A review of Sandra Millar’s ‘Worship together’ and ‘Festivals together’

The tale is told of two fleas buzzing hungrily over the acres of exposed flesh on a naturist beach. ‘I know just what to do‘, said one to the other ‘but I don’t know where to start’.

With all-age worship, or multi-generational worship, as Sandra Millar helpfully calls it -the problem is often the other way around. We know exactly where to start – with the next family service or festival looming towards us on a fixed date. The trouble is – we don’t know what to do. We are uncomfortably aware of the polar opposites of bored children on the one hand or bored adults on the other. We are all too aware of the alternative attractions outside church. Millar herself lists some of them, with everyone from Disney and Pixar to her local rugby club cited as examples of multi-generational activities. Personally, I am less certain that I can concur when she describes ‘a visit to the ballet The Nutcracker or a performance of Handel’s Messiah’ as activities which ‘speak across generations’.

That said, she proceeds in Worship Together to five extremely helpful chapters on the elements of multi-generational worship. These are:

• Skeletons and shapes
• Bodies,places and spaces
• Mystery and wonder
• Universal stories
• Putting it all together.

There is lots of sound advice here, with the odd pithy phase to ponder such as ‘long is not a synonym for bad, and short is not a synonym for good’ – a phrase from which many a preacher could learn!

Both books then go on to demonstrate these principles in a series of actual service outlines. These contain pretty much everything you might need, short of craft materials. They are set firmly in the Anglican context where the author operates, but offer an extremely helpful ‘creative hand-holding’ for those who are uncomfortable with this kind of worship. Many a vicar or curate will feel a little less like Daniel in the lion’s den of the all-age worship service thanks to Sandra Millar.

In my own context, in a local Baptist church, we are no strangers to multi-generational worship. Our services have included everything from a portrayal of the wise men by the teenagers in the style of a Reservoir Dogs film poster, to a card stunt involving 100 adults and children for Pentecost Day.Maybe this is why the book elicited a positive but muted response from my Youth and Families’ colleagues. Both felt that the books had good insights and intriguing ideas, but that they would be more likely to jump off from them than to follow after them. I’m sure Dr Millar would understand.

If multi-generational worship is something you want to understand, and to understand it by doing it – these books could be a good place to start.

Worship Together: 9780281066292, £12.99, June 2012
Festivals Together: 9780281066315, £12.99, June 2012