This post is aimed at the congregations who are not able to attract or keep young people.
One possible factor for this state might be the songs being sung.
The older generation wants 'their' songs, and there's nothing wrong with that, except that many of those songs are in "another" language.
Yes, they are still understandable enough that most can be understood by the younger generation, but that antiquated Elizabethan English of "thee"s and "thou"s and "thine"s and "hast"s are completely irrelevant to the younger generation. This solidifies a mental dichotomy, worsened by its unconscious acceptance, of, "There's my life, and there's church-life, and the two have nothing to do with each other."
Attending an Olde Englishe service, to the 2026 30-something and his little kids, has no more interest than attending a Latin Catholic Mass has to you. (Not saying the two are equivalent, except in the respective interest levels.)
Many of those songs can be rewritten to use updated English without hurting the song one whit (recognizing the reality that some of them, relying on the cadence/"feel" of the older style, would suffer damage).
Would this bring young people in? No, probably not. But at least we wouldn't be giving them the excuse of, "Y'all don't speak my language or live in my world."
Is it time, maybe, to replace your 1950's era songbooks?
No comments:
Post a Comment