From High Brow Pirate to Hometown Pastor

You would think with less than three days to go that I would be blogging about this Sunday.  No.  I have been ill the last few days and the fever has forced me to the bed.  Anyway…worship.  I have had this argument with a few people and when I talk about purpose when the discussion of style is brought up, I am told I am missing the point and talking about the wrong thing and then we talk about stylistic stuff.  I have allowed myself to be pressured into unwillful submission on this matter and have the discussion on other people’s terms.

Today I was doing one of my exercises in surfing for images.   I have a rather vast library of images for future purposes.  You just never know when you need to break out a picture for the website or church program or power point on various topics of life and faith.  To avoid problems with artist and to respect intellectual property I use flikr and a few other places where I can search for pictures licensed under creative commons.  This is a licensing mechanism used by artists who expressly welcome you to use and even modify their work and I am eternally grateful to these artists who choose this route. 

The topic of the day for me was prayer.  I find pictures of people in desperate moments of prayer to be stunning and alarming and honest. Well, you try mixing words together in search engines so you can focus on what you really want.  I came across a photo called willow creek worship.  It struck me as…well..wrong.  It was off.  It seemed untrue.

What do I see?  I see carefully created lighting effects, spotlights on singers, elevated musicians…and they are on a stage.  A stage for people to observe and bask in the glory of the musicians.   No different than a concert.  We may see hands raised, but is that not rather the equivalent of a lighter in the air or a cell phone weaving in the air? 

The congregation becomes in this moment, not a community with equal expression of voice, but an audience carefully led and crafted and dictated by a professional entertainer.  In the early church, the worship was in the hands of the congregation and the community, not the assigned and orchestrated will of the pastor.  So where did we get this modern form of worship?  Constantine!!!!  Yayyyy!!! Wheeee!!!! Frelling PUKE!!!!

See.  Constantine developed choirs to celebrate the Eucharist.   He borrowed from Roman and Greek pages which focused on processionals and recessionals and professionally trained musicians.  Heck, by AD 367 congregates were banned from singing.  This was only for the trained and holy choir.  The congregation not only became spectators for oration, but also in music.  Shadows of this control exist today.  The Reformation and Luther would encourage the congregants to sing again…but we were still hamstrung.  The organ or the choir would still dictate the tone of the worship TO the community as opposed to the community finding the tone in their hearts. 

Now we enter the worship team.  My arch nemesis to authenticity and a convention that I am told if I do not embrace, I am doomed.  Ah the front of the stage has plants in front of wires and monitors.  We have our drums, keys, lead guitar, base, rhythm, special singers and a large screen with a fancy power point presentation showing me the lyrics.  Now begins 20-45 minutes of prescribed order.  The first songs are usually upbeat to get some hand clapping, body swaying, hand raising, etc.  Typically the lyrics reflect a lot of songs that use the possessive "I"I, "me", "my" ..the band will leave and the pastor will dominate the rest of worship and then the band will return to give us some mood music to give money, take communion and then play us out to go home. 

If this church fails because we refused to accept good solid convention for marketing and branding…so be it.  But the people I am surrounded by, they get this and they don’t care as much of those well meaning advisors with bad advice.  I don’t have tents, I don’t have a well put together music plan, I just have some honest people looking for non orchestrated community and an opportunity to do something-and share something-deep and rich and with meaning. 

What is there no room for in the picture?  There is no room for God in this.  No room for the Holy Spirit in this.  No room for real community in this.  Do I know the right answer?  No…but I am sniffing for it…but this…this is a stage show and not worship.  I got some kick ass pics of worship if you wanna see them.

Today, may you worship the Lord who loves you. May you find your inner voice in song or service or in a simple act of love.