Today I went to the church that my great grandfather helped start back in the day in Mechanicsville, Virginia. It’s always a trip to go to this church after growing up in a pretty charismatic (for the non-denomination denomination) church-plant on the west coast. 

Today I had a hilarious (in my opinion) observation. This church has started doing praise choruses…with drums, and a band and all that. This isn’t a big deal and not really noteworthy…only that this church has a great mix of generations…of which the older generation doesn’t know the newer songs. I stood there today and watched an 80 year-old man try to sing along with the line ‘we wanna see! we wanna see! we wanna see Jesus lifted high!’ It was apparent to me that he wasn’t getting it and I felt bad for him…I almost wished (almost) that we were doing hymns for his sake because back in the day I bet this guy could belt bass notes with the best of them and follow along in the awkwardly arranged hymnal like nothing.   

But it hit me as I watching him…He had the look on his face that most teenagers have in church…like “what is going on here?” I don’t really know what the point is, other than the thought that throughout time it’s interesting to see what ‘relevant’ means to different generations. How things have changed over time for some…yet need to stay the same for others.  I do think that it’s great to see how these older saints are fighting through the awkwardness of trying to ‘get’ praise choruses so that their church, their legacy, can last. And that is how we will see Jesus lifted high.