outside is better

The Community's place in worship

Whenever I lead worship or attend a church that is pretty intentional about naming what happens in worship I always pay attention to the language used over the congregation.  One of the named goals of many services that I have been at over the years is the desire to "Create space for the individual to encounter God."  While using worship as a pragmatic drive towards conversion is a pet peeve, this isn't the place for that discussion.

What bothers me about using individual language in worship is how it simply isn't biblical.  The Old Testament as well as the various Epistles in the New Testament are direct about worship as an action of the gathered community of God.  Sure-individual things happened, but this wasn't a designed aspect.  I find that being intentional about the language used within the service is a great step towards helping the congregation understand worship as a communal act.  This is a slow step of habit forming, not a drastic tune up done in desperation.

Here are 4 marks of how a communal view of worship will enhance not just a service but the overall congregational theology of worship.

1.  It will place God's actions not on the individual-but the redemption of humanity.
To think that the purposes of God are directed solely towards the benefit of a group of individuals makes God very small, and I do not believe in a small God!  Yes, a relationship with Jesus Christ will drastically transform our lives...but the purpose is always to bring us to the community built inside the kingdom of God.  Through this, our mission will act in its fullest because we realize how the Church is called out to serve as a beacon towards Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

2.  It will pull us out of a self-centered and realized religion into a Gospel view of "The other."
In our very self referenced culture, it is easy to practice a privatized view of religion that has room for others, but is still focused on ourselves.  We can inspire people to "love on others", but this leaves no room for a shared life together that is built off of the radical notions of hospitality that Christ showed in the gospel. 

It takes this view of the other to dine with our cultures versions of tax collectors and other notorious sinners (like Luke 15.)  Think of the dramatic stories of reversal that Christ taught in these situations.  Understanding that we are part of a cosmic plan of redemption that is inside the very nature of the Godhead changes us.  The best way to teach this concept isn't through a complex theology bomb, but the habitual practice of worship formation.

3.  It will encourage a Philippians 2 humility.
My good friend JD likes to say "The Way Down is the Way Up."  The way of Christ is not the way of man...in fact it is the exact opposite.  The path towards a deep and intimate life with God is not found by tenacity and sheer persistence, but a long life of abiding.  To think that this is a gigantic journey to be accomplished by ourselves is impossible.  The relationship between the Father and Son that we see in John 13-17 teaches us about the power of the relationship inside of the Triune God.

These are small steps to be taken as a group in worship. If anything, a communal view of worship is us recognizing that our God is the perfect relationship. . At the end of the Christ hymn we find all of creation bowing at the feet of Jesus (Phil 2:10-11) not a conglomeration of individuals.

4.  It will form the desired Church through corporate acts of remembering...taking us out of our specific place and time, joining us with the world and the community of Saints.
While that is a mouthful, it is the truth.  How many ministries use Acts 2 for a mission statement, wanting to show a deep commitment for community?  These types of relationships are forged through a holy bond to those who have been through the journey together.

Inside of worship are the places of healing, reconciliation, and maturity that are needed to truly form a community like this.  Remembering isn't simple memorialization (check out my friend Tom's post about the idea), but an embodied remembrance that thrusts and instills the past among the church.  We learn to claim the stories of the Old Testament as our journey out of the wilderness.  We lament the sins of Israel and Judah because we know we have committed them ourselves.  We communally recognize how we betray Christ, but also rejoice together because of Pentecost.

We aren't alone on this journey...but we attach ourselves to those who have gone before us and think of those after us.  The church of Christ is caught up in relationship together with the Father.  Jesus is our worship leader and high priest at the same time-not the object of our Worship. 

In our day and age of hyper-individualization, lets not bring our culture's sin into worship.  Because of Christ, the new Adam, we are remade into a corporate body devoted towards the Father.  The power of the Holy Spirit connects us to these mysteries.  Because we know Christ we know the Father, and we know the Spirit because we are in relationship to the heavenly Father.  These are lessons learned when we gather together to praise our God through song, prayers, holy scriptures and speech.  It isn't about traditional or contemporary-but relationship.  If is a life together that forms us, why break apart in worship?

