mcintyre re: worship

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?