1.@ clay: what is church for? I think a clearer way of shaping this is to consider church as a verb- those Spirit filled moments (synchronicities, to borrow Jung) when Word and Sacrament are ordered to join and anticipate God’s purposes in creation. This is more incarnational and avoids the platonic urge to pre-design an air-tight formula.

2.@ clay: can deep shifts happen in a 1/3 of the congregation? I can;t think of a time when transformation does not originate in “practices” or “postures” that catch on. In other words, a few folks begin to “do” and “act” differently and their minds are then transformed. Until a few more join them. And then a few more. So why not start with this third and invite them to include those from the other 2/3rds to reflect with them on what is happening. The “traditional” services do not need to change their style to join this more participatory way. An imaginative Traditional Worship Leader like Tony describes is a great way for this to start.

3.@ david: what is contemporary? David, most american church goers who consume pre-fabricated worship formats see contemporary as a closed genre. It is the byproduct of CCM’s successful branding in the 80s and 90s. Try introducing the word “contemporaneous” (remember this from Greek tenses- I believe it was Aorist) and asking how does the worship style or material we use in worship come from the actual everyday world around us (you can grab You-Tube videos, newspaper clippings, popular music, folks music, movie quotes, and styles/chord progressions). We can learn from the Word of God whom/which we follow into the world (C-67) as much as from a Word of God remembered.

4.@ steve: Interesting to pair up “force feeding” and “calling.” CCM and denominational(or ecumenical) top down curriculum has created a consumptive Christian way. How do we reverse this tendency and equip worshipppers to produce, to make their own testimony? Borrowing some of Tom Wright’s pneumatology, the community is sent gifts from the Spirit almost like the Israelite sampled fruit from the promised land brought by the spies. As such, the fruits of enthronement, adoration, and lamentation are gifts from the promised eschaton for worshipers to taste and enjoy. So worship is born out of calling and not out of a top down “force feeding.”

5.@ tony: You wrote, “gatherings exist for the sake of the world.” I love it! Spot on. Somehow blending our “target audience” to include God with us, the body of Christ in which we are united, and the Christ of the Emmaus way- these are how worship looks beyond our congregations. A friend of mine says it this way: the church is not the end user of the gospel. I agree, and neither are we the end users of worship.

6. @ tony: to paraphrase you said, “our worship and everything else would be better if it were subservient to the Word.” I have found folks use this to marginalize order/art/testimony to only “illustration of the preacher’s sermon or the platonic idea presented by the Bible.” I would suggest that the Word is hidden and being revealed, and that the risk of missing is unavoidable… The Word is hidden in our past (such as Jesus’ exposition of the collective memory of the Emmaus road disciples) AND the word is also being revealed ahead of us (such as the angel instructing shepherds to go and see these things, and the voice telling peter to get up and go meet…). As such worship is discovery and not “explanation” or “illustration.” We meet God as we sing and pray. Our bodies are put into play as we kneel and raise hands and kiss one another and wash feet and ‘pray double’ through song. And as such, worship that serves the Word is less of a coersive predetermined posture and more of an open receptive posture. I might be splitting hairs here, but my purpose is to suggest that we cannot avoid the risks of stylizing or crafting or “ordering” our acts of worship by being more “Word” centered. Instead worship is to enter into that risk. Perhaps we can, however, make space for the hidden Word to be revealed in our sacramental habits. And, then, to make space for faithful-yet-risky responses of conversion.

The worship I attended was at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, DC, and it had been billed as an emergent worship. It opened with music from Ryan and Holly Sharp, and Jared Milos of The Cobalt Season. They did a masterful job of setting up a time of contemplation of scripture. It was one of the highlights of the service. For fifteen to twenty minutes Jared played a slow, sliding line on the bass guitar, drawing on the root chords of a sung chorus. Four liturgists, each reading from a different passage, alternated reading portions of the texts aloud. When they finished reading the passage through the first time, we repeated the chorus before they began to repeat selected verses of the text, alternating all the while with one another.

During the music at the beginning of the service as well as during the reading, two video projectors had been set up and were projecting images on top of each other. The first projector was simply playing a slideshow of words in white type (“community,” “peace,” “solitude,” etc.). The second projector was playing the DVD film “Koyaanisquatsi,” which shows scenes from various world cultures. (The sound from the film was muted, but I recommend the soundtrack by Philip Glass on its own merits.) The effect was engaging and intriguing. Intentionally chaotic, the words were not timed to the film, but were in random order. Some words matched well with the overlaid film, some word associations were confusing, or outright contradictory, but the blend of the bass line, the visuals, and the slow scripture reading created a contemplative environment that engaged me in the texts in very different way. It was worship leadership very well done!

Gilda Carbonaro bore witness the way that war has torn at her with the death of her son, 28-year old Marine Sergeant Alessandro “Alex” Carbonaro. Alex died of burn injuries sustained by an IED explosion on May 1, 2006. As a member of Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out, Gilda read aloud numerous emails and letters exchanged between her and her son during his deployments. The vividness of her memories shone in her voice, as did her pain and her resolve to end the war in Iraq. After the service, I was so moved by her words that all I could do was ask her to tell me the birthday of her son: April 19, 1978. He would have turned 30 last Saturday.

