A Worship Experiment
Sometimes you get an urge to try something just to see what would happen. Curiosity can be a good thing when it leads to increased knowledge, or it can get you into trouble. Then again, sometimes trouble is a good source of knowledge as well.
What if the church were to conduct a self examination experiment with regards to worship? Say one Sunday, the worship was entirely made up of songs that were in a style that was 40 years out of date or perhaps from a completely different cultural context. The text of the songs should be Biblical and theologically sound, just the music itself would not “speak to the hearts.” What would happen?
(The truth is that plenty of churches are doing this every Sunday with at least a portion of their members. Many churches are doing it on multiple levels by “providing” more than one service to “appeal” to multiple audiences. There is probably a lot that this says about the condition the church is in today, but that is not the point right now.)
What would happen if “worship” quit being the flavor of the month and the stuff of top 40 radio stations? What if people quit choosing where they attended church (there is a telling phrase for you) based on the style of worship or the appealing nature of the programs?
What if the church were to conduct a self examination experiment with regards to worship? Say one Sunday, the worship was entirely made up of songs that were in a style that was 40 years out of date or perhaps from a completely different cultural context. The text of the songs should be Biblical and theologically sound, just the music itself would not “speak to the hearts.” What would happen?
(The truth is that plenty of churches are doing this every Sunday with at least a portion of their members. Many churches are doing it on multiple levels by “providing” more than one service to “appeal” to multiple audiences. There is probably a lot that this says about the condition the church is in today, but that is not the point right now.)
What would happen if “worship” quit being the flavor of the month and the stuff of top 40 radio stations? What if people quit choosing where they attended church (there is a telling phrase for you) based on the style of worship or the appealing nature of the programs?
Great posts recently and spot on!
ReplyDeleteJay and I were talking about this the other night. It is sad to me how the church (at least in America, and I know many other countries) is so spoiled. I know that many people around the world would be glad to attend a church with music 40 years out of date or even in another language...just to be able to worship God with others and not alone.
ReplyDeleteIf there was to be an experiment like that, every church would have to do it all at once. Otherwise, there would be lots of transfers. :)
Of course, for the experiment to work the churches that prefer 40 year old styles would need to switch to more contemporary stuff. Then, if all churches switched styles and you had a huge flip-flop of memberships, you would have the answer to the question. Does the church of today worship God, or does the church worship worship?
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