Paradoxology

Worship Wednesday: Consumer-Driven Worship

Worship Wednesdays will focus on a variety of thoughts, quotes, and insights -- all related to Christian worship.  Why? Because I've given nearly my entire life to Christian worship in one way or another and since I cannot shake this passion, why not share it!

In recent weeks I've been revisiting how contemporary culture, especially in the U.S., is driven by a mindset of consumerism. This results in the commodification of many things: our shopping lists, our bucket lists, our resumes, our relationships, and even our faith. I would like to suggest that more often than not, when things in our lives are viewed as commodities -- as products -- things almost always turn out badly. As consumers, we're trained to get what we want, how and when we want it.  We've been conditioned to believe that this is what we deserve, and when we don't get what we want, we are justified in either complaining or looking elsewhere until we find it.  Such an attitude is helpful when searching for a reliable grocer, but not so when it comes to our need to worship.  Yes, we need to worship and have been created to worship God in community with one another, but when we bring a consumer mentality with us into a worship gathering, we've already missed the boat -- so to speak.  Worship should never be about us, never be treated as a product meant to please us, inspire us, or meet our needs.  Worship is meant to be all about God -- acknowledging Him, thanking Him, surrendering to Him, serving Him, and glorifying Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. When we treat worship like a commodity -- like a product -- we dishonor and do violence to it.  Worship should never be evaluated like a head of lettuce: "it's too small, too big, not green enough, not dense enough, not fresh enough; maybe it's not even the type of lettuce we love -- we love romaine, but hate iceberg (I think you get my meaning)!" And yet consumer-driven worshipers do the same thing: "I love this song; I hate this song; not another hymn?!  Not another new chorus?! Why can't we have more _______, and less _______?!" And on and on it goes! 

So over the next few days, I encourage all of us to search our minds and hearts and come to terms with any ways that we've allowed our overly consumer-driven world to influence or affect what we think and how we act when we gather to worship God. 

Keep the "Mass" in Christmas!

It seems that year after year we inevitably hear the oft-quoted complaint: "Keep Christ in Christmas" -- and rightfully so, especially since the secularization of Christmas seems to have no intention of slowing down.  But keeping "Christ" in Christmas isn't the only thing we increasingly find missing from the true meaning of Christmas -- we also need to keep the "mass" in Christmas!  That's right, I'm talking about the "mass" -- the intentional, structured time of corporate worship.

We have forgotten (or never knew to begin with) that our English word, Christmas, is a shortening of Christ-mass -- and this, in turn, is derived from the Old English, Cristesmaesse, or literally "Christ's mass" (a term in use since 1038).  Here's the long and short of it: Christians have long celebrated the miracle of Christ's Incarnation and birth with a mass -- an intentional, structured time of corporate worship!  But I can't help but think that in today's world, we either skip such corporate worship times on Christmas, or we convince ourselves that singing a few carols just makes more sense at such a busy time of year.

This year, therefore, let's not be too quick at patting ourselves on the back for keeping Christ in Christmas.  We should also make a conscious effort to keep the mass in Christmas.  Let's make the corporate worshiping of Jesus an integral part of our Christmas practices. 

May you and yours enjoy a blessed Christ-mass!

Thoughts on Conversion and Christian Formation, part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the early centuries of the Church, worship was dynamically linked to the spiritual formation of worshipers. The various acts of worship constantly reminded believers of their formation journey as worshipers, in that these worship components were first delivered and explained to them as part of the catechetical instruction they received prior to and following their baptism – itself, a central act of worship.   As worshipers heard the teachings, memorized the Creed, offered up prayers, and received the Eucharist, their own catechesis and baptism were always in view. Believers were formed for worship.

Today’s reality is quite different.  Conversion and Christian formation have little to do with the when, why, and how we worship.  As evangelicals, we are quick to affirm that the Christian faith is meant to be a faith-of-the-heart. [OT: God is not after our “sacrifices”, but after our hearts] Yet, a process of spiritual formation that prepares the believer for knowledge of, full participation in, and commitment to worship is strangely absent.   We might “require” praise-team members to be members or at least regular attendees for 6 months or some such thing before being allowed on stage to help lead worship, but we generally leave their spiritual formation process up to them!  We have fairly successfully disconnected the ministry and acts of worship from the spiritual formation of the worshiper.

What implications does this disconnect present?  How might it be affecting our corporate worship expressions?  In what ways does our culture’s emphasis on radical individualism, as well as egalitarianism, keep us from rediscovering and utilizing the catechetical practices of the early church?  Further, what implications would the faithful catechizing of believers have on the health, strength, and effectiveness of congregational worship and mission?