More on sloppy worship

Last month I wrote a post called "Sometimes worship needs to be sloppy", and I want to bring up some of those thoughts again.  In the last year or so I have been transitioning from a person who primarily designs worship to a person who primarily leads worship.  I led worship years ago, and took some time off.  After a few years of prayer, and the right doors opening I have stepped back into that role.  I even recorded a real simple Lent record as part of the transition. 

I look back now and see how things have been coming together, and tonight was just another example of how I was formed during those years I didn't lead worship.  Over the last few weeks I have been leading songs at a local church that I was a part of years ago, and have ended back at.  Worship there gets kinda complicated, because the leadership wants to be intentional about how singing and other elements interact with several specific cultures. On Monday nights there is a real simple service where folks basic needs of clothing and food are met.  Before the service, a few people sing songs for around an hour and tonight I was asked to hang around and be part of that group. 

There were simple songs, so simple that we didn't change keys for over an hour.  It was the same basic progression, no rhythmic change and the parts never really varied. Yes-I had to "un-tune" my guitar to follow the leader (It was really de-tuned with some weird things going on with the B string), and I don't think there were any expressions of a Triune God-head lyrically.  For some (me included), this would be a litany of no-no's!!! But as we sang many songs that I thought about when writing the posts on Johnny Cash and revivalism this week, and I saw how they drew these people together.  

These songs told stories though....and the stories mouths where the eyes of those singing.  Hardship and trial wasn't a simple lyric, but part of the make-up of these lives.  When we sang of hope, we really sang of hope. At the end of the set, I was called on to lead "It is well with my Soul".  We had the hymnal for the words, but no one really sang the verses.  We might have had some contribution here and there...but when we hit the chorus the place lit up.  I lost my place several times because it was really loud, terribly off key and followed a rhythm that can only be found in the Eastern Kentucky hills.

It was sloppy.

But it was a group of people telling their story of God.  We each find key themes that are our foundation, and these songs of hope, gospel love and the care of a loving God formed that tonight.  It wasn't polished, but it was one of the most brutally honest times of worship I have ever been around. More and more I am finding that inside authenticity we usually break the lie of slickness and perfection in worship. 

Sometimes worship needs to be sloppy.

Being a people with no home

This morning in church, both Meredith and I were really happy to hear a sermon using alot of 1st Peter.  We both really dig this book, and I remember sloughing through translating it a few years ago.  The theme of the sojourner and the exile runs throughout it, and I can go for days on that.  One of my favorite pieces of 1 Peter is 2:10-11.

Once you were not a people
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles
to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.

Part the of whole course of 1 Peter is living in communities of distinction, faith communities that transcend the social culture of the day and live in drastic opposition to it.  This lifestyle meant the followers should be doing good acts, not for the good of the individual seeking commendation, but for the glorification of God.  But no matter what good is done, these communities will stick out.

More and more as I think about what it means to be this type of Christian, I fall back on acts of reading, prayer and worship and how important they are to community formation. Those are the things that form us into the type of people that do live in the tension of "I am different...but I know you."

Today at lunch in one of the local free papers I read an article about a local megachurch purchasing a mall for an additional campus. I have never read this free paper, but I imagine like most it isn't friendly to your average squeaky clean Christian culture.  It was fairly vocal about the issues it has with the takeover. but what was possibly the most biting is this quote. I edited it a little to not poke fun at the church.

"That government authorities like++++ are so eager to see this transaction take place is, I believe, a telltale sign that ++++++is in no way perceived as a threat to the secular status quo.  In fact, the megachurch upholds it very effectively. "

I mention this not to pick apart a Church, but to stand in contrast with the role of the sojourner that is very common in early Christianity.  I am bothered that a group of Christians aren't seen as threatening to a "secular status quo", but are any of us really?  Anyone can go on and on about issues in the current American church, but that doesn't get us anywhere.  Until we learn that this world isn't home, and the things of it do not matter, we will continue to blend in to the point of emulsion. 

