Toward an Emergent Church Values Set III

Re-centered, multi-sensory Worship

So-called emergent thinkers are describing a worship landscape that looks radically different from the modern and current ultra-modern terrain. I'll talk about this landscape briefly below, then we'll look at a few distinctives which make up its core.

Robert E. Webber has summarized the emerging, post-modern's central ideas of Christianity: "Mystery, Community, Symbol."¹ These ideas are contrasted with the modern era's focus on "Reason, [and] Systematic/Analytical, Verbal, Individualistic" ways of thinking about Christianity. As the modern "centrality of the Bible" shifts back to a postmodern "centrality of Christ," the whole idea of Church moves away from a denominational model to an incarnational model.

A semantic tangent: Dan Kimball¹ contrasts the Enlightenment model of "church" under which most of our congregations still operate (where the Sunday service gets 80% of the church's budget, attention, planning and visibility; where when someone says the word "church" the first thought is the Sunday "service"), to a refocused model where the Sunday worship "gathering" (Kimball's replacement term for "service," a word which can be misunderstood to imply the congregant was the one being served) is a time to get together and let the people of God worship Him, proclaim His Son, and re-tell the stories of the last week -- the previous six days when "church" really happened. The model is turned on its head, and 80% of the budget now goes out to the works of the church, and a scant 20% is focused on the weekly gathering.

We desire, amidst this landscape, to return to a God-centered worship. Our worship becomes stripped down and mirrors a spirituality that is baptismal, Eucharistic and liturgical. Aside: Webber also talks about our worship needing to be "adequately triune". I agree, and plan to talk more about this aspect in an upcoming post about the Trinitarian aspect of Emergent Church values.

We are witnessing a deconstruction of and reaction against the seeker-sensitive, boomer-friendly, mega-church, performance model of doing worship. The prevailing 'contemporary' model -- replete with industrial carpeted risers, fog machines, lighting trusses, ficus trees, glass bricks, power-point projectors, exposed ductwork-- is being rethought.

Liturgical high-church settings are sought out. Those stuck with boxy, modern rooms are softening them with tapestries, wall-hangings, projected stained-glass windows. Lighting design is shifting away from MTV glam to an unplugged setting.

"Smells and bells" of the orthodox tradition are re-introduced. Votives from the Roman tradition are reintroduced. Celtic crosses and illuminated texts and Anglican line-art drawings and reformed-tradition symbols are re-introduced. The cross and the altar are recovered as the centerpieces; the pulpit diminishes. Choirs are moved to non-performance locations; Preachers are lowered to eye-level. Worship without Words: The Signs and Symbols of Our Faith is an excellent book which describes the architectural and liturgical elements of Christianity, many of which were the babies thrown out with the Reformation's baptismal water.

So, we expect to see a recovery of aesthetics, architecture, a sense of creating 'sacred space'. (to some, sacred space will look primitive, or classic, or medieval, or vernacular/post-modern: Solomon's Porch church has sofas and recliners instead of pews). we expect that right-brained expressions will increase (music, poetry, art, drama) as left-brained expressions (apologetics, proposition, reason) learn how to share the stage. The whole person is engaged, and worship becomes multi-sensory: sight, sound, smell, touch and taste are utilized to a greater degree, not to tantalize, but to engage, focus, inspire, communicate and express.

Worship is participatory, not static. This means physicality, movement, freedom of expression (this scares some of us; it's a process to be sure), engaging by action, by response, by antiphony, by taking risks: in the recent Emergent convention main meeting hall -- during keynote messages -- there were simultaneous prayer stations, art stations, art installations, etc. Joshua Fox¹ described communion stations where the laity give and receive the elements off to the side, yet during the main gathering. Freedom of movement, though seemingly chaotic to the modern mind, becomes a key feature of an emergent gathering.

Let's turn briefly to the musical aspect of worship.

Brian McLaren's now-famous Open Letter to Worship Songwriters is required reading for post-modern worship leaders, as is John Mortensen’s An Unauthorized Postscript to Brian McLaren's Open Letter to Worship Songwriters. Both point to trends in ultra-modern worship that have crept in and must be dealt with. But first, an excerpt from McLaren:

In the modern world, theology was done by scholars, and was expressed in books and lectures. In the postmodern world, many of us believe that the theologians will have to leave the library more often and mix with the rest of us. And the best of them will join hands and hearts with the poets, musicians, filmmakers, actors, architects, interior and landscape designers, dancers, sculptors, painters, novelists, photographers, web designers, and every other artistic brother and sister possible … not only to communicate a postmodern, Christian theology … but also to discern it, discover it. Because one major shift of this transition is the shift from left-brain to whole-brain, from reductionistic, analytic rationalism to a broader theological holism – a theology that works in mind and heart, understanding and imagination, proposition and image, clarity and mystery, explanation and narrative, exposition and artistic expression.

McLaren goes on to urge songwriters to refocus on God, and to weave songs around the emerging stories -- stories of eschatological hope, of missional life, of historic Christian spirituality, of lament. We are also warned about language -- of the King James variety in our new lyrics "even if we choose to retain it in our old?", and various types of biblical and "conquest" language (soldiers, fights, victories, go forth, on high) that might do more harm than good in our post-911 life-amidst-pluralism.

