Comments on: More on Worship

By: Mike Little

Mike Little — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:52:54 +0000

Good post. I think the act of worshiping as a community should be “affective” and the planning or facilitation of that service should strive to be “effective” in facilitating that among it’s congregants.

An important part of being “affective” is to exegete culture as diligently as we exegete scripture. We can’t make assumptions about what worship style or elements will help them to experience God together as a community.

Thanks for the great post. I did a little post on worship service or service as worship over at http://www.redemptivetobacco.net.

Peace.

BTW…I’m Presbymergybaptiwhoknowswhat. Just love Christ and want others to love him too.

By: David Williams

David Williams — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:17:55 +0000

Worship does need to engage those who have gathered, and give them a strong sense of their participation in the Kingdom. That’s inherently a subjective experience, even if it is collectively constructed.

But if worship moves people and gives them a sense of God’s presence…then isn’t it…effective? If a gathered community collectively determines that a particular form in worship is consistently more spiritually engaging and intentionally chooses to pursue that form, is that…manipulative?

By: Tom Robinson

Tom Robinson — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:21:37 +0000

Good post – sounds like we are working on the same thing. I am doing a D.Min project on incorporating emerging church elements into a traditonal, mainline church, with the hope of seeing that church transformed by the experience. In the book “Emerging Churches,” Ryan Bolger and Eddie Gibbs point out nine patterns of emerging churches, and to do all nine would a bit unwieldy. So I picked out two – participating as producers (i.e., participatory worship, putting together a worship design team) and merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities (using words of the saints in worship to help open up the experience).

But I really liked your take on opening up worship with more reflective moments which in turn open us up to God’s Spirit. It could be that this is the way to produce and touch the ancient story of the church – by creating moments for people to ‘be still and know that I am God.’ Like the other folks, I would like to hear more about how you do this -

By: Carol Howard Merritt

Carol Howard Merritt — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 14:12:08 +0000

Good post. I agree whole-heartedly that worship should not be centered around what we can buy. Although, I did wince a bit when you said that we can buy people. What do mean? Are you saying that we cannot solely rely on a central leader who will create worship? I know that churches do try to do this…

Are you writing a book?

By: Tyler

Tyler — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:47:03 +0000

Thought provoking…thanks Craig.

By: EvangelismCoach

EvangelismCoach — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:43:14 +0000

I think that AFFECTIVE is a great way of stating “experiencing the sacred presence of God.”

Is worship to move people, or is it to create an atmosphere where people are open to being aware of God’s presence and the movement of God’s spirit?

My way of reading your comment is to think of still creating a worship exprience that produces a spiritual moment. It still puts the burden on the worship leaders / liturgist.

Or perhaps, I’m speaking of the other side of your coin — where both come into play. We help set the stage for people to be aware of God’s presence among them.

Just thinking, maybe not entirely clear however.

Chris W
EvangelismCoach.org