Programming for a Young Audience and Still Reaching an Older Audience
- Posted by: Todd
- Posted on: Tue, August 26, 2008
- Viewed 62
- (22) comments so far
I wonder, though… what is your experience. Do you agree with Tony (and my) premise? Or would you care to differ? What have you found in your church?
You can read all of Tony’s post here...
I’d love to hear your input…
Todd
My friend Tony Morgan wrote something that caught my eye recently. He said:
"If we design our service experiences for a younger audience, we’re more likely to reach that younger person and we’ll also reach older folks. The reverse is not true. If we designed our service experience for an older audience, the younger crowd would not show up."
I would say, I have to agree with him...
Comments
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Leonard on Tue, August 26, 2008
Over 50 in our church need compelling vision for what we are trying to do.
Over 60 in our church need a place to contribute that matched the strength of their lives.
Over 70 in our church need all of the above and some ear plugs.
We seek to connect over 60’s to younger people for mentoring.
Great stuff.
Peter Hamm on Tue, August 26, 2008
If we are talking about service experiences, I totally agree. For instance… I find that if I make music that a 40, 50, or 60-something person would pick, that the older folks come right along, but the younger ones would stay away, or at least like it a lot less.
If I program music (and drama/creative arts and sermon content for that matter) that appeals to the 20-something, the 40-somethings like it just fine, the kids enjoy it, and the older folks (at least here) are TOTALLY cool with it. Some even like it. Keep in mind that someone who is 70 today was a teenager when Rock and Roll was starting to make an impact. Someone who is 60 might have been pretty wild in the 60s!
Leonard… I love what you said above, too!
Tommy on Tue, August 26, 2008
I think this approach is true. I think it best positions us to reach a broader spectrum of people. But we have been transitioning an established church rather than starting a new church. And it has been painful watching our “seasoned” leaders bail out on us. I’m anxiously waiting to attract some new “olders” who will help catch the vision and join us.
Adam McLane on Tue, August 26, 2008
All this time I thought worship planning was about creating an environment where the mortal could connect and worship the immortal God… somehow I missed this in all that training. It’s all about the 20-30 year olds! It’s not about Jesus at all! All we have to do is be cool and our churches will grow. (please read the sarcasm here)
Peter Hamm on Tue, August 26, 2008
Tommy,
It is hard to see those folks bail, but some of them might. I encourage you to give away leadership and ownership to some of those younger folks!
Adam writes
[All this time I thought worship planning was about creating an environment where the mortal could connect and worship the immortal God…] Actually, I think you’re absolutely right to that point! And creating that environment means I intentionally DON’T program music that won’t connect with everybody. Since I know (from experience) that programming “younger” culture will help facilitate that connection with God better, I prayerfully and carefully might program a David Crowder song before an organ version of “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” It’s NOT about just the 20s and 30s at all, but, as some churches seem to NOT realize… it’s not all about the 40 and 50+ people either…
Jerry on Tue, August 26, 2008
When we can learn to be comfortable with our uncomfortableness so as to reach out to those who need Christ, we’ll do a much better job at reaching the lost. Our first realization must be that we’re not there to make it through another Sunday, but to engage people who are around us in ways that are relevant to them, not us.
The younger people only know and understand what is going on today and in very recent history, not what happened and what music was popular 30-40-50 years ago. However, those who are older know what was going on back then AND what is happening today which is why it is so much easier for them to relate to a contemporary setting than it is for a younger person to relate to ‘ancient history.’
Stewart on Tue, August 26, 2008
I’ve also done the transitioning thing. And it is painful to see “mature” Christian leaders bail over issues of style - especially when their stated goal is to grow and reach a younger audience. Actually - the more painful thing is when they don’t bail and stick around as DIS-loyal opposition. http://www.mondaymorninginsight.com/images/smileys/grin.gif
In my experience the group that tolerates “other” people’s style preferences better are the new and not-yet Christians. It’s the people who “grew up Christian” (I’m in that category) who have the hardest time sacrificing personal preference for effective communication with a cultural group other than themselves.
In general - you get who you program for.
Andy Wood on Tue, August 26, 2008
In my experience, spiritually mature 40-60s people will tolerate and even engage beyond their personal taste if they see it as a mission, but won’t if they see it as pandering. If people are bailing, it behooves us to ask some tough questions. Pay attention to the people who are leaving. If they’re fish heads (open mouth, smell bad, etc.), so be it. But if people you respect as mature, wise, and committed to Christ no longer find a mission in (y)our ministries, it’s time for a serious series of talks, and probably some changes.
One other thought. For all our talk about 20-30s relevance, my Millenial kids love my PARENTS’ music. They’re all into Sinatra, classical, etc. as well as Crowder, etc.
Ariel on Tue, August 26, 2008
While I agree with Adam McLane that we should be focused on creating environments to worship God, not just to draw 20-somethings, I must say that the largest, most influential churches seem to be the ones that have a younger vibe.
In my city where 80% are Hispanic and 70% are Catholic, the same is true - the churches with younger vibes seem to be the most effective for the Kingdom.
