Wow, it's been over a month, sorry 'bout that.
I do apologize for that. I have been trying to get a video to work for you all to see. But that never did happen. I spent weeks with it! Also for the past several weeks we have had some very severe server problems. It’s been up and down (mostly down) to the dismay of our IT person.
With the transition of going from one location to two worship services to two locations and four services, I have been noticing that we have also made a change in the way we are planning our worship services. The second site, Cook Auditorium is a much smaller venue. We have decided that we would also pare down the number of people we wanted to use in this location. That was relatively easy to so. We went to 3 vocalists, keyboard, bass, acoustic guitar and percussion/drums. This past Sunday, I lead and played keys. We had two other vocalists, a bass player and a percussion/drummer. One of our vocalists also played acoustic guitar. So in reality all we had on stage was 5 people. We pared down. As I said easy to do.
But I have noticed something else happening also. In our planning for that venue we were more intent in adding items that would make the congregation participate more. In the NLC our worship services tended to be more presentational. While we were very much aware of this, we always tried to keep that to a minimum. We know that in our worship services we have Believers; we have guests and we have those who have been coming awhile and are about to make some kind of decision about their life and commitment.
I really would like to talk about two issues. Is your worship service more presentational or more participational? I’m not sure that the word participational exists or not. But it works fine for me. If I can get my congregation to participate then I can answer two felt needs. I can help the believer come closer to God in his or her own worship that day and also help that person who is ready to make a decision be responsive to the working of the Holy Spirit. So with being participational I can answer two of three important issues. Ken Read in his book “Created To Worship”, calls this “Our Trilemma”. He asks the questions, “Should the church be Theocentric or Anthropocentric? Should the church gather together for the singular purpose of worshipping God (Theocentric)? Should the church be a place where the needs of the people are met (Anthropocentric)?” But Ken, that’s only two. We do find out that he adds the evangelistic thrust to these two to make it three-fold. And these are three issues or concerns that every church needs to come to grips with with as it plans and implements it’s worship services. And even beyond it’s worship services.
Of course the balance between all of these is going to be very different from church to church and cultural to cultural. And even event to event. If I’m planning a worship service for a Christian Convention at a hotel I may not be too worried about meeting the needs of a guest. More than likely I’m going to plan a very Theocentric worship service.
And this isn’t really about which one is more important than the other. I guess the question that first has to be asked is what is the focus or purpose of your church? More specifically what do you want your worship service (when ever it is) to accomplish? If the church already has a mission statement, does your worship service fit that statement? If your church is moving in a certain direction is your worship service moving along with it?
You may find that you will have to stress one of these three points more than the other two. You may want to try and balance all three equally. The more I read Paul’s writings to the Church in Corinth, he wasn’t asking if there were any non-believers present he pretty much assumed that there were. In Act’s when the church first started meeting, they met in homes and one can assume it was pretty much a private affair for the most part. And they also met in the temple courts (publicly) and I’m sure that there were non-believers present at that time.
So where does all this leave us? I’m sure there are camps of advocates on each side of this tri-sided quandary. Me? I’m kind of a middle-man person. I want to make sure that what we do on the weekend moves our church in the direction that the leaders have given us. And therefore I would have to agree with this vision in order for me to do my job as best I can. Can I do this to the best of my ability by just keep on doing what I am doing? What can change to help do it even better? What can I make fresh again what can I do to renew something that has worked in the past but has gotten a little stale?
I’m not sure that this posting is finished, but I wanted to get this out and see if anyone wants to respond in any way? How about it? Am I missing something that I need to do? I know I don’t have all the answers. I’m still looking and growing and learning.
John
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2 comments:
Glad you back, and with a great post. Do you recommend that book "Created to Worship"? It certainly has seemed to raise a great set of questions.
One thing I wonder is how the presentational/participational paradox connects with the anthropocentric/theocentric question. Are they the same, or are they connected?
John, I too am glad to see you back writing again. Reading your latest blog has sparked so many ideas in my head giving off the feeling to write. (SSHHH Don’t tell my mom!) Before I start I need to make two disclaimers. I unfortunately was not blessed with the ability to carry any kind of a tune; therefore was not meant to be a worship leader. The second disclaimer is, I have only read excerpts of Ken’s book so I cannot give comment in response to the whole thing.
In the spectrum between Presentation vs. Participational, I would defiantly steer toward the Participational side. In one of his leadership books, John Maxwell teaches that in order to motivate a team, or in this case a congregation, you must first motivate yourself. I could relate to this. In college, I was a cheerleader. During basketball games, my partner and I were assigned to a specific section of the crowd. During time-outs it was our job to get that section as loud as possible or, to put it another way, as “motivated” as possible. My partner’s and my willingness to be loud and running into the stands (over the top motivated ourselves) gave the freedom for our section to step outside of their comfort zone and be the loudest section in the gym (or the most motivated).
Enough about cheerleading! The point is the majority of people won’t notice if someone in the band hits a wrong note or if the tempo speeds up, but they will always tell if the band just mails in the worship and is more concerned with the “staging” of a performance. More importantly I believe God feels the same way. I mentioned earlier I was not blessed with the ability to sing in the traditional for another person to enjoy hearing it, but I was made to worship. Not being paid to be a Worship Leader doesn’t stop me from being a Lead Worshiper.
If, while on stage “presenting” our talents, we also “participate” in seeking the throne room, we will give comfort to the congregation to do the same. I will leave with this one last question. What would worship be like if has musicians we (meaning all worship band members across the world) practiced in order to give God our best, but let go of concentrating on the presentation and moved our focus solely on our personal participational act of worship?
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