Weekly Re-cap--January 20

This week was a great week for exploring generational issues in worship and otherwise! Check these out:

The New York Times has an interesting article asking whether the younger generation is more narcissistic than others. Generation Me vs You Revisited gives arguments that both support and detract from this hypothesis. What do you think?

What do you think about plasma screens in church bathrooms? Good practice? Too commercial? And is this a generational issue?

What can churches learn from American Idol? Collide magazine muses on the use of technology in church.

Over at Emerging UMC, Taylor Burton-Edwards continues to ponder the future of the UMC. This time he is exploring the "Seven Vision Pathways" established by the Council of Bishops.

What insight does Sweeney Todd give us into our lives today? Check out an interesting article from Beliefnet about how the character of Sweeney Todd tells us something about the sinful nature of humans.

How do we reach the younger generation? Carol Howard Merritt at Tribal Church suggests the secret is not marketing but storytelling.

What about liturgy? The boomers wanted to boot it, but it appears that younger generations are actually seeking it! Check out "Reviving the Liturgy" at Relevant.com.

Also over at Relevant is a powerful article (Indie-Rock Attitude) asking young adults to evaluate their attitudes toward others with different opinions and tastes than them. But I think this is something for all of us to spend some prayerful time considering!!

A related article calls on church leaders to look beyond people's preferences to reach more than one generation. Alban Institute has an article that challenges us to think intergenerationally! "'Intergenerational' as a Way of Seeing" calls on us to think about the purpose of worship first while bringing people with different preferences around a table to discuss worship.

Leaders must look at worship and other congregational practices from the perspective of purpose rather than preference. rather than asking how most people like a particular practice, leaders must learn how to explore how choosing a practice will most faithfully fulfill the purposes of the congregation.

And a final note related to preferences is an interesting little article from the Chicago Tribune reporting the results of studies that maintain that human beings are poor predictors of what's likely to make them happy.

[Harvard psychologist Daniel] Gilbert argues that our inability to make accurate predictions about what will make us happy stems from thought processes that people are more or less stuck with -- or minds are designed to see the world as it is right now, rather than from the point of view of the people we are going to become.

What do non-Christians think of the church? This is a recurring and important question for us to explore if we want to fulfill the great commission. According to a recent survey by Lifeway, they don't think much of us. And USA Today picked up on their scepticism of the church as an institution and Christians in general.