Or something like that…
This is an approximation of a phrase that I credit to John Van der Laar, a Methodist Minister and worship guru. I may have his words slightly muddled, but I am sure he says something to this effect, meaning that worship is all important to our relationship with God…
Now without engaging with him I cannot say how HE defines worship, but judging by a current seminary debate, worship for the seminarians is about how we sing and celebrate God amongst us. (I am open to hearing other points of view on this.)
Truth be told, I am not much of a singer… actually, I lie – I loathe singing … pits, pits, pits! I love music and I love to dance, I love to listen to (some kinds of) music and nothing moves me more than a beautiful song sung with gentleness and grace … I love house music and trance music and in fact have become a bit of an enigma to some of my fellow seminarians because I listen to Euphonik but have no gospel music in my music collection … what kind of umfundisi am I?
So let’s talk worship – what is it? What are we trying to do with worship and with this blog post I am hopefully opening a door to dialogue, because I know what I like and what I think worship is, but I am no expert and I am learning that my style and your style can be poles apart … as are our ways of connecting to God.
In order to contextualize this discussion though I want to share what has happened in the seminary over the last few days. Yesterday morning we spent chapel hour in the seminary gardens, we walked amongst the flowers and the dust, the beauty and the ashes, in the space below the chapel which is still growing into a fully-fledged garden/meditation space… we were invited to walk in this sacred space and look out for signs that God is with us – for me – bliss! Breath and green and air and space and silence … for me, strong elements of WORSHIP, connecting me to God!
Last night I had a dream, I was on my balcony garden (which in my dream was more established then it currently is) and when I moved the plants, there were hundreds of wires and plugs connecting to the electricity supply. Perhaps the dream is reminding me that I need to ‘connect’ with nature more, why? because that’s where I experience God. Some of my plants are with my mum and I am now more determined than ever to get them here to finish my tiny balcony garden which will be my power source and inspiration to connect with God and with the Spirit – that’s worship for me, that’s me and God, like tight, you know?
At the end of the chapel time in the garden, the Chaplain invited us to lift up our hands to nature and bless her rather than hold hands and bless one another like we usually do – I got little electric shocks up my arms as nature responded with ‘and God bless you’ – I felt so strong yesterday I was able to face anything – I was strengthened by my morning worship experience.
Then this morning we had a very different worship experience. It was called ‘contemporary worship’ (read: loud) and we were led by a group of powerful singers – Maria Callas and what’s ‘his tenor name’ have nothing on these guys and yet I have never been more uncomfortable or in pain as I was this morning. To me it felt like intense noise and I had to stop myself from walking out. It was screeching and wailing in a language completely foreign to me and I had to pray through the experience to stop my ears from bleeding and my head from exploding. I didn’t enjoy it at all.
Did others enjoy it? YES! Resoundingly yes! Many seminarians loved it and probably got set up for their day like I did yesterday… instead I have spent most of today feeling unbelievably irritated and aggressive. We sang songs this morning about stamping on demons, I feel like all we did was wake the sleeping demons and give them a spot in the limelight – friends, let me just say it – worship this morning hurt me … it really hurt me.
What to do?
Of course, we cannot please all people all the time but in our blended multicultural, multi-dimensional church this is exactly what we are trying to do. We are trying to make round pegs fit into square holes and its incredibly painful… we are trying to find a balance between east and west and well, um Africa, cos she’s an animal all her own. We sing songs in all language’s and some days it’s magnificent and it works, but some days it’s awful and just doesn’t, bear in mind we do this every single day … So I guess this is my question/s …
- What is worship?
- What is the purpose of worship?
- Is worship supposed to be enjoyable or not really?
- Is it possible to find a happy medium on how we celebrate God in our very diverse midst’s (am tempted to spell mists)?
- Is blending us the best way to honor our God who created us uniquely and colourfully?
Please, help a girl out, I know my faith is not about my comfort, but surely, my expression of my faith should also strengthen me and fill me, not reduce me to a fractious, disoriented wreck …
What do you think?
