Monday, July 10, 2006
Recent History 9
Final report from the “Recent History of Christian Worship” seminar:
The final two books we read for this seminar were Gaillardetz’s Transforming Our Days and Plantinga and Rozeboom’s Discerning the Spirits. Transforming Our Days focuses on technology. One participant observed that convenience drives technology and explored how this mentality affects worship and community practices. Another commented about the role of technology in relationships and suggested we should consider how technology affects our presence with others. The discussion centered on the idea that we should not get rid of technology; rather, we should discern how to use it.
Discerning the Spirits led into a discussion about the necessary and unnecessary aspects of worship. From its modeling, we proposed deliberately moving conversations about worship from an atmosphere of law to a rhetoric of wisdom. We brainstormed a list of possible conclusions to “Wise is the worshiping community that…” Some of these conclusions included “helps people connect Sunday prayer in congregational life with daily prayer,” “asks what will make the community richer,” “praises and laments,” “acknowledges sin,” “engages the body in worship,” and “knows it’s part of a worldwide Christian community.”
John concluded the seminar by asking what questions and ideas participants would take home with them. Here are several of responses:
• What is the role of emotion in worship?
• I want to learn more about praise and worship music and think about a balance of timely and timeless music in worship.
• I want to create a service with praise and worship music, but also meditative—one that is mysterious, intimate, and ritualistic.
• I want to convince my congregation to celebrate the Lord’s Supper more often.
• How can help my students more faithfully lead their congregations in worship?
• How can I get my pastor to stop worrying about numbers and start worrying about how we are changed when we go out in the world?
• How can we encourage a willingness to celebrate what each tradition does well and encourage a desire to learn from each other?
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