worship

worship

A Theology for Announcements in Worship

A church member greeted me after a church service in my usual location, the back exit. I embraced her and wished her a blessed week. She had strange look on her face and said, “You know, I really don’t like announcements at the end of worship. It really takes away the momentum of service and deflates it. I don’t know how to solve that. But then again, that’s your job!” She laughed.

She was right.The obligatory church announcement time was situated in an awkward place in the worship service.

In some churches, multiple people make a multitude of announcements and service drags on. If inserted in the beginning of worship, a number of people don’t hear the announcements because they are still walking into worship. If placed at the end of worship, announcements can take the wind out of a great service. Announcements are odd to have at the end of worship, but it is often the only place the majority of the congregation can hear of something important.

Do announcements belong in worship anyway? Continue Reading…

mega church, megachurch, worship

Study: Megachurches can trigger false spiritual highs

“God’s love becomes … such a drug that you can’t wait to come get your next hit. … You can’t wait to get involved to get the high from God.” Reported a megachurch worshiper in a new study on the affects of spiritual highs in megachurches.

The lights, the swaying induced music, the large crowd, and that celebrity pastor preaching to you. Ahh… the spiritual high.

According to a new study, that “spiritual high” could be a result of a chemical process in the brain. The estimated 10% of American Protestants, about 6 million worshipers, who regularly attend one of 1,600 mega churches could experience this chemical process. At an annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Denver a team of researcher found that:

The upbeat modern music, cameras that scan the audience and project smiling, dancing, singing, or crying worshippers on large screens, and an extremely charismatic leader whose sermons touch individuals on an emotional level … serve to create these strong positive emotional experiences. We see this experience of unalloyed joy over and over again in megachurches. That’s why we say it’s like a drug.

The study showed that worshipers at megachurches experience a greater release of oxytocin, thought to add to a sense of euphoria. That would lead us to believe that these types of megachurch worship experiences can trigger a false sense of a spiritual high.

Adding to this sense of spiritual high, one of the study’s researcher said,

worship

Age Segregation in Church

In the last 30 years, age-segmented worship was an unforeseen effect of the contemporary worship movement within Christianity. What has developed in many (not all) churches are two worship services. A traditional service with older adults and a commentary service with younger adults. This results into a type of age segregation in congregations.

Rev. Tullian Tchividjian the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, TN is one ~~successful~~ example of a leader who end years of age-segmented worship in his churc.h This process was not easy for Tchividjian, but he gives us an important reality of age separation in worship:

The primary reason, though, that stylistic segregation in worship shrinks our souls is because it prevents us from knowing God deeply. The only way to know him deeply is to have many different types of Christian people in your life, since each person will help to reveal a part of God that you can’t see by yourself. This means the great tragedy of segregation isn’t so much that we see less of each other but that in separating from each other we see less of God. All of us need other lights than our own to see more of his myriad facets.

Will we see a reversal of age segregation in worship services in churches in the United States?

Most likely, we will not see a drastic change. However, you will see a large minority of churches in the next 10 years beginning to have blended worship. Robert Webber, considered the father of modern blended worship, proclaimed in several books that the way to enrich our worship is through both the proven practices of our shared historical Christian heritage and modern approaches to worship.

Leonard Sweet, professor and author, continues to speak about the four keys to worship that is passionate and connects the people. No matter what the worship tradition, churches that are reaching people are doing four things “EPIC”:

Experiential – worshipers encounter the Divine
Participatory – worshipers do more than sit
Image Based – symbols and images are used
Connective – the worship connects people to people and people to God

At my church, we continue to slowly employ various forms of authentic Christian worship and music. We sing contemporary songs, hymns, responses, pray printed prayers, pray in silence, pray informally, gather, hear the word, use multimedia, use different ways to receive communion, use organ, piano, guitar, bass, choir, song leaders, and use a diverse mix of worship styles. It is a tension of beloved methods of worship and new.

The future of American churches depends on how church leaders can adapt and worship in authentic ways and not use gimmicks. Remember, Christ commanded us to make disciples, not converts. The glam of emotionally charged, arm twisting, and entertainment based worship tends to produce converts. We need richer worship practices.

People want to experience God. People want to have spiritual encounters with God and that can be done by including everyone: young, old, youth, children, black, white, gen-X, gen-y, and Baby Boomers. Let us end the segregation in worship by having a rich, diverse, and authentic worship that praises God and feeds the worshiper.

worship

Taizé: What you are missing

For the past 10 years, I have been interested in Taizé. If you have never heard of Taizé you are missing out. What is Taizé? Well, that is a long story. The short story is that Taizé is a small village in France where Brother Roger founded an ecumenical Christian community of prayer, song, study, service, reflection, worship, and solitude for young people over 70 years ago. The community was founded as a protestant community and not a Catholic organization. Taizé music and worship is simplistic but deeply spiritual. You most likely have heard a song or sung a Taizé song in church and never realized it.

For the past few weeks, I have enjoyed reading A Community Called Taizé by Jason Brian Santos. Santos covers his experience with Taizé and pens about the greater spiritual community of Taizé, France. The book begins with the grim death of the community’s founder, Brother Roger, but quickly moves into describing the whole experience of visiting Taizé. As the reader walks with Santos, you immediately get the feeling that you would have similar reactions coming the Taizé community. Having visited France in 1998, I can tell you that the feeling of culture shock is real and alarming: new food, new places, new language, new surroundings, new culture, new customs, and new… well, just about everything. Santos continues into the who, what, where, why, and how of the community.

As I am learning more about the community of Taizé, I am also listening to the music. The music and worship of Taizé is powerful. Why? Here are the 5 most powerful aspects of Taizé that you are missing out on:

Continue Reading…

worship

Is it wrong to clap in worship?

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The 1970’s rapper, Big Bank Hank from the Sugar Hill Gang, encouraged everyone to join with him in the song 8th Wonder:

“Clap your hands everybody. And everybody just clap your hands.”

Sometimes, in church. Christians do not want to join in with clapping.

Here at First Baptist Church, we are blessed with many talented musicians, singers, liturgists, and worship leaders. Often, when one of these types of people, most often singers or musicians, gives worshipful God given talent (a solo for instance) many people want to applaud. Sometimes, when I speak to congregants about a particular musical performance, a few are weary of the practice of clapping for people. Those who are fearful of clapping in worship say, “I don’t like to praise a singer with clapping. We praise God in worship.”

While I can understand the objection, I would encourage those to think more deeply about what is happening in worship. When someone gives a solo, it is a worshipful act that is lifted up to God in praise. When people are moved by a soloist’s song, there is something that is stirring inside of them that has moved them. Their spirit is spoken to because they know that God was worshiped in a beautiful way. They want to say, “Amen!” or they may want to clap, to express their appreciation to God for such a worshipful moment of praise (to God).

Some might say, “Clapping during worship is not biblical!” Hold on there, yes it is. Check out these scriptures where clapping and worship went “hand and hand” (pun intended):

worship

Dancing in Worship

If you grew up Baptist there was one thing (among many) that you did NOT do: dance! I remember my Baptist grandmother telling me stories of how people were reprimanded for dancing in public back in the day. Baptists were known not to play cards or go to movies. Wow, it must have been exciting to be a Baptist in the 1930’s.

In 2 Samuel 6:1-5 & 12-19, David dances with all his might. Why? David decided to move the capital city of the Israelites from Shiloh to Jerusalem. He wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant to be in the new religious center of the nation. It had been a long time since the Israelites had a specific location that would serve as a center for worship. Now, the Israelites had this symbol of God’s presence carried into the center of the Jewish people. You can imagine the excitement.

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Church Warehouse Part 2: Theology of Wood and Concrete

I wanted to follow up on my last post about worship and ministry space with another article from Christianity Today, entitled “Theology in Wood and Concrete.” The article is about 6 churches and their brief stories about building their ministry space:

If churches then had seen what they had in common with modernism, they could have allied their sense of responsibility with cutting-edge design. Instead, churches, which were the architectural focal points of early American settlements, left the conversation of progressive architecture. But in the past few years, missions-minded Protestant churches have begun to rediscover architecture.

