A story each time we gather (ICEWS, eb 08) August 2, 2008
Posted by eric57469 in ICEWS eb 2008.Tags: commission, Webber, word, worship
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt
Robert Webber has been referenced a number of times in our Essentials Blue Course. I met the late theologian and attended some sessions of his in the mid 1990’s. Until that point, I had not encountered any foundational perspective on worship as helpful as Dr. Webber’s. Besides an amazing grasp of worship history, he also made great sense when teaching on contemporary worship. I had been about 8 years into leading contemporary styles, and even presenting workshops myself. But my articulations of the “why” and “from what” were very weak. Dr. Webber’s instruction changed that. Even with my own pastoral staff, I was now able to share a foundation for worship that resonated with them, too.
Dr. Webber taught on the flow of worship, as experienced by the Church over the centuries. We start with the Gathering (the believers in community), the Word (the story told), Table (empowering of the Church for mission through the body and the blood), and Dismissal (being sent for mission). I had always experienced that flow in my mainline church upbringing, but it was never outlined so clearly. With this understanding, I began to see what might be beneficial for contemporary worship and why traditional worshipers were frustrated with the contemporary experience.
Traditional worshipers are accustomed to this 4-part flow or story, although most of them aren’t consciously aware of the format. They just know that each time they gather, they are taken on a journey, which usually includes confession of how they have fallen short of God’s glory, the good news of redemption, and a commission to be part of the good news by sharing it with the world. I observe in some examples, that when a traditional worshiper “visits” a contemporary service, they exit feeling dissatisfied. And it’s not always about music. After my introduction to Dr. Webber’s material, I began to notice that if a contemporary service had a flow… even loosely adhered to the 4-part historical format, a traditional worshiper was fairly warm to the experience. It is because he or she had been taken on a journey. As long as confession had been made, the Word was shared, and the people felt sent out, the music style seemed to matter less.
Although I don’t apply Robert Webber’s teaching in my contemporary worship planning in a strict sense, it has been a guide for me. In some of my worship flows, you can vaguely see the Gathering, Word, Table and Dismissal components. Frequently, I don’t even attempt it, if a particular theme of the day takes us in a different direction. But I still believe in the power of the shared story. Both the traditional and contemporary worshiper respond to being taken on a journey. I try to help them make the trip.
Human purpose (ICEWS, eb 08) July 30, 2008
Posted by eric57469 in ICEWS eb 2008.Tags: humankind, purpose, existence
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
After nearly four weeks of the Essentials Blue Course, one of my insights has been in the area of “how” to frame the discussions concerning the purpose of human beings. We were asked to reflect on who God is, along with who humans are and why we are here. Seems like heady stuff, but EB makes the discussion manageable. The attributes of God are beautifully limited to four: Creator (the God who creates), King (the God who reigns), God as Trinity (the God who relates), and Savior (the God who acts). (1) Likewise, the nature of human beings is described through four related lenses: Sub-Creators, Image-Bearers (of the King who reigns), Community Builders (relating), and Salvific Story-tellers (2)
A companion teaching from N.T. Wright expands the understanding. He names four areas that today’s world desires to make the most sense of… “the longing for justice, the quest for spirituality, the hunger for relationships, and the delight in beauty”. (3)
For me, it’s been helpful to devise a 4 by 4 by 4 framework of Wilt’s and Wright’s thoughts, in hopes of responding to our world’s scatter-shot approach to questions of our existence…. Who is God? Why are we here? What is the meaning of life? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there evil? We in the Church attempt to reply with broad and hopefully speedy answers, so that our inquirers can move past whatever is bothering them… and stop bothering us. The world is generally not satisfied hearing that mankind’s chief aim is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (The Westminster Shorter Catechism). That is true, but as Peggy Lee sang, “Is that all there is?” Today’s world doesn’t want a definition of human beings, as much as it wants a story of human beings. The 4 by 4 by 4 framework for discussion seems to point the way to this story.
Though it will take quite some time to test it, I suspect that most longings and questions from people can be whittled down into this framework. I am looking forward to trying it. As for worship leadership, the same approach applies. Everyone enters the worship gathering, bringing a hundred wonderings about God with them. In addition, these humans are wondering about themselves, which I, as a leader have not usually taken into great consideration. Our corporate times will be richer if I do.
1) Dan Wilt, “Essentials In Worship Theology: The Nature of God”.
2) Dan Wilt, “Essentials In Worship Theology: The Nature of The Human Being”.
3) N. T. Wright, “Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense”, (Harper Collins Publishers).
