Martin Guptill did it. Should we?

By Annette Osborne -

If you are a cricket fan you will already know there is a World Cup going on. You will already know that over the weekend Martin Guptill hit a cricket ball out of the park, literally. Someone had to go outside to retrieve it.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I place pressure on myself to 'knock it out of the park'. When I get the opportunity to run an All Age service (to have all ages worshiping together) I feel the need to make it AMAZING!  I am sure I am not alone in this.  The opportunity doesn't come around that often, and high expectations abound. It is something different, so to win over those who aren't sure 'different' is good, it needs to be AMAZING!

That's why this article by Beth Barnett made such sense to me.  As we approach Easter, we often have more opportunities to have all ages worshiping together. So, I recommend you read this article. It's one of the best, and it is packed with practical and thought provoking suggestions. 

Here's the link:
 http://www.premierchildrenswork.com/Past-Issues/2014/December-2014-January-2015/All-age-Worship



 "The large-scale, super-sensational family worship events of the past need to be shelved. Multi-sensory, multiple intelligence, multi-modal, multi-vocal gatherings don’t have to be complicated, huge extravaganzas. Think of the iconic pot-luck supper. Everyone brings what they can. There is plenty. It’s a little quirky, but we learn about each other’s culture and ways of doing life."

 Beth Barnett is a child theology author and children’s and families ministry resource writer. She lives in Victoria, Australia.



Resist the pressure to have to 'knock it out of the park'! 

 




Annette Osborne is one of the Auckland members of the Children and Families team. She is in the middle of helping to plan an All Age service for Palm Sunday. Does anyone have a donkey?

Comments

  1. Annette Osborne26 March 2015 at 10:17

    It's great to see all the conversation this article has sparked on facebook. The issue of how to have all ages worshiping together is obviously something people are seeing as very important. If anyone has good resources or articles to share on this topic then we would love you to let us know so we can share them on the blog.

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