For a generation that is so digitally engaged, and even electronically dependent, have screens and multi-media become a necessary part of today’s worship scene?
As someone who is still fairly new to planning and designing worship services, I can struggle with wanting to shape services based more on what I think students need versus what they may want.
I’ve talked a little about this struggle in recent posts :: [Attempting to Become] All Things to All People and How Do You Decide? I believe God has given me an idea of where He desires these young believers to be by the time they’re preparing to leave our campus community… but this idea can often cause me to plan with the ‘more mature end’ in mind, more so than to where these students are actually at. More specifically, some of my short-sightedness in the past has come in the form of some of (what I have considered to be) the ‘extras’ or ‘bells and whistles’ that I have NOT chosen to give enough attention to — and that many of our students have come in expecting. When students have not found ‘what they’re looking for,’ regardless of how ‘quality’ the service might be, they’ve gone looking for it elsewhere — and found it.
I want to do whatever I can to help students connect with God! At the same time, I want to challenge students to not become overly dependent on any of the ‘extras’ that are meant to enhance a worship experience — and not define it.
What do you think?
- Is multi-media (ie. big screens, PowerPoint, media shout, pro presenter, video, etc.) a necessity in drawing students into a worship service?
- Are there any drawbacks that you can identify to including ALL of these elements that they are so wired into in every other context of their lives?
- Is a worship service a good place to challenge this ‘perceived need’ of students? If so, what do you think that would look like?
Thanks for joining in on the conversation!
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3 thoughts on “Dressed-Up Worship”
Of course the God that we serve can use any venue, any type of style of worship, and any kind of speaker to bring people to himself. With that said, I think it is still important to do the best you can to stay connected with the Millennial generation. Especially among college students you want to make sure that your ministry looks both intriguing and established. You always want to come across as being a mature ministry (no matter the demographic). So is multi-media a must to draw students into a worship service? I think it is. Millennials want to feel engaged wherever they go. They do not want to feel like they are sitting through another college class lecture. Students want to attend a worship service where they feel comfortable to invite their lost roommate/classmates, and multi-media is a great way to help that. Multi-media helps serve both as a sense of appeal and stableness . This genereation is a changing!
What’s most important is whether or not students are swimming in the Word in authentic worship. environment is a marginal issue. Surely there are contexts where radical dressed up worship or radical dressed down worship has its spiritual consequ ences, but at the end of the day, You can swim in both a muddy creek or fiji’s pristine waters: water is water, the word is the word, but the environment may change perception and/ or appeal.
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