face the music
In Christian circles we like to quote Romans 12 and say worship is a lifestyle and not really about music at all. In fact, my blogging comrade Arron wrote a good post about this last week, and I agree with the points he makes.
However, while we say this, we plan “worship services” which usually include mostly music and a sermon. The budgets for “worship” and the “worship staff” and “worship programs” are often some of the largest in the entire church. And many meetings, conferences, blogs, and books revolve around rehearsing, resourcing, and relevant-izing these 15-30 minutes of music each week.
One of my friends plans to start a church that moves away from this focus. In fact, he plans to include no music in their weekly gatherings at all; instead he’ll include observational and improvisational comedy that he believes will connect more easily and more genuinely with a non-Christian crowd.
He asked me to join a small team for a day-long meeting to brainstorm about this new project, and I’d love to hear your thoughts before I fly to California next week. Why has singing and playing music become the only method for corporate worship? Is it a problem for us to know that worship is an attitude of honoring God in every moment but to talk like it’s singing—preferably with ecstatic emotion—for 20 minutes on the weekend? Are there other, equally biblical ways to “do church”?
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Jennifer Taylor
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After reading Revelation 1.3 in the ESV version, I’m thinking I’d like to attend a worship service where Revelation is read aloud completly through, but i doubt it would connect more easily or genuinely with a non-Christian crowd. Yeah, i think there are equally biblical ways to do “church”. As long as there an opportunity to take communion for believers
Here’s an idea i’ve had about a way to do church (I doubt that it’s very original). Buy out a theater, and show thought provoking movies like Spike Lee’s Bamboozled and others. When the movie is over, have a believer share insights, raise questions, and challenge to action (not trashing criticism because of the cussing or use of the N-Word)and have a take-away discussion guide (including relevant scripture) for each person as they leave. And have a blog set up for people to discuss issued raised in the movies and life stories in connection with the movie. I’m not sure if that would go over due to my penchant for watching R rated movies, but i feel like that it’s descriptive of the Zeitgeist and we can learn and watch, without necessarily speaking or acting like the people in the movies. That was just one idea I wanted to through out as it relates to other ways of doing church.
I’m sure most loose constructionists would agree that there are many ways to “do church” and still be people of the Scriptures. I would, however, question the wisdom of replacing king David with Matt Goening. Haven’t God’s people have always sung His praises?
I don’t know if your friend has restoration roots, but just in case he faces some backlash people from SCM, I wanted to interject something on Alexander Campbell from an article in the Encylopedia from the stone campbell journal on worship. Before i do, i want to share that i don’t hate music. But this blog seems a safe place to share thoughts without being blacklisted so here goes. I’ve grown up in the church–grown up singing. But nothing bugs me more than a worship leader (well-intentioned though he may be)saying something like “COME ON EVERYBODY, CLAP YOUR HANDS AND SING”. That bugs me, and i can imagine someone who’s never stepped foot in a church or who doesn’t sing,could find it kind of weird. I go to Southeast and i enjoy listening to the thousands of voices singing praise, but I don’t feel guilty if I don’t sing. Thinking and reflecting are acts of worship. I’ve felt like throwing an elbow (which kind of kills the attitude of worship and honoring God )more than once when someone has tried to coerce me to sing and clap or I’m not a happy worshipper. I’ll send the Campbell info with a small bit of commentary in next comment
Oops, I meant Encyclopedia. Anyway this is in regard to a decision Campbell made, “Hence there is a uniform order of all worship. Campbell found the basics of that order in Acts 2.42, with it’s brief mention of the substance of the Lord’s Day gatherings in the primative church in Jerusalem: apostolic teaching, the breaking of bread, fellowship,and prayers (to which he added the hymned praise elsewhere attested in the New testament) comment: Note how AC added hymned worship to a text that wasn’t there that he was using as the pattern for order of worship. I’ll continue in a sec.
There’s nothing wrong with having music and singing in a worship service obviously. But there is no necessary inference in a worship service (especially if you stick with Campbell’s Acts 2.42 pattern) . There is an inference for Christians to sing and one could argue we teach with it, but we can do that at home, in the car, out in the park with friends. To continue with the piece from the Encyclopedia of Stone Campbell Journal “Cambell conceded that there was no strict directory of all the details for worship and that there were many expedients, yet he also believed there were discernable parameters. Yet he added to those parameters by including singing hymns in worship service. Worship can involve singing, but so MUCH MORE.