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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
I grew up in a denomination that had a very "high church" feel to it. It was very predictable, beginning with the incense-led procession down the aisle and communion from a common silver cup and there was a lot of ceremonial reading and such. Really, the service was the same every week and I can still respond to the pastor at the appropriate times with the correct responses. The only music was played on an organ, and there couldn't have been three songs and each one of those was played in an almost dirge-like tempo.
I changed churches when I was in high school and it was very progressive for my hometown in Alabama. They had a piano for sure and played about three songs. But as a special during the offering, there was always a guy with an acoustic guitar singing a song he wrote and that was cutting-edge for that town in 1982.
Every time my youth group went to a conference there was some great band with drummers, electric basses and guitars, and a long-haired lead singer. Stuff exploded. We all cheered like crazy. It was the 80's.
Later on, when I was on a committee to hire one of those bands to lead one of those conferences, we settled on having a band to lead worship at that conference. They were some college kids from Virginia who put together a rap group and we thought that would be pretty innovative (which it was at the time). We were right. Our kids loved DC Talk rapping worship. They all cheered like crazy. It was the 90's.
The churches I've attended have all gone to drums and keyboards and have full bands that lead worship on Sundays. There are words projected onto screens using power point. Sometimes the music is loud so you can sing loud and other times it's softer for more reflective singing. It's usually very well presented.
The current movement in churches is getting away from glitz and glitter, though. The general tone is to have a dark room, maybe put some candles around, and have one person pretty much singing folk music. Occasionally, there will be a drum of some kind. They also put out blank canvases in case somebody wants to worship through artistic expression.
And there's a coming split in congregations because the older generation likes light & large airy rooms with upbeat music projected on a screen played by borderline professional musicians and communion to 1,000 people done in 5 minutes. The younger generation likes dark rooms with folk music played by one or two people who have passion over professionalism and more ceremonial communion.
And the common thread in all that is that worship has become defined as singing.
Merely singing.
When teenagers tell me that they want to "worship more," I'm a bit confused by what they mean. Do they want to have more times of singing? Do they want the atmosphere when we sing to be more conducive to a deeper "experience" of God? Usually, the desire they have revolves around singing more, a solemn environment and thoughtful songs. There's nothing wrong with those things, either.
But worship is about oh so much more than singing.
Read Romans 12: 1 & 2.
"I urge you therefore, bretheren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."
Your spiritual service of worship is presenting yourself a living and holy sacrifice. To God.
And that's what I try to do after I am "still" in the mornings.
Whatever I do can be worship.
Worship can be how I drive.
Worship can be how I study for a class or a test.
Worship can be how I write a blog.
Worship can be how I spend time with a friend.
Worship can be how I do yardwork.
Worship can be how I spend my time in the office.
Worship can be how I go to a concert.
Worship can be how I clean my house.
Worship can be how I take a walk in the park.
Worship can be how I cheerlead.
Worship can be how I do my job after school.
Worship can be how I play for the team.
Worship can be how I interact with younger classmates.
It is not merely singing...and I fear we've reduced it to that.
We want to "worship more" which means we want to stroll up on Sunday night and have some really cool songs in a really cool environment and have an experience that might bring tears to our eyes and stir our emotions.
But let me throw this out: Maybe our corporate times of worship could be the "end" of our week together. That if we offered ourselves as a living sacrifice to God, and did everything in our day-in, day-out lives as an offering to Him, we would come together on Sunday nights and celebrate a life well-lived together...well...I imagine that would be a very intense experience.
See, I get the feeling that in worship we want to be stirred from the outside stuff. The songs, the environment...whatever. In fact, I'd say that many in Christian circles these days are actually settling for less than genuine experience in the spiritual life of worship because they use the weekly service to get "charged up" for the week. They have an experience that carries them over until the next week.
What it should be is coming together to celebrate the life we already lived in sacrifice to God during the week. It would result in some meaningful singing. There would be joyful giving. There would be sharing of what God did in an through us during the week. There would be reading of the Word, not for a sermon or lesson, but simply as worship...and a lot of other elements such as reverent silence, or prayer, or celebrating the communion, etc.
I'm suggesting that maybe instead of wanting "more worship" we should focus on "worship as a lifestyle" which would result in more meaningful times of celebration in our corporate time together.
It's easy today...do you agree or disagree?
Brent 4:16 AM
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