Youth is a quality not unlike health: it's found in greater abundance among the young, but we all need access to it. (And not all young people are lucky enough to be young. Think of those people at your college who wanted to be politicians or corporate lawyers, for example.) I'm not talking about the accouterments of youth: the unlined faces, the washboard stomachs, the hair. The young are welcome to all that � what would we do with it anyway? I'm talking about the energy, the wistful yearning, the inexplicable exhilaration, the sporadic sense of invincibility, the hope that stings like chlorine. When I was younger, rock music articulated these feelings, and now that I'm older it stimulates them, but either way, rock 'n' roll was and remains necessary because: who doesn't need exhilaration and a sense of invincibility, even if it's only now and again?
My two aging churches could definitely use this! But alas, we are saddled with the worship wars here and they want the hymns on the organ. No wonder there is so little life and energy and vitality! The music we choose zaps it out of us! Perhaps this is in part why music in church is such a difficult issue. Music has power. It creates a feeling. What is the feeling we want to create in a worship service? What is the mood of a worship service?
For more fun, what are moods and feelings that the music of modern worship services produce versus postmodern worship services? I am glad to see the emerging church working diligently to delight the senses. It is wonderful to see the emerging church incorporating art, music, poetry, visual loops, computers, technology, etc. into worship. It is great to see the emerging church working to understand how our entire being is involved in worship, that the facilitators of worship (liturgists) create a mood, an environment, an atmosphere for worship.
And yet, I have experienced powerful worship with an organ and some old hymns. Why was it powerful? Because it was authentic. Because it fit. Because it brought God to bear on my reality.
So why doesn't the organ and hymns work in my churches? Because we are going through the motions! We do it because we have to do it, because we are told to do it. No one is even close to loosing themselves in the worship, giving themselves totally in free expression to God. No one would dare to dance like David!
Let's be passionate worshipers of God in spirit and in truth! Start this Sunday! Don't just go through the motions but be aware that God has called you to this place at this time to focus on him. So do it. It just might change you.
No comments:
Post a Comment