Immerse | A Journal of Faith, Life, and Youth Ministry

Remembering God’s Story and Our Story Through Our Liturgies

by Aaron Mitchum on June 8th, 2011 -- filed under

Someone recently asked me if I think liturgical elements are important for the formation of youth. I remember as an 18-year-old sitting in a pew in the balcony of Holy Trinity Brompton in London and being upset because we were praying written prayers. I had grown up as an American Evangelical and had just moved to England with my parents. I felt that if a prayer was going to be authentic and mean anything, it should come from the gut in a spontaneous, inspired moment. I was not inspired in that moment; I was bored. That was ten years ago.

Today I credit the written prayers and other forms of the Anglican liturgical practices with facilitating some of the most divine moments and seasons in my life. What changed? A few adults in my life graciously began to guide me into a deeper knowledge of the liturgical rhythms they themselves practiced. They showed me the connections between the Christian calendar, the lectionary, and the historical practices of the church and all the rich, practical theology that results from those connections. I watched what they did and tried to follow their examples. That rhythm brought me into a spiritual life that connected my devotions to the bigger story of who God is and what God is doing to reconcile creation.

Liturgical elements are important for the spiritual formation of adolescents because they echo the story of God. They create microcosms of that meta-narrative connecting us to the history and future that define our lives, allowing youth to grow even more in grace toward the ability to reveal that story through a living doxology.

One way we might begin to engage our own liturgies in a way that forms us to the story of God more might be to find the narrative metaphors that are already in our services.

Welcome – Everyone is welcomed, just as in God’s kingdom.

Call to Worship – We call each other to worship just as God called Israel out of Egypt in the exodus and Jesus called us out of the slavery of sin.

Announcements – Ways you can plug into the bigger story.

Song/Dance/Poems/Video/Art/Etc. – Reminders of the story we’re in. These things are a means of grace that enable energy to repent and renew our heading.

Teaching – Opens up the narrative and explicitly reveals the gospel.

Passing the Peace – Offering the peace of Christ in ourselves to everyone else.

Communion – We act out the story of atonement, remembering the theology of table.

Baptism – We are raised from death to life, just as Jesus was.

Response – The narrative calls for participation.

Benediction – Blessed to be a blessing.