Worship and the Language of Home

A few weeks back I drove back to Louisiana for some meetings and to spend some time writing. It is about a 12 hour drive and I drove it in one day, as I usually prefer. About 15 miles into Louisiana, I get of the interstate and drive for two hours down a two lane highway in soybean and cotton country. Darkness had just fallen and I had the windows down taking in the full affect of the smell of rural north Louisiana. For years I lived on the road, and moments like these are my favorite. I get to think and process more than anywhere else.

This trip really signaled the end of this season at seminary and the beginning of re-entering vocational ministry. It was a great time of prayer and thanksgiving.

With my ipod on shuffle, this Tom Petty song hit the rotation. I was struck at the multiple metaphors I found:

Tom Petty: Southern Accent
There's a southern accent, where I come from
The young'uns call it country
The yankees call it dumb
I got my own way of talkin'
But everything is done, with a southern accent
Where I come from

Now that drunk tank in Atlanta's
Just a motel room to me
Think I might go work Orlando
If them orange groves don't freeze
I got my own way of workin'
But everything is run, with a southern accent
Where I come from

For just a minute there I was dreaming
For just a minute it was all so real
For just a minute she was standing there, with me

There's a dream I keep having
Where my mama comes to me
And kneels down over by the window
And says a prayer for me
I got my own way of prayin'
But everyone's begun
With a southern accent
Where I come from

I got my own way of livin'
But everything gets done
With a southern accent
Where I come from

This song is about those separated from home and the task of integrating into a place as a foreign resident. Home never leaves our heart. My thoughts quickly moved from sentimentality to how this describes the Christian in worship. In the world, we have a patterned lifestyle that doesn't make sense. We have particular ways of saying and doing things contrasting to the accent of the world.

For worship leaders and designers this makes us ask some questions. Are we leading services where people are just interacting with this world? Do we lift up our actions or God and His actions? How do we celebrate how God keeps his promises, in this life and the next?

Worship becomes the place were we feel at home. It's like making a favorite family dish when separated by hundreds of miles. In worship, we configure the space of an eternal dwelling with God in the midst of a world in need of redemption. Every piece of our lives serve as an example of the place we call home; the place we are headed back towards. In worship we are at home. We are with our people and with our Father. We simplify the complex relationship that happens in the here and now.

While outside of worship, we should have an accent that gives us away

 

Comments

[Alan Mostrom]

excellent post chad. well said.