We evangelicals commonly “save” people (facilitate their "decision" to receive Christ), yet fail to fully “convert” them. As a result, we become discouraged when attempting to “disciple” these saved-but-not-yet-converted “Christians,” and shake our heads in disbelief at how many of them eventually discard their faith for a more secularized and even less demanding "form" of quasi-Christian spirituality. 

Wouldn’t this reality drastically change if we led new comers to the faith through a process of conversion, and of Christian formation?  What if worship, then, flowed out of who we had become?  What if we worshipped like truly baptized people (with all that this means), rather than un-converted folks who still bring their capitalism, materialism, hedonism, narcicism and the like, into the worship gathering?

(more to come)

 

image © iStockPhoto, Steve Greer

Review: Worship Seeking Understanding

After reading Witvliet's Worship Seeking Understanding, I found myself wanting to generate discussion threads on a number of topics, but will settle for this one, at least to start with:

Cultural engagement -- it has been several years since I first read Neibuhr's Christ and Culture. It captured my interest then and did again related to Witvliet's investigation of what the relationship should be between the church's worship liturgy and the culture we find ourselves in. Though I agree with critics who view Neibuhr's categories as somewhat inadequate and limiting, they remain excellent launching off points for discussion. I was particularly interested in Witvliet's use of Stephen B. Bevan's Models of Contextual Theology, and in particular, Bevan's "Synthetic Model" -- which "looks for a synthesis 'between one's own cultural point of view and the points of view of others' instead of constantly focusing attention on the particularities of a given contextualized theology" (p.111). I admit that my gravitation toward "both-and" postmodern thinking is in view here. Nonetheless, I resonate with the synthetic model in that it seems to both embrace and guard against the enculturization of Christian liturgy. What Witvliet posits toward the end of chapter four seems huge: "In sum, the twin dangers that cultural engagement seeks to avoid are 'cultural capitulation,' on the one hand, and 'cultural irrelevancy,' on the other." In every case of cultural engagement, there must be a yes and a no, a being in but not of, a continuity and a discontinuity with accepted cultural practices" (p.119).

As the product of an evangelical megachurch (chapter 11 was quite spot-on), I have grown increasingly suspicious of how evangelicals have frequently favored culture-pleasing evangelism over culture-shaping theology. Worship Seeking Understanding was therefore a refreshing read for me for many reasons, not the least of which being its emphasis on how important theology is (biblical, historical, systematic) in the shaping of liturgy -- not just the "what and how" of liturgy but the "why."

Within many denominational structures, there seems to be a persistent "push" and pressure to employ culturally proven and effective practices in the "growing" of the church. Such an emphasis has, in the past, driven the seeker-sensitive model of how many evangelicals "do" worship and church. Despite some heartfelt retractions by evangelical leaders, the role which culture should play in the worship and life of the church is not always an easy or cut-and-dry endeavor.

I look forward to any reactions, thoughts, or questions you might have in response.

I Rise This Day

A simple prayer to start the day...

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I rise this day,

in the love of the Father,

I rise this day,

with the mind of Christ,

I rise this day,

in the Spirit's power,

I rise this day,

in the blessings of God.

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The Image of Protestant Evangelical Worship, pt 2

The following photo, for many folks, best represents the heart of what protestant evangelical worship is all about:

What do you find affirming or disturbing (or both) about this?

The Image of Protestant Evangelical Worship, pt 1

Many people characterize protestant evangelical worship like this artist has:

Do you see this as an indictment or an endorsement?

Worship and Therapy

(...in response to Daniel's suggestion)

We were made to worship God. And when we worship, when we proskuneo -- although it is not focused on us or our needs -- I believe we nonetheless benefit from it. It is in this sense that I would consider worship as therapy. But in the midst of our therapy-soaked culture, I wonder: all worship may truly be therapy, but is all therapy "worship"? The previous post concerning art is what provoked this question. Many see "art as therapy", which leads us to question whether therapy should be a legitimate part of our corporate worship gatherings.

Perhaps you've heard the stories about Cho's church in Korea, and the "prayer mountain" phenomenon -- stories of how those seeking traditional "counseling" were sent to the mountain to pray with only a very small percentage returning who still needed the counseling. Even if the reports were exaggerated, it causes us to examine our preoccupation with/need for therapy (I mean pyschological therapy here).

If our expression of the arts is "therapeutic", does that automatically qualify it for inclusion in our worship gatherings? And if so, then how about other therapeutic exercises? What guiding or determining principles should we employ in deciding such matters?