Cultural Relevance

Debates about using culture in church abound. Debates about being relevant to our society abound.

Today, I attended my daughters Awards Ceremony for fourth grade. The fourth & fifth graders had their ceremony together and the fifth graders will leave for middle school next year. I was astounded at the different approaches taken by the music teacher and the art teacher.

The art teacher, Mr. Pisano actually used a lesson from college to teach his students this year. They love art. He taught them how to make books, they even bound them with awls. They experimented with making whistles and if they didn't work - he called them paperweights. Out of the box teaching. Use your brain. He even said they did a drumming exercise.

The music teacher (to remain unnamed) had three songs for the students. The first one was a patriotic song with hand motions. It was pretty, but you could tell the fifth graders hated the hand motions. But then, the intermission song really got my attention. It was about manners. There was an attempt to add a coolness factor by rapping in the middle of the song. I asked my daughter about it and she said it was corny. They had to learn it, but felt like first graders singing it. Then the last song was a "rap" song that the fifth graders sung about staying in school. Again very corny and not in keeping with culture at all.

The talent show at my daughters school was all popular culture music. No one attempted to rap or make a song written for first graders into a song for fifth graders.

I remember chorus in school. We learned Penny Lane. That song wasn't popular at the time but had a nice feel to it and didn't make us feel like babies.

So, on Sunday mornings are we still attempting to reach 4th and 5th graders using a model that works for first graders or even younger and is hated by fifth and sixth graders? I question do we continue and let them lose interest or do we change our approach - not compromising the message but changing it's delivery? Something to think about.