Basket gift uk wine

Ancient new

When Kay Craddick dances down the aisle of her church with a clay bowl of incense, she's often part of a procession that includes several other young adults: the crucifer, torchbearers and bookbearer. Like Kay, they found something new in ancient liturgy.

"There's a mystery to the liturgy that appeals to me," says Craddick, 33, a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Chicago. "It's not like the mystery of the all-powerful God of my childhood or the Jesus 'friend' of my teenage years. This is more an awe that makes me stand back and bow my head ... reverencing the living Christ is what my body was made to do; it's as natural to me as breathing."

Thousands of adults in Craddick's generation-called Gen Xers or Postmoderns (born between the early 1960s and 1980)-are discovering that same mystery at their neighborhood church, especially if the congregation's worship includes elements of classic liturgy, such as Gospel processions, and is centered on weekly communion. They are children of the generation that thought praise bands and growth strategies were needed to coax young people through the church doors.

Not so, says Karen Ward, ELCA associate director for worship, who at age 39 falls into the same group. "This is different than the megachurch of the baby boomers. That was about church growth and characteristics of excellence," she says. "Gen Xers are looking for worship that is authentic, rooted in tradition, infused with spirit, connected to justice and full of the mystery which is God."

Ward says what is happening among Postmoderns is beneath the radar of the church at large, which is still heavily modernist. "This is beyond 'traditional' and `contemporary,' toward ancient future," Ward says. "We in the liturgical traditions are most in danger of missing our own boat because we have a surface understanding of liturgy. This is the liturgy at a deeper level, drawn from first- and second-century sources."

Products of culture

Attraction to liturgical and contemplative worship is partly a response to society's ills and advances, which this generation has known firsthand, says Robert Webber, author of Ancient-- Future Faith (Baker Books, 1999).

This generation is well-acquainted with AIDS and divorce, cell phones and family meals called "takeout." Those in their 20s and 30s have been pulled into countless trends and fads. They've witnessed society's selfishness and materialism at unprecedented levels.

In ancient liturgy and contemplative worship, these adults, who often refer to themselves as "spiritual," find both identity and community, the mysterious and the real.

"You have to be real. Don't try to fake it with them," says Kevin Anderson, ELCA associate director for worship, music and education. "These are people who have grown up on the Internet and been marketed to all their lives. They can smell a sales pitch a mile away. They're looking for meaning in their life. They're looking for deep personal relationships and want to belong to a community that, like them, is on a spiritual journey."

Anderson says congregations that successfully attract young adults are inclusive and open to all. "They're congregations that say, `This is who we are and there's a place for you. Come on in, take a look around and join us on this journey as we encounter the biblical story and Risen Christ together,"' he says.

A sense of worship

Postmoderns prefer to encounter Christ by using all their senses. That's part of the appeal of classical liturgical or contemplative worship: the incense and candles, making the sign of the cross, the taste and smell of the bread and wine, touching icons and being anointed with oil. In SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (Zondervan, 1999), Leonard Sweet says: "Post-- moderns want a God they can feel, taste, touch, hear and smell-a full sensory immersion in the divine."

It's those visceral elements that draw worshipers in, rather than leave them as spectators. For Craddick, the privilege of processing with incense allows her to use her body in worshiping God. "I've learned it's OK and good to include all the senses in worship and to embrace the feminine and the body in worship ... how the body's natural beauty is being used to honor God, to call attention to Christ as I cense the processional cross, lectern, altar, font," she says.

Freedom to experience worship and not have "church" or "programs" thrust upon them, allows adults who may be discovering or rediscovering liturgy the space and pace they need. Worshipers at Craddick's growing urban congregation respond to the liturgical tradition, says her pastor, Craig M. Mueller.

"But they also want to be part of something where it's OK to ask questions," he adds. "And, although they're looking to be fed, they want to feed others. When they read the bulletin announcements or see the basket for the food pantry, they know this church also has a social consciousness."

Indeed, both community service and the mystery of faith are important to this generation. "They're highly committed to social action, to rebuilding," says Webber, who is also director of the Institute of Worship Studies in Wheaton, Ill. "But for them small is better than big. They're not out to make a big splash but small incremental changes. Their concept [of social action] is not so much an idea but a shift toward embodiment: `Don't just talk about it, be it.'"

Ecumenical phenomenon

This return to the traditional-the sacred--crosses denominational lines, Ward says. In fact, an interesting marriage is occurring between evangelicals and the liturgy. "Evangelicals are using traditions from all liturgical churches from Orthodox to Lutheran to Catholic," she says. "Though they have limited experience using their new-found symbols, rituals and traditions, they're infusing them with vitality and spirit and life, which is reaching people."

St. Mark Episcopal Cathedral, Seattle, is well-known for attracting young adults to a compline service, which has drawn a crowd since the 1960s. The Office of Compline is the ancient service of prayer appointed for the end of the day. More than 500 people-most of them young-pack the pews and even stretch out on the floor every Sunday evening at 9:30 as the all-male Compline Choir leads the contemplative service.

The choir's director, Peter Hallock, says silence and interior reflection are what most worshipers say draws them.

Gordon Lathrop, professor of liturgics at The Lutheran Seminary at Philadelphia, agrees with the need for the "rich poetic resonances of ritual."

But Lathrop adds a cautionary note: "My hope would be that both a ritually intensive style and an utterly simple style would always be called upon to turn their focus and power toward serving these central things at the heart of every Sunday service: the Scripture read and preached, baptism enacted and remembered, and the Lord's Supper celebrated.

"From a Lutheran point of view, the center must not be our style, but God's gift of word and sacrament."

Resources

Cultural/Generational Background

* 13th Gen: Abort, Retry, Ignore, Fail? and Millennials Rising by Neil Howe and Bill Strauss (Vintage Books, 1993 and 2000).

Ministry

* In Search of Authentic Faith by Steve Rabey (Waterbrook Press, 2001).

* The End of the World As We Know It by Chuck Smith Jr. (Waterbrook Press, 2001).

* Post Modern Pilgrims by Leonard Sweet (Broadman & Holman, 2000).

* RetroFuture: Rediscovering Our Roots, Recharting Our Routes by Gerard Kelly (InterVarsity Press, 2000).

Worship

* Inside Out, Worship in an Age of Mission, Tom Schauttauer, ed. (Fortress Press, 2000).

* Worship Evangelism by Sally Morgenthaler (Zondervan, 1999).

(All books can be ordered off the emergingchurch Web site-www.emerging church.org)

Ancient-Future Worship Video and Discussion Guide, Institute for Worship Studies, (630) 510-8905; www. instituteforworshipstudies.org.

On the Web

* Postmodern ministry sites: www. emergingchurch.org; www.theooze. com; www.regenerator.org. Those interested in the formation of an ELCA network for Postmodern ministry see www.emergingchurch.org/ network.html.

* Postmodern worship music sites: www.worshipunderground.corn; www.soulsurvivorusa.com; www.worshiptogether.com.

* Taize music: www.taize.fr/music/ musind.htm.

* Iona community: www.iona.org.uk.

Kay Craddick, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church,Chicago, says worship with elements of the ancient church reminds her"that God loves every part of me."