WHY LITURGY?

Good post by Lutheran Rev. William Cwirla on The Top Ten Reasons We Use the Liturgy. Here's the list. Check out his blog for details.

1. It shows our historic roots.
2. It serves as a distinguishing mark.
   
3. It is both Theocentric and Christocentric.
   
4. It teaches.
   
5. It is transcultural.
   
6. It is repetitive in a good way.
   
7. It is corporate.
   
8. It rescues us from the tyranny of the “here and now.”
   
9. It is external and objective.
   
10. It is the Word of God.

I find the last point one of his most interesting. Critics of liturgical worship often claim that their churches are more "Biblical". However, they fail to realize several obvious facts:

• The Bible itself is filled with liturgical materials, in both OT and NT. This shows that God's people have always worshiped in a liturgical fashion.

• The Bible portrays God's people worshiping through liturgy. A simple example may be found in Acts 2.42: "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Note especially that they used "the prayers"—that is, the set liturgical prayers that they had learned in synagogue and temple worship. I find it interesting that this liturgical text describes the practice of the Spirit-filled church soon after Pentecost. Those who critique liturgical worship because they say it does not allow for the freedom of the Spirit have a problem here.

• The liturgy is filled with Scripture. More Scripture is read, prayed, sung, and referenced in one liturgical service than in an entire season of services in most free worship congregations. As Cwirla notes, the liturgy IS the Word of God spoken for and by God's people, not simply a "service" in which the Word is included.

RECOMMENDED READING: Mark Galli on Worship

Mark Galli is an evangelical in good standing, the senior managing editor of Christianity Today, evangelicalism's leading magazine. He is also a member of the Anglican tradition. This combination equips him to speak with true credibility on the subject of worship to other evangelicals. Galli has done so by writing an articulate and winsome book, called Beyond Smells & Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy.

I may write more about Galli's fine overview of liturgical worship in future posts, but today I will let him speak for himself in a passage about "relevance" that is one of the most powerful in the book.

The liturgy asks us to rethink what we mean by "relevant" worship.

For example, it is not an accident that when we think about making church more relevant, we usually have only one group in mind. In North America, that usually means twenty-somethings and young families. For one, twenty-somethings are some of the hardest people to attract to church, and two, only when they start raising families do they begin to return to church. It's a perfect target audience for a struggling or new church to strive to reach.

...self-identified relevant churches, by their nature, limit a full-bodied expression of the church. In our worse moments, this approach appeals to immature motives. For example, I am currently in what many people consider a relevant and even "cool" church, and I have to admit I am proud of it. It's an interesting contrast to note how few churches that want to "reincarnate the gospel within a specific cultural context" want to do so among the poor, the homeless, welfare moms, drug-addicted men, or those trapped in nursing homes and convalescent hospitals.

This is one reason I thank God for the liturgy. The liturgy does not target any age or cultural sub-group. It does not even target this century (it does not assume, as we moderns are tempted to do, that this is the best of all possible ages, the most significant era of history). Instead, the liturgy presents a form of worship that transcends our time and place. Its earliest forms took shape in ancient Israel, and its subsequent development occurred in a variety of cultures and sub-cultures—Greco-Roman, North African, German, Frankish, Anglo-Saxon. The liturgy has been meaningfully prayed by bakers, housewives, tailors, teachers, philosophers, priests, monks, kings, and slaves. As such, it has not been shaped to meet any particular group's needs. It seeks only to enable people—people in general—to see God.

This is top-notch thinking, communicated with clarity. Would that other evangelicals (indeed, all of God's people) might learn to think about meeting with God with such Biblical, theological, and cultural insight.

Highly recommended.

Another view...

Take a look at a blog called "Parchment and Pen," where you'll find a good piece of observational writing from C. Michael Patton, who made an ecclesiastical field trip to visit a couple of (quite) different churches.

The author is kind and generous, but also honest in his observations and evaluation. I think I would have been tempted to come across much more critically.

Read it, and let me know what YOU think.


...Wait, they had an elf who greeted the kids at the door?

If you must have a "worship band," please read this...

Here's a good word on the Out of Ur blog to remind us who is accompanying whom when we sing praises in worship, and a few implications of that fact.

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY: One Final Word about Worship

THE CENTRAL ISSUE: Worship (lack thereof)
One Final Word

I have hit some of the main points about worship that have influenced my journey from being a non-denominational evangelical to a mainline Lutheran. There remains just one thing to be said.

Of all that might be said about worship practices, we must not leave this subject without emphasizing THE fundamental truth about worship. It must be said, because in my opinion our worship practices fall short mainly because we forget this truth.

The rest of the story...

Here it is: WORSHIP IS WHAT GOD'S PEOPLE DO FOR GOD.

We have been conditioned to think, on the contrary, that worship is for US.

• That worship is where I go for my weekly spiritual inspiration.
• That worship is a habit of godliness that keeps me on track in my walk with God.
• That worship is where I go to get spiritually fed.
• That worship is where I go to stay in fellowship with God's people.
• That worship is where I go to get blessed and filled so that I can go out and face my daily life with God.
• That a worship service is where unbelievers come to hear the Gospel and get saved.
  