Our communal actions of worship, be they song, word, proclamation or prayer, need to function in the eternal Christian world of Father, Son and Spirit.  Mere evangelistic singing, or experience seeking won't do it.  The gathered body is more than a fill up, it is the enacting of heaven on earth.  Taking hold of this will cause us to be formed into communities that are threatening. 

Not of violence or a takeover, but threatening in the same way these early Christians were.  Back when the Church made Rome nervous because no one took better care of the poor, or worked harder for the common good. Back when folks where martyred because they claimed that through Christ, the best allies for the hope of peace and order across the land were the Christians. When a bunch of ragtag people managed to threaten the most powerful empire on earth because they had been formed through devoted worship into Kingdom people.

They had a different home....

An individual eschatology: Singing like Johnny Cash pt 2.

The last couple of days have been an experiment in cross posting between my two blogs, this and World Without End.  Over at World Without End, I have been exploring the eschatology of Johnny Cash...focusing on his last few records.  Yesterday I wrote here about the influence of revivalism and the American Church.  These seem like history lessons, but the singing of the late 19th and early 20th century determined our current theological landscape.  Here are a few points from the previous post.

1.  The Theology of Revivalism was focused on individual decision.
2.  It was highly developed by gospel singing, songs different from hymns.
3.  It existed across denominational lines.

When we look at Cash's record My Mother's Hymn Book (check out World Without End for a deeper look into this record), we see differences that are thematic across revivalism.  They show a concern for an afterlife that is separated from a sinful body, the "otherness" of heaven, and a pretty hardcore sentimentality.  The songs about death that were sung at these meetings (and crept their way into mainstream Sunday morning) weren't dark, but they were evangelistic songs about death.  The mass religious culture that was being formed was simply trying to find a way to make sense of their lives, and dealing with mortality was a serious issue. Remember this is a generation that isn't that removed from the Civil War, and life was still very hard. This is a deconstructed formal religion that was rebuilt to make sense in the camp meetings.

These songs weren't about formal institutions, or a clerical structure, but a deeply personal relationship with God.  One of the markers of the inner-denominational cooperation was the absence of distinct (and controversial) theology of the unified church.  Often, the absence of many intense theological topics shows the common ground that people wanted to stand on.

Death was seen as the platform for the believer to meet with God in eternity. The fascination with earth and heaven began to draw a serious line and the celebrated the distance between the two. Even as this is sung, many of the songs have an attitude of the hope of the journey towards heaven.  The Arminian influence is found in the stories of triumph over sin but the "real destination to be sought"(Marini).

This developed a very individual eschatology, that was focused not on the Church or restoration of earth-but upon each persons place in heaven.  Again, we realize that these songs and meetings were not originally seen as official worship services, but evangelistic meetings with a specific goal of conversation.  Just as the preachers words were evangelistic, the songs sung by the believer were designed to lead people towards Christ.

The greatest influences of these songs are slight, but important.  It is in revivalism that the American church became fascinated with individual experience and thematic personal singing.  We sang about relationship, faith and promise...and slowly lost songs describing Father, Son and Spirit.  The songs found in many of the hymnals are also absent from anything regarding the nature of God as Triune, as well as the communal nature of the Church in relation to each other and to God.  

The lesson to be learned here is that culture will influence worship, and the measures that we take now to better understand faith might become so crucial that we leave out assumed things for other generations. Meaning-things that we automatically believe and know might not be proclaimed in song that much, but after a generation or two they could be interpreted as not important or fundamental to faith.  We are who we worship-and we need to remember the personal AND communal nature of our God.

+++
2 works were great sources for these posts.
Honky-Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music
Hymnody as history: early evangelical hymns and the recovery of American popular religion-Stephen Martini

A Theology of Song: Singing like Johnny Cash

This post is part of a cross post at my other blog World Without End, regarding the eschatology of Johnny Cash.  Since one of my main focus here is worship, we will be looking at some of the background that helps better explain part of my post at World Without End. Read it there, and I hope this style of posting works out well.

