Essentials Red Fall 08 (week 2)

For the Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History course with Dan Wilt

This week the discussion of the worship languages of prayer forms and the service of the Word is something that is very close to my heart.  As evidenced in my class work, I find it difficult to keep my thoughts condensed as there are many explorations and experiences that shape my thoughts.

First of all, I have to acknowledge that so much of my foundation in prayer and the word has been built by my parents – both of whom are quite well known for just that, ministry of prayer and the word.  I’m exceedingly lucky to have grown up in a home with parents so dedicated to Jesus and committed to lives of prayer and the Word.  Through them, I’ve also had a wide exposure to different sides of the church, whether through their experience of pastoring in the Lutheran church, pastoring in the Vineyard, or having been in significant relationships with many others accross the spectrum in the body of Christ.

In our classroom discussion, in particular discussions with Kim and Crystal, we were wrestling with the idea of developing structures in our worship that help support the organism of worship as opposed to structures that end up killing our worship.  I believe that this is the central issue in discussion of these forms of worship and if/how we should incorporate them.  As we look at these ancient ideas and various structures around prayer and the word, and as we study the history of their usage, it’s easy to see this struggle as a historical one.

In our text book, James White mentions the need for structures to give foundation to our worship.  In his discussion, he writes of the two kinds of the acts of worship the “ordinary and propers.”(1)  The ‘oridnary’(2) elements provide “necessary constancy” that without which “Christian worship would be chaos.”1  And the ‘proper’(3) elements provide “variety and interest” that without Christian worship would be overly repetitive and “deadly dull.”(1)

White demonstrates this struggle through history(4) how structures were put in place to help over come an “overly lax form of Christianity”(5).  Yet over time, these structures around worship practices had become a “monastic monopoly”(6) and fell out of touch with the majority of people, serving only a small segment of religious society. 

This lesson from history is the exact challenge that we face today.  How do we provide worship structures (even beyond our weekly topic of prayer and the word) that provide foundational constancy and security, a solid grounding for remembering, reenacting and reappropriating the timeless story of God’s interaction with his creation?  And at the very same time, how do we provide worship structures that are also providing variety and interest, a fresh infusion of the life of the Spirit that feed our daily, momentary intersection of heaven and earth.(7)

In our class work, I’ve mentioned a number of historical forms that we’ve been experimenting with / re-introducing.  This has been enlightening in both the power of such tools to enhance the worship experience and enlightening in how the struggle with these forms losing their freshness can appear.  Thoughtfulness and innovation undergirded by the foundation of keeping one’s ear closely listening to the voice of the Spirit is needed.

I do not yet have any answers, only questions and a quest.  But I believe that committing to asking the questions (and finding better questions) and committing to walking on the quest to find this balance is exactly the place to be.  Life is not static, and neither should our worship be.

 

1 James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, 3rd Edition, (Nashville:  Abingdon Press, 2000), p. 71

2 ‘Ordinary’ element refers to elements of worship that remain the same:  service structure, and various items in it (eg. Musical worship, prayer, scripture reading, teaching)

3 ‘Proper’ element refers to elements of worship that change daily or weekly:  different songs sung, different prayers prayed, different scriptures read, different sermons preached

4 Ibid, p. 136 – 141 discusses this argument with historical examples

5 Ibid, p. 136

6 Ibid, p 140

7 Gratuitously stealing a set of terminology used by N T Wright in his book “Simply Christian.”