Because we think worship is primarily for us, we get concerned when someone no longer "goes to church." We think of going to church and attending the worship service primarily as something beneficial for people. And of course, it is! However, we must understand that the benefits we gain from worship are byproducts that accrue from participating in it.

Worship is for God. Worship is what we do for God. Worship is God's people coming together and participating in actions that are directed toward God.

• Bringing offerings to God.
  
• Giving gifts to God in response to the gifts he has given us in Christ.
  
• In the call to worship, we are invited to actively praise God.
  
• In confession, we acknowledge our sins to God.
  
• In the Creed, we affirm to God that we believe in the revelation of his mighty deeds.
  
• With our voices and hearts, we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to him.
  
• We present to him our material and monetary offerings.
  
• We also offer God our thanks and receptive hearts when we humble ourselves to partake of his Word and Sacraments.

Worship is for God, and worship is what his people do. Worship is not a service we attend. It is not a concert. It is not a preaching service made up of preliminaries and then the "real thing"—the message and invitation. It is not a missionary endeavor in which an audience of unbelievers is confronted with the Gospel through public proclamation. Nor is it a Bible study or Christian meeting designed primarily for a believer's spiritual growth and development. All these conceptions of worship assume that the service is directed toward the congregation, that those up front or on the "stage" are those who act on behalf of God, and that the main purpose is for them to give something to those in attendance.

This, however, is not the meaning of worship. Worship is what God's people do for God. Each worship service is like a special occasion on which we honor our great Hero and celebrate his accomplishments in winning a decisive victory. If you and I were invited to participate in a ceremony honoring a war hero, what would that be like?

• We would come together to express our appreciation through words, gifts, rituals, songs, and other activities.
  
• We would decorate the hall with banners and flags and emblems of victory.
  
• We would put our hero front and center.
  
• Every activity would be planned for the purpose of honoring him, all the focus would be on him, and all applause directed toward him.
  
• Special speakers would tell his story and pronounce his praises.
  
• The community would feast together.
  
• Neighbors and family members would give testimonials.
  
• Presents would be lavished on our hero, and each member of the community would want to say "thank you" personally.

Now, let me ask, would that occasion be a blessing to those who participate? Of course! Such a celebration would uplift and inspire everyone in attendance as well as encourage and challenge them to live a better life. But not because they came in order to receive a blessing. No! Those who came gathered for one purpose—to honor their hero. To lift up his name. To tell the glad story of his achievements. To express appreciation and gratitude to him. To participate in activities that magnified him. As a result, they themselves were blessed. The natural byproduct of honoring another is the blessing that accrues to those who participate.

Of course, God meets with us in worship. Of course, God blesses his people with his presence. Of course, God teaches us from his Word. Of course, God's Spirit fills us and transforms us. Of course, we receive food for our journey through the Sacraments. Of course, we are spiritually formed and edified when we meet together in Christ's name. Of course, if unbelievers join us, they may respond to the Gospel and experience God's saving grace.

These are all good and necessary things. But the question here today is, what is worship? In order to get the genuine byproducts of it, we must pursue the genuine article. As Robert Webber said so succinctly, worship is a verb. We don't attend worship, we worship.

It is what God's people do for God.

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY, part five

THE CENTRAL ISSUE: Worship (lack thereof) Part Three

Today, we resume our discussion on worship by looking at some areas that evangelicals have traditionally devalued or disregarded.

Let me start by saying that, in general, liturgical worship is poetic while evangelical worship tends to be prosaic. The liturgical tradition values an aesthetic approach, while evangelicals are much more straightforward, plain and pragmatic. This has led to the stereotype that portrays "high church" worship as elitist, pretentious, and snobbish, while "low church" style is the domain of the common man—honest, direct, speaking straight to the heart.

The rest of the story...

The following quote from A.W. Tozer (fifty years ago!) represents a voice from within the nonliturgical community that shows the damage done to evangelical worship when we cling to that stereotype and promote the merely pragmatic:

We of the nonliturgical churches tend to look with some disdain upon those churches that follow a carefully prescribed form of service, and certainly there must be a good deal in such services that has little or no meaning for the average participant—this not because it is carefully prescribed but because the average participant is what he is. But I have observed that our familiar impromptu service, planned by the leader twenty minutes before, often tends to follow a ragged and tired order almost as standardized as the Mass. The liturgical service is at least beautiful; ours is often ugly. Theirs has been carefully worked out through the centuries to capture as much beauty as possible and to preserve a spirit of reverence among the worshipers.

...In the majority of our meetings there is scarcely a trace of reverent thought, no recognition of the unity of the body, little sense of the divine Presence, no moment of stillness, no solemnity, no wonder, no holy fear. But so often there is a dull or a breezy song leader full of awkward jokes, as well as a chairman announcing each "number" with the old radio continuity patter in an effort to make everything hang together.

A. W. Tozer, God Tells the Man Who Cares, p. 11f

An important element in my journey from evangelicalism to a liturgical tradition was a growing desire for less prose and more poetry in worship. I was looking for...