Blissphil 
I suppose you have to experience different forms to know what you like. I think it’s the same with people who “shop around” for a church they enjoy. That’s fine by me – that way they will attend church because they enjoy being there. They want to be there and that is where they will connect with God and the Holy Spirit can work it’s magic. Love you and miss you Petal xx
so will you come to my church in the garden Jen?
miss you too my friend – see you soon xx
Since you used my name, I hope you don’t mind if I jump in, Phil. 😉
What is worship?
Here’s how I define it: “Worship is a personal and communal encounter of transforming intimacy with God, others and self.”
I refer to worship as the over-arching spiritual discipline which includes all other spiritual disciplines. When we engage in worship effectively, it includes adoration, confession, hymnody, intercession, thanksgiving, sacraments etc. and it changes us, so that we live more Christlike lives of justice, peace and compassion. I could say more, but perhaps you’d prefer to see how I’ve written about it here and here.
A quick thought on blending & “style”
I believe worship can be thought of in terms of three aspects. The first is the Purpose – as mentioned above, this is the transforming encounter. The second aspect is the Practices – these are the things that have been passed down through the millennia that enable us to experience and express out intimacy with God (praise, confession, thanksgiving, intercession, sacraments, hymnody, kneeling, standing, raising hands etc.). Finally, the third aspect is what I call the Packaging – this is the way the practices are “packaged” according to particular stylistic preferences, i.e. praise can be expressed in song, or in silence, in a posture of kneeling, through an organ and choir, or through a contemporary band.
The key thing to remember is that we all agree on the first two aspects. We all embrace the Purpose of worship as intimacy with God, and we all use the same Practices to experience and express that intimacy. Where we struggle is in the Packaging, because we all like what we like, and we prefer things to suit our preferences and tastes.
However, in the great scheme of things, packaging is the least important aspect of our worship – even though it’s where we tend to focus our greatest energies and where we tend to find the greatest conflict.
I am convinced that a truly Christlike approach to worship is to focus on the Purpose and Practices and then, when I gather with others, lay aside my “preferences” for specific Packaging in favour of others. In this way, I serve and love them. I give up my life (my desires) for them, and learn to worship in “their” way, as an act of Christlike love.
This means we need to resist the “consumer” model of worship that the worship music industry and certain church-growth teachings have given us. We need to stop gathering for worship with the question “what I will I get out of it?” and start gathering with the question “how can I enable others to encounter God better as we worship together?”
This does not mean that I can’t find places and times in which my particular preferences and desires for Packaging get met. It simply means that my focus in corporate worship shifts from my own individual, personal desires, and moves to a welcoming, inclusive, other-centred approach. After all, if worship is not making me more selfless, more sacrificial and more Christlike, what’s the point?
I’m trying to summarise hours of training and teaching here, so I hope you’re getting the idea. To get more detail, my book The Hour That Changes Everything might be a helpful read for you.
For what it’s worth
Grace
John
John, a thousand thank you’s for your considered response to this post and for the all important reminder that worship ‘is not about me, but about God and about others.’ I would like to take some time to reflect on what you have written (only after I posted this did I remember that I have your 5 day ecourse on Transforming Worship which I read this morning) and perhaps I will write more about this with your insights in mind if that’s ok … again, thank you …
with love,
philippa
You’re welcome, Phil! 🙂
Feel free to engage with my writing on this as much as you like – and as critically.
One thing I maybe should have given more time to in my response: I love the way you describe your experience of worship in the garden. I hope my response didn’t come across as trying minimise or criticise this. We all need these moments when our practice and packaging of worship just “fits” who we are.
It is implied in my response, as I think you picked up, that I believe that worship, when we engage it fully and mindfully and open to God’s transformation, will become a very uncomfortable experience for us, because learning to love those who are different from us is never easy or comfortable or without great sacrifice and suffering. I believe that one of the great challenges in today’s Church is teaching our people to embrace this discomfort, rather than approach worship as consumers of worship “brands” that are designed to satisfy our individual preferences.
Thanks for writing these important reflections – and thanks for letting me part of the conversation! I’m looking forward to reading what’s to come…
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