Christian Worldview summary (ICEWS, eb 08) July 26, 2008
Posted by eric57469 in ICEWS eb 2008.Tags: Christian worldview, creation, meaning of life
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
God is the Creator of all things, who made everything “ex nihilo” (out of nothing). Everything that He made, He called “good”, which we also understand to mean “sacred”. All things created out of nothing reflect His creative goodness.
The crowning achievement of this goodness are human beings, the “imago Dei” (image of God), who were necessary to complete the Creator’s relationship to His creation. Because humans reflect God’s nature to create, reign, relate, and to save, they are of extreme value as the agents of this nature in the world. Humans reflect who God is to the creation, and the work and praise of creation are offered back to God through the image bearers (humans). (N.T. Wright, “Creation Integration” video teaching). Similarly, the kingly nature of God is reflected in the charge for man and woman to have dominion on the earth (Genesis 1:26-29) … to steward and rule in the way that the Creator King does.
In this image bearing and act of offering, we (humans) are uniquely made to articulate the redemption story, in ways that the rest of creation cannot. We were given the glory of God, but chose to exchange it for a different position by doubting the Creator, following a competing voice and attempting to establish a glory of self-importance. As a result, we lost the ability to rightly create, reign, relate, and to perform acts of rescue. God is self-revealing through creation and His word, and ultimately revealed himself in the person of Jesus, who through a sacrificial act, has and is restoring the glory of humankind to its original intent.
The Kingdom of God, though often described in contemporary thinking as a future, post-earthly reality, is present now in those who surrender themselves and pledge allegiance to the King, who is the Creator. As a result, the image bearers represent this kingship in all parts of the earth. We understand this collection of image bearers to be the Church, because the New Testament describes the Church as the redeemed body in Jesus. Without Jesus’ atonement and redemption, the Church could not exist in the full glory that the Creator has restored. The Church was established not for itself, but to tell the story of redemption to creation, working to restore all humans to full image-bearing.
The “eschaton” (final age) is the full restoration of God’s original intention. It is a return to the Garden of Eden, when human beings were in full communion with their Creator God. We do not understand its complete reality, but it will be a reality….not too much like our romanticized depictions of heaven, and not completely unlike creation as we know it.
Finally, since God has revealed Himself as Creator, King, Trinity (existing in Community) and as Savior, we the image of God are therefore designed to reflect Him by being sub-creators, bearers of his kingship, community builders, and tellers (through words and acts) of the salvation story. The crowning achievement of God’s creation is humankind, and the crowning achievement of humankind’s story is the full reflection of its Creator.
Reading Scripture in corporate worship (ICEWS, eb 08) July 19, 2008
Posted by eric57469 in ICEWS eb 2008.Tags: worship, lectionary, pericope, Scripture
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
N.T. Wright’s chapter on Worship in “Simply Christian” (Harper Collins) lays before me a recurring challenge in my leading… the place of Scripture in worship. I supposedly value highly the reading of the Word in worship gatherings, but my practice rarely demonstrates that. Wright says that we are missing the point by using short passages of Scripture to remind the people of forgotten themes, or by using a few verses as the springboard for the day’s sermon. (Wright, “Simply Christian”, p. 150).
As I read that, I thought, “Ooh, this kind of sounds like me.” Then, in the column “Songwriter’s Corner: The Word In Worship” (Inside Worship Magazine), Wright is even more pointed…”Often, all you get is a short passage of scripture, chosen at random…. just to read ‘a little bit’.” Ouch. Wright has my number on that one, and I thought about how frequently I’ve used a couple of Scripture verses to fit into my song theme for the day, or to (insincerely) exhort people to worship. “Surely, with a short passage from the Psalms, people will want to sing better, maybe even raise their hands”. Rarely is that successful. And rarely am I using Scripture to tell a larger story. Wright admits that it is difficult to read multiple chapters in our settings, but my experience confirms his assertion that our little passages do not seem like they are part of a larger whole that God has given us. (Songwriter’s Corner: The Word in Worship).
In my congregations for the past 20 years, our traditional worship liturgy has always included Lesson and Gospel. In contemporary service planning, we enjoyed moving on to the freedom of choosing texts that propelled topical preaching. But recently in our situation, a comment was made about Biblical truths or narratives that we have possibly passed over for years. In the 3 year Lectionary, an unspoken yet powerful principle is that “As history shows, the children of God can easily forget to read the Story when they gather, and thus, forget the Story altogether. The Lectionary insures that will never happen”.
