The Body of Christ, the church, literally shows the gospel's credibility to society. It is a community of believers, called here on earth to the life of heaven to come, and to develop cultural richness and interdependent fellowship. God's great glory is seen in the church as Christ's living body. This body life models deep relationships based on a strong commitment to each other. In our worship, our first commitment is to Christ, with our second being to each other - not to ourselves - our style or preferences. This kind of love has evangelistic implications as stated in John 13:34-35. It says the world will see.
The early church met in homes until around the 4th century. It would be hard to believe that these first "house churches" did not have a certain intergenerational quality to them. As we have said previously, scripture clearly indicates that all generations are to be involved in body worship. Joel's prophecy clearly indicates a role for young and old. (Joel 1:3, 14; 2:1, 2, 16, 28) The prophecy of v. 28 comes to reality in Acts 2:17 and following.
The language of the Bible is filled with expressions of the intergenerational nature of the people of God. "The family of believers" or "household of faith" (Gal. 6:10). Paul affirms Timothy in I Tim. 4:12 and encourages him not to be looked down upon because of his youth. In I Peter 5:5, Peter appeals to the young to have a submissive attitude towards elders. But, in I Peter 5: 1-5, Peter encourages old and young alike to put on humility toward one another. Even in Jesus' poignant prayer in John 17:21, Jesus prays that we might be "one".
It is difficult to see how young and old who are not prepared to worship together can be "one" in any meaningful sense of the word. Through the power of the gospel we have become one generation. Any disunity would be denial of our very identity in Christ Jesus our Lord. We must strive to cross generational lines in our worship for the sake of the unity of the body of Christ. mjm
