when first introduced in the 1970s. Rather, it is a contemporary conversation regarding the major concerns of congregational life: worship and education.

These concerns were not generally integrated and addressed in the Modern congregation and its church buildings; however, there is a call among Americans today to have a primal set of spiritual needs met that involves these predominant aspects of congregational life. The postmodern church is the ideal place to provide this spiritual nourishment, and its buildings can be a place to shelter these activities. To answer this call coming from our society, and ultimately from God, the contemporary congregation’s conversation must turn from debate with American pop culture to listening to the call of God to worship, fellowship, and to disciple God’s people.
[1] Jack L. Seymour, Mapping Christian Education: Approaches to Congregational Learning
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1997) 9, 12.
[2] Ibid., 10.
[3] Ibid., 15.
[4] Ibid., 5.
[5] Intergenerational Religious Education is the teaching of sacred story, the history of the saints, congregational history, and the symbols of Christian language, promoting the remembrance of God in all areas of the disciple’s life. Its goal is lifestyle worship of God.
[6] Intentional Intergenerational Ministry is the deliberate provision of ministerial and lay leadership within a congregation that produces opportunities for intergenerational mentoring, teaching, and social interaction. The goal is to encourage a “multi-cultural” environment that promotes the passage of sacred story and Christian symbols from one generation to the next, while lessening postmodern social isolation found in the culture of the United States.
[7] Godly Play is the teaching of religious language based on the Christian system of symbols, and sacred story, parables, and liturgical action. This language assists disciples to develop morally and spiritually, helping them discover how to cope with, and transcend, the existential issues of death, aloneness, the threat of freedom, and the need for meaning. The out-working of the intuitions produced by wondering about the lessons of this curriculum produce contemplative “spiritual play,” or creative and existential art work and the manipulation of symbolic objects.
[8] Worship education is the preparation of children to worship the Trinity through teaching the Godly Play curriculum. The goal is lifestyle worship, and the development of the ability to personally work through existential issues with God.
[9] Worship discipleship is the teaching of sacred story, parables, and liturgical action, and the wondering about them with the storyteller, or teacher. This includes the structuring of the “worship center” classroom around the sense of time Holy Communion provides the community, or the “church circle” of children.
[10] Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds., “Apology of the Augsburg Confession,”: The Book of Concord (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000) 174.
[11] James V. Gambone, All are Welcome: A Primer for Intentional Intergenerational Ministry and Dialogue (Crystal Bay, MN.: Elder Eye Press, 1998) 11-15.
[12] http:// www. ginkworld. net/ position papers. Taken from a comparative chart of modern and postmodern characteristics of people and Christian ministry (cited 3/14/03)
[13] Ibid.