I spent last night at a meeting in a parish to discuss their all-age worship services. They, like a lot of places I visit, see the value of them and like them even, but struggle to shake off a sense that they are not quite all they could be. One thing that made this session different from others was that the priest extended the invitation to come to the whole congregation. That meant that aside from the usual interested parties you would expect – children’s workers, the Director of Music (because we all have one of those), parents of children in the church etc – we also had a few people who were members of the congregation. These people weren’t so obviously ‘stakeholders’, they came despite the fact that it had been PCC the night before and it was raining.
It was good to have them there, as they had a very different perspective to those who had been leading and were actually more positive about it than you might think. I began to see the wisdom in something that Beth Barnett said when she wrote about All-Age Worship for Childrenswork Magazine last year:
“Preparing for all-age worship means … identifying confident friend-makers, inviters and ‘have-a-go-ers’ to lead from the middle by including. A few well-placed allies among the gathered faithful, primed and ready to be the first to contribute (but then back off and allow others space) or the first to join in a response with heartiness covers a multitude of both ‘too restrained’ and ‘extremely rowdy’ participants.”
The most important leaders in an all-age service are not at the front but in the congregation. Having these people here was really amazing, as it meant they were part of the conversation; and if we wanted to change things we would need the support from a few key people as we brought those changes in. This is pretty key stuff, and the vicar either fluked it or was a genius to invite them.
So have a think about your context: who are the key people you could involve as leaders in your congregation? Who will be ready to volunteer, ready to go first and ready to counter the tuts and judgemental glances that can blight these times with waves of smiles, enthusiasm and welcomes? And of course if you’re not on the rota and it’s the all-age service then it’s not a week off; this person is YOU!
Sam Donoghue is Head of Children’s and Youth Ministry Support and a highly-regarded biscuit connoisseur.
Image: Worship by Dustin Bryson, used under Creative Commons licence.