Brian McLaren took to the pulpit after Gilda had finished, and though he was setting out on a new book tour for Everything Must Change, and on the verge of a conference in Vienna, VA of the same name, he knew when enough had already been said. I was a bit disappointed – and surprised – that he cut his remarks short, but it was a significant lesson that even a keynote speaker and powerful preacher can sometimes have his well-prepared and refined words pale in the face of powerful scripture and raw experience. It’s better to recognize it and cut it short than to take away from the whole (Note to self: Mother’s Day/Pentecost sermon: keep it concise– May 11.)

As a concluding act of worship, the Lord’s Supper was celebrated by intinction. While for some this was a new experience, it was a fitting way to nourish our spirits as we prepared for further action. (See PCUSA News article)

I hope this review of the worship service gives you some ideas, raises some questions, and challenges you to new ways of thinking about how social justice actions can be grounded in worship. Questions?

Peace, Ivan Herman

No, this isn’t another post on how some evangelicals and fundamentalists have a Trekkie Faith. It’s a post where I invite you into a struggle I’ve been having with prayer, and this time it’s not a struggle with my personal prayer life (that’s another post). My struggle has been with leading prayers in worship, specifically the Prayers of the People.

For a long time I’ve used the selection of prayers from the Book of Common Worship. The wording of those prayers is generally really good. It is clear with a slightly poetic feel, and I believe there is value in the congregation hearing some of the same prayers repeatedly. It’s my hope that as they hear certain Prayers of the People from the BCW, that words and phrases will stick in their memory and help them develop their own prayer vocabulary.

I still believe in the positive aspects of the BCW prayers, but I don’t think I can do them anymore. I just don’t feel that they are connecting to the congregation. It seems to me that most people are tuning out of this time of prayer until they hear the lead-in to the Lords Prayer. So the last couple times I’ve tried to do the Prayers of the People extemporaneously. The idea behind this is that if I’m not reading the prayer, but just praying it on the spot then I’ll be able to connect more with the congregation because I’ll be able to “say what’s on my heart” rather than what is in a book.

I know there are several problems with this way of thinking. Not that it is completely wrong, but it’s not completely right either. And frankly, it hasn’t worked. I’ve been so nervous about saying the right thing and not screwing up that I haven’t really felt that the prayer has been from my heart. Instead it has been from my mind and my worries as I nervously try to make it sound like I’m connecting without too many umms and awkward pauses.

So as I am getting ready to do the Prayers this Sunday I turned to the BCW - not to get a prayer to read, but to read about the prayer. What is it and why do we do it? So as I was reading one phrase jumped out at me: “The prayers are to be offered in a manner that engages the people in prayer.” Yes! This is what I am trying to do. Engage! (said in my best Picard voice).

So how do you engage people in prayer? How do you engage people at all?

I’m sure there are all sorts of answers to this, but I think they all begin with relationship. In order to offer prayers on behalf of my congregation I need to have relationships with them and call upon our connections as I pray. I need to feel the need to go to God with our individual and mutual concerns, joys and petitions. Not because I’m the minister and it’s my job, but because these are my brothers and sisters and I want God’s will for them with all my heart.

Sounds good, right? But how does that happen? At 11:45 on Sunday morning, as I’m standing behind a table, up a couple steps, in my ceremonial vestments, head bowed in front of a quiet and somewhat bored congregation, how do I connect with a couple hundred people in a way that is genuine? Given that I’m an Associate Pastor in a traditional church, it’s not really in my power to change a whole lot of the setting or structure of our worship.

Maybe it shows what an uncaring minister/person I am if I have to ask questions like this. I suppose care and concern for the people of my church should just overflow from me week after week. But for whatever reason they don’t, at least not to the degree that I can stand up front each Sunday while passionate prayers form on my lips as easily as I breathe.

So how do I/we engage?

Presbymergent Polity 101: Worship, Sacraments and (Dis)Order
Many view the Book of Order as a rigid, rule-focused guide for saying more about what one “can’t” do in PC(USA) worship, than what one might be able to do. However, in this workshop we’ll look at some key sections of the Book of Order that promise more freedom and openness than one might think, and we’ll talk about some issues relating to “emergent” expressions of worship in both traditional and non-traditional congregations. While this is not meant to be a “How to…”-workshop, we will spend some time looking at examples of how some PC(USA) congregations might use emerging worship/alternative worship in their worship services.

In the workshop, I’d love to give some examples of ways in which current Presbyterian/Presbymergent churches (both traditional and more progressive in their liturgy-styles) have incorporated emergent expressions of worship into their gatherings. If you have done something that you’d like shared, please let me know in the comments.

I’d also love to know what some of your struggles have been, questions you have, or if there are any seemingly insurmountable obstacles you’ve run across. Feel free to leave all of these in the comments - or if you would prefer, you can email me with your thoughts and perspectives.