All Age Worship, ‘Oikos’, and the Extended Family
One of our church posts on Facebook:
Today we had a wonderfully happy and creative service at Church – tapping into the God given creativity that is in each of us. Young and old we had people writing songs, poetry, drawing, and impromptu drama being performed – I was a puffer fish in my part re-enacting creation. I was highly commended on my fine fish like qualities …
This was from a recent all age service, where we aim to bring young and old together and learn from each other. In many ways we form an extended family, with our smallest, our children & young people, parents, other adults being a bit like uncles or aunts, and our older & wiser with their life wisdom to share. Everyone can take part, encourage others, and learn themselves into the bargain as we worship together.
This is also something of the ‘Oikos‘ concept – a Greek word used in the Bible. At its simplest it means ‘home’ or ‘house’, but more generally also means ‘household’ and the extended family who meet together. It is an important concept (read this article for more on ‘oikos’). As a church it is something we are pondering, considering how we might further embrace being ‘extended family’ together to include all ages in both discipleship and mission.
To top it all off, we finished the service with celebration cake since one of our newest family members was 70 years old that same day!