Though a full scale employment of the Lectionary in contemporary and emerging worship is not likely, the value of Scripture in worship that Wright speaks of is worth serious reflection, and for me personally, worth serious correction.
Cycle of exile and homecoming (ICEWS, eb 08) July 11, 2008
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
N.T. Wright (”Simply Christian” , Harper Collins) describes the story of Israel as one with a significant recurring theme…. exile and homecoming; slavery and exodus; expulsion and return. After a few of these cycles in its history, being ”a chosen people” must have seemed rather unappealing. We can only speculate on the degree of understanding that Israel gradually gained about Yaweh’s character as revealed in the cycles, but we do know that by the time of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, the prophets were articulating this central truth about the LORD… He is the God who seeks his people, who rescues and brings back; He desires his people’s full restoration, regardless of their rebellious choices and impossible circumstances.
The exile and return is displayed again in Jesus’ story. Father God provides our rescue in the Christ. Yet, in order to fulfill the sacrificial requirement, even Jesus himself is exiled and cast away from His Father’s presence at the cross. God acts again, and ”return” is accomplished through the Resurrection.
Understanding God’s character in this way, allows us to live with more grace for ourselves and for others. Cycles are a part of the human story. Oftentimes in the Christian experience, we view God as the “one chance” deity who joyfully accepts our initial repentance from sin, but is not all that pleased to have to repeat the goodwill. Although His wrath over sin is real and great, as Israel experienced, His saving nature is even greater, which ultimately demands, if you will, that the cycles of the human story conclude in homecoming and restoration.
Read the world well (ICEWS, eb 08) July 9, 2008
Posted by eric57469 in ICEWS eb 2008.Tags: worship, society, news, information, musician, economics
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
Dan states in a short video, that to foster a healthy lens on theology and how human beings relate to God, we need to ”read the world well”. This especially applies in the areas of justice and relationships, which we see interplaying constantly in society. Almost any news story is regarding those two issues. Humankind can’t seem to get a handle on those, as N.T. Wright says, and I suggest that contemporary news gathering about injustice and broken relationships subtly communicates….”Can’t anybody… can’t God… do something to put these matters right?”
This is a little off the path, but it’s a current way I’ve been trying to “read the world”. Changes in the Western entertainment and news businesses intrigue me. The newspaper industry is in a freefall, sales of recorded CDs continue to decline, and the television industry keeps fragmenting. We in North America have long “communed” around common art and common information, but the rules are changing drastically in how these are produced and distributed. Revenue is disappearing and corporate America is trying to retool itself, but I don’t view it as purely an economic issue. It points to a shift in how post-moderns are relating to and participating in society, and has a deep impact on how they respond to God and the Church. If our worship styles of the last 15 years had a “consumer” feel to them, we had better evaluate how that fits into the current climate. If artists relied on sales for substantial ministry income, but people are now purchasing single mp3s instead of CDs, how does that change the worship musician’s motivation to create? And back to the economic aspect, how does the Church support the worship artisan?
Transitioning from Worship Leader to Worship Artisan (ICEWS, eb 08) July 3, 2008
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For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
Dan Wilt’s article “The Rise of the Worship Artisan” and his companion video teaching, strike several chords with me (no pun intended). I, too, have always “looked back” to what Christian worship has been historically and sought to understand ancient practices. Like Dan, I stood as a boy in my own Methodist congregation and sang the Doxology week after week, with the sense that the ritual was tapping into a depth that transcended the tumult of the current times. For those of us who matured as adults in the contemporary worship movement, emergent worship styles are not completely new and foreign. The use of ritual, candles, symbols and meditation were part of our childhood practice.
Yet, reclaiming even the ancient expressions we knew is not always natural. Contemporary worship training ran deep, particularly in two concepts… de-symbolize and de-ritualize the church. As the emerging culture asks for a return to that “mystery”, the contemporary worship leader asks, “Really? Are you sure?”
I also appreciated Dan’s thoughts on what has happened to the title, “worship leader”, particularly as it communicates that the leader is unstudied in higher education, and that he or she is responsible for not much more than good worship singing. (Dan believes neither to be true). Even though I have higher education degrees in music and religion, I may have mistakenly felt that deeper theological study and its incorporation were not welcome from me in the congregations I’ve served. It’s not my “place”. (This is a time when I’m discovering whether or not that was a correct perspective.) Regardless, I agree with Dan that the present environment requires worship artisans to take these pursuits and practices to a new level.
Hi. We’re startin’ up! (ICEWS, eb 08) June 30, 2008
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Here we’re discussing matters for The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt
