Thursday, June 29, 2006
Recent History 3
Report from the “Recent History of Christian Worship” seminar:
Our focus shifted today from the Liturgical movement to the Charismatic movement and Worship and Evangelism. We began the day with a whirlwind tour of magazine articles from the 1970s to get a general feel for the emphasis on healing and speaking in tongues. One of the participants questioned the centrality of speaking in tongues, and another responded, “It wasn’t as significant that the Charismatic movement freed me to speak in tongues. It was significant that the Charismatic movement freed me to speak spontaneously in prayer and about scripture.”
We also spent a bit of time exploring the temple paradigm where a worship leader guides the worshipers through the “gates” of thanksgiving into the “courts” of praise, ultimately leading through repentance to a time of intimacy in the “Holy of Holies.” We talked about the different degrees to which worship leaders may be aware of this journey.
We briefly visited two books: The Great Awakening and Reinventing American Protestantism. The Great Awakening gives an overview of various movements. One participant pointed out a section that asked how we view worship: What’s the most important thing about worship? Do we come to encounter God? Is the main goal of worship to bring honor to God? Another participant tied our discussion on this book to the discussions of the Liturgical Movement in the relationship between liturgy and identity, which led to interesting comments of how practice, regardless of intention, forms the identity of the church.
Reinventing American Protestantism describes the new paradigm churches. A few participants spoke of their experiences with these churches. They appreciated the positive vision, cell groups, and willingness to do social ministry. One also pointed out that this type of worship was attractive to non-believers, people of other religious backgrounds, and believers.
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