The church’s worship is never about me, or my generation, or even about what one writer called “something bigger than me.” It’s about God. And only in thoughtful reference to his word can we have a church for all generations. [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

When we focus our discussion on how to please this current generation, or how to please all generations; when we resolve to try something new, or to do exactly what has been done for the past 300 years, we miss the main point entirely.

Instead, we need to get serious about what pleases God.

When I was in my 20s, unmarried and new in town, I visited a church. Afterwards, I asked the pastor why the church held multiple services. “Well,” he explained, “we want to have something for everyone. Our liturgical service is for those who like traditional worship, and the other one is for those who prefer something contemporary.”

I never went back.

It wasn’t that neither service suited me. What drove me away was the church’s people-pleasing orientation. And the current debate about millennials’ church preferences strikes me as similarly upside-down.

If worship is the community of God’s people gathered to meet with him, and if we are God’s creation, the citizens of his kingdom, and his children, our decisions about church and worship should come from God and his word. My church’s confession says it this way: “the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men.”

God obviously cares about how he is worshipped. From Cain and Abel to the Israelites at Sinai, from the churches of Corinth and Ephesus to—ultimately—the heavenly church gathered in unending praise, the Scripture commands “acceptable worship.” (Heb. 12:28)

So, does the church need to do a better job of caring for millennials? Absolutely. And the best way the church can minister to people of this generation, or any generation—the way, in fact, that it can unite all kinds of people—is to clearly explain its actions from the Word of God.

The intent of the church is never to impose its selected practices on an unquestioning congregation. The intent of the church should be to equip its people to have their own convictions rooted in Scripture.

Do we sing? Yes, “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” (Eph. 5:19) Do we hear a sermon? We must constantly receive the preaching of God’s word, containing both doctrine and application. (2 Tim. 4:1-5) Do we expect people to be present every Sunday? Scripture warns us against neglecting the assembly. (Heb. 10:25) Do we worship deliberately with a reverent tone? We approach God only “with reverence and awe.” (Heb. 12:28)

The church’s worship is never about me, or my generation, or even about what one writer called “something bigger than me.” It’s about God. And only in thoughtful reference to his word can we have a church for all generations.

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