Mortensen adds:

These days a sense of self-congratulation seems to pervade many songs. We seem to be impressed, not with our works (because that would be heresy) but at least with the admirable way we’ve responded to grace. This trend is also evident in the many songs of outrageous promise: Forever I’ll love You, Forever I’ll stand, I will sing of Your love forever, Over oceans deep I will follow, and so on. That last promise sounds like one that Peter made. One wonders whether we might be singing in praise of our own competence.

Postmoderns seem unthreatened by musical styles. Their iTunes show their eclecticism. Style is seen as a-moral. Style is mediated by cultural relevance and community. We have a new attitude of style-acceptance, and stand poised to recover "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs."

Music, far from the focus, is woven into the tapesty of worship expression. As is silence, meditation, poetry and spoken word, laments, psalms, ancient prayers, and artistic/performative outworkings. The specific media must be tempered with the culture of the congregation, but not so accommodating that compromise becomes de rigeur.

1. sources, notes, etc., etc. -- most of my post here on emergent worship are synthesized from reading and talking to some great thinkers on the subject: Robert E. Webber's Ancient-Future Faith, Joshua Fox and Dan Kimball's work at Vintage Faith (Fox was apparently strongly influenced by the Taize community, so there's some overlap there as well) Brian McLaren's The Church on the Other Side, some more modern thoughts from David Hegeman's Plowing in Hope: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture, plus culture-centric thoughts from theologians Niebuhr, Hauerwas, Barth, plus myriad internet sources on broad-ranging subjects like hymnology, the 2 Great Awakenings, and various Enlightenment worship and music styles... whew.

Comments

[erik]

Music, far from the focus, is woven into the tapesty of worship expression. As is silence, meditation, poetry and spoken word, laments, psalms, ancient prayers, and artistic/performative outworkings.

This is a beautiful ideal, and one that I hope I can find in a church. We tired very quickly of the flat, monolithic "worship" style in our old church. Every song sounded the same, coming from the same blaringly loud, unpracticed "contemporary" band. And almost every song hand this self-congratulatory feel that Mortenses refers to. I refused to sing the songs, because I knew the lyrics were at best hopes and and worst lies.

Are there actually congregations in the world that are striving for this ideal of which you write? And succeeding? Where are they?

P.S., I'm sure you saw, but there is going to be an Emergent Worship music conference at Baylor, and McClaren will be speaking. There were even some other speakers' names that I recognized--John Michael Talbot for one. And featuring Louie Giglio! The memories! October 4-6.

[paul]

there are quite a few congregations striving for this ideal; i'm not sure how to measure success, but many talk of successes.

some of the ones doing the best job are in the UK.
i'll try to point you to or create a list soon.

i'm aware of the music conference at baylor: i plan to be there, God-willing. Louie, back at Baylor! memories, indeed. :) Wanna meet me there?

[erik]

i'm aware of the music conference at baylor: i plan to be there, God-willing. Louie, back at Baylor! memories, indeed. :) Wanna meet me there?

I wish I could! But I don't think we could afford the plane tickets, and I would have to bring Noah with me. If I took off without at least one of the boys, I don't know that i would be welcomed home...

[paul]

erik, a great list of emergent churches is at the bottom of this page. Clickhere

[durbinator]

First off, my personal preference for the music aspect of worship is still a couple of acoustic guitars and a small group...but that's my bias.

Evaluating my church's worship style...no carpet risers or fog machines or big light shows, but we do have exposed ductwork (which needs to be dusted I noted recently), ficus trees, and power point. I've been pleased to see a more artistic use of the power point though, with artwork and video clips worked into the lyrics to add a better aesthetic. Also, the backdrops in the church are changed frequently, and there has been some very interesting sets, artwork, colors, etc.

The worship time is still too "performance" oriented much of the time...but better than some I've been to where the congregation was being more entertained than drawn to worship.

My biggest problem in this area is to get so focused on evaluating what is going on ("Hey, cool video!", "Hey a new song", "Oohhh candles!", "Wow, those lyrics are shallow") that I don't invest myself in actual worship.

A few years ago I predicted (ask my wife!) that evangelical churches would start revamping hymns to be used more, and sure enough we've been doing that quite a bit. Our church is also jumping into the "video venue" realm, and offering a more traditional/liturgical service in another room of the church, with the message shown via video feed. We plan on checking that out to see what it's like. I know it's a pretty "mega-church" method, but it also fits into the "getting smaller as we get bigger" approach, and could develop a good community in the group that attends.

I appreciate much of what McLaren and Mortenson have to say, and I have frequently been bothered by the "Jesus as my boyfriend" type of lyrics, and the apparent "me centered-ness" in many modern worship songs. However, one counter to that criticism that I was recently struck by: you will also find a great deal of personaliztion in the Psalms (3-7, 9, 17, 18, 23, 139, ok...enough). So, I'm not as critical when I hear some of those more personal songs now, but I do think a balance of the other things McLaren discusses would lead to richer, deeper, experiences in worship.

"So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind."