Coquitlam, British Columbia
2018
To facilitate intergenerational faith formation in worship by creating spaces for learning and collaboration between pastors and lay leaders in ethnically and denominationally diverse congregations.
Provide a brief summary of the purpose and goal of your grant.
Many Canadian churches had been under pandemic restrictions. This project created an online space that allowed persons with different abilities and ages to worship together. The most impacted by the isolation are seniors with cognitive or physical challenges. This project brings together seniors and young adults to worship together using the mini-hymn-festival format that uses traditional hymns as the core repertoires. This interactive mini-hymn-sing provided a platform emphasizing inclusion and participation through storytelling and sharing. Participants joined these weekly mini-hymn-festivals with a faith formation focus. Members shared delivered meals at the beginning of the online gathering and then the hymnsing sharing.
What questions have you asked about worship in the past year?
- What are the significances of intergenerational interaction in building up a community of faith through worshipping together?
- How can we overcome the challenges in ministering to seniors in isolation?
- How can the spiritual formation of isolated seniors through small group online worship?
- How can hymns help us remember God’s steadfast faithfulness as a source of hope during the pandemic?
In what ways has your project engaged your congregation so that it impacts the worship life and habits of the congregation?
We organized over sixty-five online mini hymn sing festivals with ~650 in attendance. There are five groups (4 in British Columbia and 1 in Alberta), and most groups meet every week. The participants consist of members with a mixed backgrounds, different cognitive abilities, and various ages. Most of the members had not attended any in-person worship service. Participants received hymn stories books and created a website portal for online materials. Through selecting hymns, they learned the process of choosing music for worship service. Through studying the hymn’s background, they learned some basic knowledge of hymnology. These opportunities changed their approach and consideration while selecting music. We will host two seminars in May.
What criteria have you used to evaluate your plan to foster vital worship?
Attendance at the mini-hymn sing. At the end of the project, we will collect evaluation. Besides, we also solicit feedback individually from members of our group leaders.
What issues have been your greatest challenges (or challenging opportunities)?
The greatest challenge is maintaining momentum and energy through the year with multiple groups. Engaging all the group members to be active participants and not merely observers in an online environment takes a lot of hard work. Also, there are few resources on the hymn’s background in Chinese.
What would you like to share with other Project Directors?
- Share your ideas widely, you may be able to find supporters in unlikely places
- Tab on resources that you may not have yet been considered
- Pray feverishly but allowed the Holy Spirit to lead and guide the groups