Besides, it’s a beautiful glimpse of the Kingdom when I occasionally go to the Saturday service at a megachurch in my city of several thousand people and I see teenagers next to 40-somethings next to silver saints, all singing their hearts out to God with a Hillsong United song
...even if they do use the “evil drums” [did you catch my sarcasm, Adam? =)].
Adam McLane on Wed, August 27, 2008
ariel- I don’t have a problem with modern worship or drums or even appealing to 20-30 somethings. If you read that than it wasn’t intended.
What I was responding to was the fact that Tony seemed to, in the blog post, say that planning has more to do with their success than the Holy Spirit!
I respect what Tony and Perry are doing… I think it’s awesome that hundreds of people are coming to Jesus at their church each weekend. I just don’t think their worship planning has anything to do with it. I think it has everything to do with the Holy Spirit moving among them and people saying “we are the church” enough to bring unsaved people to the service. ... and in their desire to explain what’s happening they are grasping for things that aren’t really true.
I’d just hate for anyone to read Tony’s blog post and grasp onto it (in true evangelical style) and try to use it as a rally cry… “If we only appealed to 20-30 year olds, we’d be reaching people.” I don’t think Tony is stupid… but I think misreading what he was saying would help some people make some very stupid decisions!
Noel on Wed, August 27, 2008
We have discovered the same thing at our church as Tony. Our unapologetic target is teens, college students, singles, and young families. That essentially means we shoot for the early to mid 20s in our service style.
When we share this at membership classes, inevitably someone will ask, “I’m 40, am I still welcome here?” Our answer is “absolutely. And we ask you to be on mission with us to reach the youngers in our community.”
This is how we breakdown in attendance:
14-17 Year olds 7.6%
18-24 Year olds 44.7%
25-29 Year olds 11.7%
30-39 Year olds 17.9%
40-50 Year olds 13.6%
50+ Year olds 4.5%
I wrote a paper for our church (based on a message I gave on the topic). If you want it, you can download it at http://www.noelheikkinen.com/papers/oldersandyoungers.pdf
Jan on Fri, August 29, 2008
I’ve been thinking about this discussion for a couple of days now and hesitant to post.
As the worship leader and service planner, my ultimate goal is to lead others in worship.
I’ve been to some amazing outreach oriented events where the music was all hymns and seen young people come to Christ.
And I’ve also been to congregations that only had old people attending and they were perfectly happy with what I would consider church 50 years ago, but wondering why the young people wouldn’t attend.
I think this is a complicated topic, because it’s not just our worship style that encourages young people to attend our worship services.
Other factors: Our passion for the Lord as a congregation, How welcoming is our congregation to this age bracket? Do we put them in the “observer” slot and refuse to include them in the service itself? Are only older folks allowed to usher, take offering, pass out bulletins, lead worship?
As the worship leader, I tend to plan services and “style” based first on whether it touches the heart and content, then on who it will appeal to. We have a broad selection that we use, that appeal to some or both. And it’s a mix and match thing, but not based on style at all, but on whether the service as a whole will connect. Does that make sense or am I hopelessly rambling?
I would guess that the churches that reach a younger group of people, are ultimately an outward focused church. They welcome in the seekers and embrace them in community and the worship connects whatever style they use.
By the way, 75% of our congregation is 25 and under.
Jan on Fri, August 29, 2008
Just one more thing to add…
The young people of today are looking for something real. They can smell a fake a mile away.
Transparency from leadership is essential.
They are skeptics. So I would add that being real is vital.
My cousin recently visited our church after attending my daughter’s wedding the day before.
She knows the “gospel message” but I don’t think it has ever taken with her. And I haven’t seen her for many years.
Her comments about church really threw me. She’s very sophisticated and earns a big income as a buyer for textiles and travels all over the world.
After the service she expressed a desire to come back and bring her husband and his family who travel twice a year to the U.S. from Europe. It wasn’t to stay in our beautiful resort town that she wants to come back (halfway across the country). Her desire was for them to see a church that is “real”. Because she’s “never seen that before and didn’t think it was possible.”
It was a cool moment. But also very revealing about where this age group is I think.
We don’t have a lot of fancy instrumentals, gadgets or the latest in software. No drama. Just a basic service that I hope touches the heart.
I think that is what is most important, vs what style we sing in.
Peter Hamm on Sat, August 30, 2008
Jan.
Amen.
“just being real and transparent” is a HUGE thing that many miss. Which is why I do music that speaks in my voice (very contemporary, and when we do hymns, even they get dressed up, in fact they rock out the most in my church…), and we are pretty careful about being “real” in my church in every way, so we have a lot of “visitors” that stay. We also have a lot of people who walk away saying “I had no idea church could be like THAT!” (in a good way…) A lot of those people find Christ (or Christ finds them) after being away from churches (that they disliked and couldn’t connect with) for years or DECADES! We baptized 20 or so people last week, ALL ages were represented, from teenage or pre-teen all the way to mid to late 60s…
We shy away from hymns, but program one or two a month, and on the rare occasion that it really suits the service, one or two in one service!
David Andrus on Tue, September 02, 2008
I appreciated the article. Our worship Pastor focuses on music that draws people to think about God, Jesus Christ, and what the Biblical message of the week is about. I am so grateful for having a team member who is all about helping people think about how great God is.
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