No abstract

In most congregations, children participate in worship in various ways. In this article we pose the question: how can we describe and understand the variety in practices of worship with children? The case we consider is the Protestant context in the Netherlands. Archival research shows that since the introduction of differentiated worship for children, tension has arisen between worship with the entire congregation and worship aimed specifically at children. This tension between intergenerational worship and target-group worship persists; while most liturgists and youth work professionals argue for intergenerational worship, some defend the merits of target-group worship. However, in this ethnographic research we indicate that the portrayal of intergenerational worship as the ideal, and target-group worship as its opposite, or vice versa, leaves much of the normativity in worship with children hidden. We, therefore, deconstruct ideals of worship with children to open up other ways of understanding the variety of worship with children. In doing so, we argue that pedagogical and theological normativity influence worship practices in complex ways. Future research may advance this investigation by focusing on adults' and children's roles in shaping worship practices and exploring the theological implications of these practices in more depth and detail.

Children help create and shape their social worlds, including that of worship. This article explores how children negotiate and appropriate worship practices and incorporate their own values, understandings and creative ideas into their worship. This analysis of children’s agency relies on qualitative data drawn from direct observation of Dutch Protestant worship services designed for and/or attended by children. Recognising that children have agency in worship encourages practitioners and practical theologians to identify how children already help shape the worship they take part in and enhance opportunities to strengthen their agency and influence.

In worship with children, participants of all ages pray to God, act in ways that assume God’s presence, play out Biblical stories and speak about God. This raises the question, How is God ‘performed’ with children? In other words, how is God staged through performative acting? The article draws on ethnographic data from Dutch Protestant contexts. The four analysed performances emphasise affective knowledge of God and perform God as a God who accepts children as children, resurrects and helps, but whose existence can be discussed. Like in the other seventeen researched worship practices, God is performed through story, ritual and play. Analysis of interviews with youth work professionals highlights the importance of the sensory experience of stories, the creation of a ritual space, and the creative tension between children’s play and liturgical play. The article concludes that the performance of God is target-group related, contextual and embedded in the interactions between adults and children. Above all, performing God with children is embodied theology.

Summary of the dissertation "Worship with Children. Agentive Participation in Dutch Protestant Contexts".