Why We Do What We Do When We Do Worship

Every worship service has an order of some kind or another that guides us from our busy schedules to a focused time of building our relationship with God and then back out again to serve in the world. As Christians, our primary purpose as a gathered body is to worship God. These are an example of the acts, or movements, of worship and what they mean for us:

Gathering: We enter, leaving our distractions behind, expecting to meet God in worship.

Praising God: We admire God directly through prayer and song.

Confession/Assurance: We name our shortcomings and acknowledge God’s grace and transforming power.

Witnessing/Testifying/Sharing: We share with each other how we’ve seen God at work in the world and ask for the help of others in bringing our concerns to God.

Hearing God’s Word: We hear the words and see the stories of the Bible; of God's persistent love for God's people.

Responding to the Word: We try to figure out together, with the help of God’s Spirit, how we ought to place ourselves in God's ongoing story. What does the Bible mean and what effect should it have on our lives?

Affirming Faith: We name the truth we know about God the Father, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit and God’s relationship to humanity and all of creation.

Praying Together: We bring to God prayers for ourselves, those dear to us, for our neighbors, for the church and for the world.

Blessing/Sending/Commissioning: We leave renewed in hope expecting to meet God in the world and are reminded of our "job description"--how we should serve as Christ's hands and feet in the world.

Further reading:
Yoder, June Alliman, Marlene Kropf and Rebecca Slough. Preparing Sunday Dinner: A Collaborative Approach to Worship and Preaching. Scottdale: Herald Press, 2005.

JUST FOR FUN: THE HERO FACTORY
Have you ever considered creating a costume for yourself and taking to the streets to pursue justice for the innocent as a full-fledged superhero? Give this web app a try and test-run your super-get-up before investing your allowance in bolts of high-tech fabric and kevlar thread. The app allows for various choices between guy and girl costumes, hair and skin color, shirts, pants, capes (I'd recommend avoiding capes--they cause problems), accessories and more. In my attempt to create a non-violent, Creation-caring, eco-superhero identity for myself I ended up with the ensemble to the right. Quite stylish, if I do say so myself.

Talking with Your Child about Holy Week

There’s no getting around the fact that the story of Jesus’ experiences from the Last Supper to the Crucifixion, which we commemorate during Holy Week, is a violent story and can be hard for children to process. Jesus is betrayed for money by a friend who then hangs himself. Peter lops off a guy’s ear with a sword. Jesus is brutally beaten and taunted and dragged before the masses to stand beside a murderer whom the crowd chooses to set free instead of Jesus. Jesus’ death by crucifixion begins with spikes being pounded in his hands and feet and what follows is a slow death by dehydration, suffocation and cardiac duress. How do you talk about that with your kids?

It is a helpful approach for us as adults to become knowledgeable about the various understandings of Jesus’ death (the cross as sacrifice; as a victory; as forgiveness; and as a moral example) as there are things to be learned from each—all of them represent views presented in Scripture itself. See my bibliography below for resources for personal study. The irony here, in asking how to talk about Jesus’ violent death with children, is that our children have already been, and continue to be exposed to violence—the question is not ‘if’ anymore, but ‘when’ and ‘how’? The difference is that the story of Jesus’ death, though violent, is a statement against the powers of violence and oppression.

Consider these statements when speaking with your child:
1. Jesus’ death shows that he was willing to die rather than deny what he knew to be true about God the Father.
2. Jesus’ death shows that he was willing to die rather than bring about God’s Kingdom through violence.
3. Jesus’ death healed the relationship between humans and God so that we might fully follow God both in this life and even after death.
4. Death happens to everyone, but Jesus’ death gives us the power to not fear death and to live now as Jesus lived—showing God’s love and mercy to others.
5. Jesus rose from the dead with a new, amazing and mysterious body and that means that God can bring that same renewal to humanity and to all of creation.

Make sure as well to ask your child about their own understanding of Holy Week, you may just be surprised to learn something yourself!

BRAIN NEWS: TODDLER BRAINS, TEEN BRAINS
Current research on brain function is providing surprising insight into the behaviors of children across a broad age span—from Toddler to Teen.

Why Toddlers Don’t Seem to Listen:
A recent news story highlighted research which seemed to show that toddlers do not plan for the future by anticipating situations, but instead call up past learnings on an as-needed basis. For example, you can tell your toddler till you’re blue in the face to get their coat on before going out, but they won’t recognize the need for the coat till they are outside shivering in the yard. What may be most helpful is to somehow trigger this reactive function in your child—highlight the conflict they are going to face: “I know you don’t want to put your coat on now, but when you’re standing in the driveway shivering later, remember that your coat is in the closet.”

Why Teens Can’t Multi-task:
Between age 11 and 17 brain waves reduce significantly while a teen is sleeping. Brain scientists speculate that a process called “synaptic pruning”—in which the brain decides which connections must be kept and which can be let go—is reflected in this reduction. The high degree of brain flexibility found in young children—so great that a damaged function of the brain can be learned by another section—decreases in teens because synaptic pruning is moving their brain toward processing multiple pieces of information related to focusing on single problems for longer periods. There is no great behavioral strategy offered, but parents may wish to try limiting their expectation of the number of tasks a teen can accomplish at once.

Links:
Why Toddlers Don't Do What They're Told
Teen Brains Clear Out Childhood Thoughts

On my desk:
Driver, John. Understanding the Atonement for the Mission of the Church. Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers (reprint of Herald Press, 1986).

Green, Joel B. and Mark D. Baker. Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: Atonement in New Testament and Contemporary Contexts. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

Weaver, J. Denny. The Non-Violent Atonement. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2001.