Yes. We have aging problem in our society. And yes, we also have aging problem in church, especially for Chinese congregation. It is not merely that we all get older. It is our mentality and our spirit. The younger generations are not as energetic or creative as the older generations. We just don't want to get involved. This is not a good sign, but what can we do?
5 comments:
In some church I see young people jumping and clapping during worship. And they have creative ideas in worship too (visit Micah's blog). BTW, do you consider you are in young or old generation?
My actual age is young but my mental age is old.
> My actual age is young ...
Are you Tommy?
WW
Yes, we can do sth to change these situations.
For my church, we have an atmosphere of young leaders actively involving and serving. This atmoshpere is actually 刻意 developed through some beliefs, which include:
- We don't believe in professionals. We believe in 人人皆祭司, and this 「人人」includes youngsters. So we empower youngsters to become leaders, and we TRUST them to be leaders of the church. We also try our best to give up the temptation to head over these young ppl.
- 衡出框框. Don't let tradition or past experience limit the leading of the Holy Spirit. All sorts of crazy ideas in serving are encouraged.
- We've got a saying that 「坐得多，pat pat 大」。 Our church has no bible school. Our atmoshpere emphasizes more on "doing" than "knowing". It is terrible to train up christians who just sit there for years of investigating into the bible, but never work it out. We don't allow ppl who just sit there. Very often, christians who just sit there and don't work out become 老油條, and gradually become "old in heart". It is by constantly 冒險 in God that we keep ourselves young at heart and spirit.
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