Andrew Noe is the Student Minister at Rosemont Baptist Church in Lexington, KY, and the moderator of this blog. He enjoys superheroes, and trying to be funny. He is married to the wonderful and amazing Hannah Noe. They have a super intelligent dog named Daphne, and a water-obsessed cat named Ellie
It is the end of our Worship-focused-month here at YMC. I am sad to see it go, because I have loved reading the great responses to the weekly questions. I will be honest and admit that I didn’t realize till midway through March that this month had 5 Mondays in it. So this week I am giving all my friends, who I have asked so much of already in contributing to this site, a break. Sorry, but its just me this week.
As the month has gone on I have thought about the many ways in which we worship. The prayers, the songs, the thoughts, our movements, our rites, all playing a part in what we consider as worship towards God.
This week instead of giving a responses, I am just going to give you more questions to think about. These questions are a mixture of my thoughts as a teenager seeing several different churches, my thoughts today as an adult, and some questions I have heard youth ask in the past. Maybe these will lead to great discussions with your youth, parents, congregations, or pastors. Or maybe they will just be questions you glance at while looking at this on your phone. Either way, here they are…..
- Why do we sing in worship?
- Who are we singing to?
- Why are we singing songs about America instead of songs about God?
- What instruments can be played in church?
- Why do some churches not allow instruments?
- Which style of music is the one God prefers?
- Why do we stand up while reading scripture?
- Why don’t we stand up while reading scripture?
- Why don’t people bring their Bibles to worship?
- Where did the phrase “This is the word of our Lord….Thanks be to God.” come from?
- Why are we passing peace? What does that even mean?
- Why do we take up offering in the worship service?
- Is offering a form of worship?
- Why is there not more art in the service?
- Who chooses what decorates the sanctuary?
- Why is there a flag here?
- Why am I asked in a place of worship to God, to pledge my allegiance to a country?
- How can we get people to use their gifts and talents in worship, who are not singers or speakers?
- Why is worship not more interactive for people with a different learning style?
- Could we possibly have something to do with our hands during worship?
- Why is the sermon the longest part of the worship service?
- I heard of a church that does Service Worship once a month, instead of a Worship Service. That sounds neat, why can’t all churches do that?
- Why do we need a special Sunday to honor kids and youth? Instead of just using them in worship all year round?
- What does Baptism do?
- What does Baptism mean?
- Why are there so many names for Communion/Lord’s Supper/Eucharist, and where do they all come from?
- Wouldn’t it be cooler if instead of a tiny meal in the sanctuary, we had a potluck and shared food with one another after service? That seems more like a community meal of fellowship to me.
- What is the Church Calendar, and how does this effect worship?
- Why haven’t we changed the idea of what a sermon is over the years, as we have changed as people? We no longer learn the same way as we once did.
I am going to stop now, but I could easily keep going. There are many questions we all have about worship. Some of your youth are probably just too scared to ask. Having a discussion centered around worship and the questions we have is something that could greatly help your youth and congregations.
Don’t forget to check back next week for April’s month of perspectives. Each week in April we will have a different group of people answering the question “What do you want youth ministers to know?” Our first week we have youth and parents answering, second week is children’s ministers, followed by volunteers week three, and pastors in the final week.
Live long and do good,
Andrew Noe
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