The following churches decided that their buildings were an important part of their ministry, not merely afterthoughts. And while many churches are moving toward traditional design, these churches believe there is still something to be said for a contemporary approach. They believe that buildings can express the values of congregations, bringing new meaning to the act of stewardship in architecture.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/may/35.33.html

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Does My Church Look Like a Warehouse?

For the last 20 or 25 years, it has become popular a church to build their worship and ministry space to look like a warehouse or storehouse (or use an actual warehouse). After being a part of three capital improvement projects at three different churches, I have found there is a whole theology to church buildings.

The “Emergent” or “Emerging Church” and ultra contemporary church movement has found that many people are attracted to buildings that do not include religious symbols. And, church buildings should be more utilitarian than religious. Most of the time, building a church in a warehouse is an economical way to do church. Aside from the “store front” church, churches who desire to tone down a worship space do so for marketing reasons. Mega and ultra contemporary churches try to draw in burned out Christians or seekers (the unchurched) who want church to be different than the traditional church service (3 hymns, sermon, and altar call).

Christianity Today wrote an intriguing article about how there is now a reverse trend in trying to attract seekers to churches. The trend seems to be that now seekers and churches are reconsidering what they thought they wanted in a church building. The article cites a survey which states that seekers prefer a church to look like, well… a church. The article reads:

….unchurched adults prefer Gothic church buildings to utilitarian ones, challenging the conventional wisdom that medieval-looking churches feel out-of-touch and stuffy to seekers. LifeWay showed over 1,600 unchurched adults four pictures of church buildings, ranging from mall-like to Gothic. The majority preferred the most ornate church.

Not exactly scientific, but this survey shows that deep down inside, a church’s building says a lot about how the church sees itself regarding theology, evangelism, and Christ. This study came out of LifeWay, the publishing and ministry arm of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is my firm belief that people want to seek the Divine in church community and in worship. Based on anecdotal evidence, I have found that there is a segment of the church going population, who after several years at a ultra contemporary/mega church, desire to recapture the essence of what it means to worship, learn, live in faith, and fellowship in a congregation that seeks to be more dynamic and deeper in their approach. Over the years, I have been a big fan of Robert Webber, who died recently. Webber who began life as a Baptist and then switched denominations to become an Episcopalian, rediscovered liturgical worship with a contemporary twist. In his book, Ancient-Future Faith he states:

Worship Renewal, then, is not a matter of gimmicks, but the recovery of the Christian vision of reality enacted by the community of God. pg. 32

Then, Webber goes on to say:

In the 1980’s evangelicals sought to neutralize space to make the seeker more comfortable. This worked in the 1980’s but is not the way to go in the postmodern world. The inquirer needs to be immersed within a space that bespeaks the Christian faith. The very narrative of faith which we seek to know and live is symbolically expressed in our space… Space becomes the visual image of the connection between the known and unknown. pg. 108

For Webber, and I agree, worship and our church buildings communicate who God is. Symbols are important. Symbols point to a great reality. The cross is a symbol. The communion table is a symbol. The church is a symbol. If we neutralize a church space, then are we neutralizing the symbol of the church? Postmodernity has indeed reshaped our understanding. Webber addresses the church within postmodernity:

In a postmodern world that has become increasingly interested in communication and space, it will be necessary to feature the relational seating of God people around the symbols of water, the pulpit, and the Table. These are the primary visual images of God’s work in the history of salvation. pg. 108

I have a number of engaged couples who come from other churches looking for a church to get married in because their church does not “look” like a church. They do not worship in a traditional looking church, but they want to get married in one. That just shows how our culture is evolving and how Christians view worship space.

Churches and pastors should resist the empty showy gimmicks and trendy ideas about church and worship. Instead, we must seek to put a theology behind our church and church buildings instead of only relying on marketing tactics. There is a richness contained in the 2,000 years of worship, teaching, and theology that the church mothers and fathers have given to us. There is nothing “wrong” with a contemporary church that meets in a warehouse, but the trend of the lack of Christian symbols and lack of focus upon theologically centered worship space is troubling. When churches are able, they should think about building or obtaining a worship space that reflects Christian theology. I should make it clear that many people have come to Christ in these trendy churches and these churches are meeting a need. But, at some point, people are going to want more than flashy lights, loud bands, and Starbucks.

What do you think?

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