Today we will be looking at the influence on revivalism upon Christian singing and the worship service. Tomorrow, we will look at the specific eschatological views of this time period.  This seems like a history lesson, but for those interested in contemporary worship issues...it is this background that formed the way our churches look at Christian singing and how we are "supposed" to worship.

One of Johnny Cash’s last records was “My Mothers Hymn Book”.  In this record, we find that most of the track listing is proclaiming a very unique and widespread view of heaven, the end of time and an apocalyptic vision.  Coupled with his other songs, we find a very robust and thoughtful vision of how Cash thought about the end of time and the place of the believer.  The biggest influence on Cash was the revival spirit of American Christian singing.

These are all simple hymns, but what they really show us is the development of evangelical singing in the late 1900’s and early 20th century.  This is the affect of circuit riding preachers, tent meetings and an explosion of church growth.  In the 40 or so years that can be described as the 2nd Great Awakening, we find a distinct shift in church worship practice.  The high church Presbyterians and Episcopalians kept much of their high church liturgical developments.  In the lower church, such as Baptists and various strains of Methodism, the revival spirit began controlling the hearts of the believer and changing many of the ways that people worshiped.  Unlike the hymns of the church, the gospel song that developed in the campmeetings and revivals served as a personal evangelical statement.  These services were not seen as worship, but outreach tools, and the singing was an intentional evangelical moment.

These were individual songs-distinct and not practiced within community.  Since they were attempting to elicit an individual response, a communal theology was not important. Also-since these meetings were extremely inner-denominational, complex theological issues (such as predestination, and eternal security) were not often present lyrically.  These songs were written to proclaim an individuals saving experience with God, the life that it gives them now, and the hope towards a future.

It is during this time that popular American faith became a sung theology.  It was a religion en masse. It wasn't a new development, but a modified belief system that had wide appeal.  It offered answers to tough questions, and the spirit of invitation pervaded the entire religious system.  The individual decision made was no longer thought of the entrance into a corporate body, but the beginning of a privatized religion practiced in public. As the 2nd Great Awakening transitioned into formal church, the revival meetings turned into Sunday meetings and many of the thoughts transitioned over.  The best way to look at the theological developments in this 50 year period is to look at the songs that were sung, and they show a distinct development of worship as well as general theology.

The songs in My Mothers Hymnbook are all very individual.  When not, it is about a relationship between a few people that will hopefully be existing in heaven.  Tomorrow, I want to look specifically at the relationship with revival worship, Johnny Cash, and Eschatology.

A Theology of Worship for the Masses

In my last post I spoke briefly about how the church needs contemporary resources that are a practical theology of worship.  I am involved with a group of people at Asbury Seminary that is looking at what resources are available currently, and how they work and don't work.  We have had some good response already with sending this survey out to direct group of people, but I wanted to put it out here.  If you could take the time to answer these questions (its not that many) I would be greatly appreciative.

This will hopefully culminate in a new resource that is aimed at those who are involved in the practical aspects of leading worship in a church service.

Young Adults and Evangelicalism

Two articles came across my eyes in the last few days, both authors thinking some of the same things even though they operate in different spectrums.  Dr. Terry Dorsett is a Southern Baptist missionary, and wrote here about how the mega-church deals with new Christians or possibly doesn't.  He asks the primary question Will the success of mega-churches lead to the downfall of evangelicalism as we know it in America?

Diana Butler Bass is a scholar that is working within practical matters of faith.  In an article in the Huffington Post she writes about those called "ex-evangelicals", and gives several matters of point as to why young adults who grew up in these churches are somewhat skeptical of the title.  I am one of those, and understand all of her reasoning's.

