Over the past several months it seems that those infamous worship wars are heating back up. I have personally debated the issue with people and have read countless articles lamenting the rise of modern worship as the death of all that is sacred. Most of the arguments fall into one of two categories. The first states that the technological enhancements to our worship experiences have become distractions rather than enhancements and have created a performance or concert venue rather than a house of worship. The other states that there is absolutely no good theology coming forth from modern worship music. There is a third camp that is not as prevalent in the war against modern worship music. That camp simply states that modern worship music is too wordy and too difficult to sing.
Before I continue, let me say that to some extent, this modern worship pastor feels that there is some validity to each of these arguments that must be weighed as we plan for an effective and meaningful worship experience. It is in the weighing of these arguments, that I want to pose the question, 'Can we have a meaningful modern worship experience that also engages the intellect in the way that more traditional worship experiences seem to?'
What made me want to explore this? I have a friend who recently changed churches and is observing the season of Lent for the first time in her Christian life. She is chronicling her journey through Lent on her blog and it has been a fascinating read for me. You can check it out here. One of her observations is that she enjoys the intellectual engagement that she is getting from the traditional forms of worship she is experiencing. This is not a new train of thought, but her insights have been so powerful that it has challenged me to ask the question that I raised above.
Why is it that the modern churches don't include any traditional liturgical elements in their worship services? Are we scared of losing 'cool points' if we dare look at things like the church calendar or responsive readings? Make no mistake, the modern church still follows liturgy. It just more often consists of elements like announcements, transition videos, skits, etc. Before you throw me in the traditional camp, let me say that I think there are ways to do all of those things including some of the more 'old school' elements I mentioned. Does it require some work and extra creativity on the part of the staff? Sure.
The under 40 generation is a very visual generation and the technology enhancements work for us. However, we also like to be challenged intellectually. A lot of churches ignore that and assume that if they give us the smoke, lights, and modern music we will stay engaged simply because of the production value. They are often finding that to not be the case.
I think my biggest pet peeve with many (not all) modern churches is the void of scripture woven throughout the worship service. In many places, you might get 2 or 3 verses of scripture to kick the sermon off and then that's it. Did I miss something? Is the Bible the guide that we use for our lives? If so, shouldn't it have a more prevalent place in our service? I'm not advocating that we worship scripture, but I am advocating that we use it a whole lot more than we usually do. Realistically, if we simply included more scripture in our worship, we would certainly engage our minds more than we currently are.
I am starting to wonder if maybe we get too hung up on the terminology of modern/contemporary/traditional that when we hear the term that doesn't best fit our preference we shut down and refuse to even see what God may be speaking to us. In my opinion, there are wonderful songs of worship in praise in both the traditional and modern scopes of music. There are also terrible songs with bad theology in both veins as well. Worship is about God, not us. Maybe we should challenge ourselves to engage in every facet of our corporate worship services from start to finish. As hard as they try, our pastors and worship pastors won't always get it right. It's not fair to put all the blame on them when you don't get what you expect from a worship experience. Stretch yourself. Challenge yourself. Don't check your brain at the door. I think what I'm ultimately getting at is that I believe it is completely possible to have a modern worship experience that moves our emotions AND challenges our thought process. Modern and cerebral worship experiences don't have to be mutually exclusive.
I have blogged a little bit with regard to a few of the arguments I mentioned at the beginning of this blog. If you want to read more about those, you can go here and here.
Please feel free to comment your thoughts. This could be a fun topic.
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