EB week 3 post: where to?

For:The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University,Essentials Blue online course with Dan Wilt

I love the idea Dan Wilt brings up; that contemporary music in the world we’re in (postmodern or whichever) is a proper and possibly necessary response to the formalism of the past. [1]

What fun!  We’re on the right track!

We can see that it’s true since the formalism of the past flies so much in the face of people today, both the young and the not-so-young.  And it might be that in a decade or two, church formalism will be (even more) widely regarded as a pet preference for a very few.  The formal church might already be just that to larger society, as evidenced by the seeming fact that famous churches and cathedrals of the world are visited many times more by tourists gawking in horror and awe at the architecture (having no conception as to what purpose the building could have served) than by the congregants or parishioners themselves.  Wow!

Or, alternately, N.T. Wright could be onto something with his critique of the lack of formalism – he seems to be arguing for a Book of Common Prayer-style Bible reading for Sunday mornings [2] (nothing wrong with that, by the way). Maybe he’s correct and we’re in for a push back the other way, if these trends really swing from one to the other.  We’ve seen, after all, almost 50 years of folk-rock worship and its offspring.  Maybe it’s the next new thing.

Or, it’s something else.  A blend, perhaps, and not so wide a swing back.

My guess is that we’re caught (the Church, that is) in popular culture like a rip tide.  It may be that – despite the call of many in the Church – the Church cannot and will never lead the way in culture.  Culture is too big – not bigger than God, for sure, but it’s possibly the thing we’re to work within, to inform and shape as best we can.

We can catch a wave in thinking about and worshiping God that is in line with the flow of culture – and perhaps see many starving souls find the living God.  All the while being careful not to serve culture.  (The secret formula for a wildly popular church, perhaps?)

End.

[1] Wilt, Exploring Our Roots: The Contemporary  Worship Movement (IW Master All, p.  325)

[2] N.T. Wright, The Word In Worship (IW Master  All, p. 183)

EB week two post: BREAKOUT!

For:The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University,Essentials Blue online course with Dan Wilt

I confess that one of my criticisms of Vineyard-type worship is that it seems like we’re all worshiping  in one place together, but all having our own close-eyed, personal experience with God.  We never open our eyes & engage those around us (unless it’s a moment of self consciousness) until church is over & everyone goes for coffee.

Eddie Gibbs gets at a bit of what I’ve felt when he (rather sharply) criticizes modern worship ; “When our worship songs focus mainly on the individual and how he or she feels in relation to Jesus,  then worship becomes self-centered to an unhealthy degree.  There are only so many ways to say how much we love Jesus.” [1]

Gibbs and others stop short, though, of an experience that takes place in some Pentecostal settings – the experience of people engaging with each other during worship.  Not only do we try to engage a God who is a community, but we engage and celebrate with, and encourage each other.  Try a gospel song that says “God’s got a blessing with your name on it,” [2] for instance.

And rather than assume it’s all performance (easy for me to do) – that it’s people in the congregation or (more likely) the worship leader taking the attention away from God – I want to sit with the possibility that maybe it’s just culture.  It’s not native to me, but I want to learn something by trying it on.

[1] Eddie Gibbs, Time In A Bottle: Reflections On Worship (Inside Worship Magazine), 9

[2] DeWitt Johnson, “God’s Got A Blessing (Toughing The World) copyright 2003