Both of these writers are asking questions about what mega-churches will do to the American faith.  I think inside of this are several identifiers, and not all are size.  Lining out what it means to be a mega-church might be helpful.  Both of these folk ask good questions and point out what might be distinguishing characteristics of these churches.

As we progress in the 21st century, and enter places where church affiliation becomes more confusing and fractured, I think these are good places of conversation.  Some like to demonize large churches, and often place many assumptions on what they are made up of.  Others think they are the best solution, and their slick style is the only thing that will reach out to a media intense culture.

I think that what many of these questions are asking is; how these worship practices inform a particular brand of Christianity, and does that Christianity withstand the trials of life in our culture.  Is this person being formed towards a relationship with Father, Son and Spirit or are they given a pragmatic religious band-aid?

Worship Design is Theological?

Much has been written about running a creative worship team and facilitating a great worship "experience".  Some of my favorite (and most recommended) are An Hour on Sunday: Creating Moments of Transformation and Wonder (by Nancy Beach at Willow Creek) and Redesigning Worship: Creating Powerful God Experiences (by Kim Miller at Ginghamsburg UMC).

Both of these women are experts in their field and do a great job with a planning committee that works really fast.  But I think the average church doesn't have access to 30+ folk every week for this level of production. 

The average church doesn't even have close to this much production!!! 

It is also these smaller congregations that are looking at a worship service that feels more intimate, doesn't need the flash, or is simply struggling to find a few volunteers.  Beach does a great job telling the story of Willow and how important it is to really strive for a great service.  Miller describes a team that works at the pace I imagine a black ops team can't even compete with.  Those that are designing services need to read this two books, but we also need some new ones.

But I wish there was a resource with this much fanfare that talked about planning worship theologically, serving as a primer to all sorts of things that are just "cherry picked" now.  I wish I would have had one when I was leading worship in college ministry, and understood the deep and ancient meaning behind some of the elements we just threw in.  I know there are books that somewhat appeal to this, but they aren't written the weekly practice of the average church.  

How does song selection matter?  What exactly are we singing and praying too?  What makes my service Christian worship?  All of these questions are important!!!

For those of us that dabble in the ancient future, or at least attempt to make high-church relevant, lets put down the Webber, Wainwright, and Hurtado,  Think about the average church.  Think about the small church or weird emerging congregations that are cropping up wherever Toms shoes and tight jeans are found.  Find a way to make the Church calender safe for the Baptists.....

Lets take the realm of deep and contemplative thought and put it on the streets....for everyone.

Sunday Setlists for 7.18.10

The last few weeks I have been doing a supervised ministry at The Rock/La Roca United Methodist Church in North Lexington.  My wife and I actually attended this church when we first moved here and kept up a great relationship with the pastor and some of the members.  I have led worship on the last two Sundays.  Here is todays setlist.

All Creatures of our God and King
Mighty to Save
Gloria Patri
This is our God (offering)
Doxology
Surrender

The church has changed worship styles recently because they recognized that for the majority of the congregation, modern contemporary music wasn't the right fit.  The church was a replant of an older congregation and is in a pretty diverse neighborhood.  With that, they really want to find something that fits multiple needs.  This means being intentional about hymns, singing the Gloria Patri and Doxology everyweek and thinking stylistically about instrumentation.  The church often has Bluegrass evenings and bands play at social functions, so my background playing Country and Western music really fits in here.  All together it was a great day, and I am excited to being leading worship there.

This post is also part of a meme at The Worship Community.  Go check out the other setlists for today.

James K. A. Smith Lecture: Desiring the Kingdom

James Smith is one of my favorite writers, and possibly my favorite Calvinist.  Smith has written plenty of books, but last years Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation (Cultural Liturgies) was my favorite book that showed up this Christmas.  Last year at the Calvin Worship Symposium I was able to listen to him speak in the classroom and meet him.  There is quite the circle at Asbury that are now fans of him due to this book.  My friend Jake Belder posted this video of Smith speaking this year.  If you have the time, watch this, it will change many things.

James K.A. Smith - Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation from Calvin College on Vimeo.