• A church with a worship space that puts God front and center, focusing attention on him. To put it bluntly, an altar not a stage.

• A worship space that communicates both God's transcendence and immanence, lifting our faces and hearts upward and gathering us as one family together around the God to whom we look.

• A worship space that is intentionally designed and decorated with elements of beauty that stimulate the imagination and delight the heart and mind.

• A worship service that is personal, hospitable, and authentic, but not "chatty" or "casual."

• A worship service that encourages the active participation of all worshipers, not one that reduces the congregation to an audience of spectators and listeners.

• A worship service in which the leaders understand the power of words, and use them to lift us into a higher realm of thinking, imagining, and relating to others.

• A worship service that is not just all about analysis and answers, but one that invites us into the mysteries of realities that transcend what our minds can comprehend.

• A worship service that is filled with Scripture, along with time and space to meditate on what God is saying.

• A worship service that honors the sacraments as well as the Scriptures.

• A worship service that allows for holy silence.

• A worship service that both reflects what the Holy Spirit has taught the church over the ages (history and tradition) and what the Spirit is saying to the church today (creativity, spontaneity, freshness).

• A worship service that respects and includes people of all ages and backgrounds.
  

Transcendence. Mystery. Beauty. Imagination. Silence. Participation. Hospitality. Reverence. Careful and thoughtful preparation, especially with regard to words and atmosphere. These are characteristic of a transforming worship that looks up to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.

Such worship lifts us out of the prosaic and becomes a poetic window to the heavenly, spiritual realm, a foretaste of eternal newness.

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY, part four

THE CENTRAL ISSUE: Worship (lack thereof)
Part Two

My journey from evangelicalism to a more mainline congregation, at its heart, has been a search for a community of faith that understands and practices genuine worship. If my definition of worship (given in the last post) is accurate at all, then this has certain implications about the way a congregation and its pastoral leadership goes about planning and participating in worship services.

Let me say something right here at the outset, before we proceed. I think the "worship wars" of recent years have been fought about the wrong things most of the time by all sides. Battles about worship waged in churches have primarily focused on the question of style--traditional or contemporary--and this has been applied almost exclusively to music. In my view, music is only one element of worship and should not dominate the discussion as it has. There are certainly important things to say about music, but we must not let this one small part of the matter keep us from seeing the more central and significant issues that should be our concerns when it comes to the worship of God.

In the next few posts I will explore some of "the more central and significant issues," in my opinion, with regard to worship. The first is...

The rest of the story...

DISTRUST OF FORMS
A primary attitude in non-liturgical churches is that worship should not conform to set forms, but should be free and spontaneous. In their eyes, liturgy is seen as set, scripted, vainly repetitive, dull and without spiritual vitality. On the other hand, non-liturgical worship is seen as free, lively, Spirit-led, from the heart, and open to possibility.

In my experience, this dichotomy bears no resemblance to reality.

First, in the free-style evangelical churches where I've worshiped, the worship was just as scripted as any liturgy.

• The order basically remains the same week after week.
  
• A limited number of songs are sung, thus creating a repetitive musical "tradition" within the congregation.
• An annual calendar is followed, though not the Church Year calendar. It takes into account the major Christian holy days, but is based more upon the pastor's preaching schedule, secular holidays and schedules, and church events.
• Prayers in worship, though "spontaneous," take on forms that become repetitive.

And so on. The argument is not, and never has been, between "form" and "freedom" (defined as "lack of forms"). The real difference is between one kind of form and another.

Second, those who advocate evangelical free-style worship often fail to grasp the significance of the kinds of forms we use.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard, "Pastor, it really doesn't matter what form we use, as long as we worship God from our hearts!" There is a sense in which this is true, of course. Paul and Silas were able to worship and praise God in a Philippian jail cell, without the assistance of a church building, Bibles, musical accompaniment, or comfortable seats. God has never been confined to a building or set pattern of worship, even when he gave Israel specific instructions about how to approach him.

However, I don't think that is what folks mean when they protest forms. Rather, they are suggesting that they are free to do whatever they enjoy and call it worship, and if a friend comes along and suggests there might be more to it than that, they resist as though someone were trying to deprive them of their liberty.

It is the responsibility of pastors to start, not with people's preferences, but with the God we worship, as revealed in creation, Scripture, and in Christ and his Gospel. The first question to ask is not, "What will attract people?" Rather, we begin by asking, "Who is God, and what has he done for us?" That question should be our main guide in choosing the forms we use.

That does not mean everyone has to use exactly the same forms in shaping worship. Nor does it mean we have to use only old forms or traditional forms. We need not sing only hymns and reject gospel songs or praise choruses. We need not have only certain forms for hearing Scripture or participating in prayer. We are free in the Spirit to creatively adapt our forms, as long as the forms we use maintain a sense of integrity with God's revelation.

I'll give one example. I think contemporary evangelicalism misses the mark and fails to recognize the impact of the forms our worship takes in the area of congregational participation.

• Church buildings now being constructed have auditoriums that are more like concert halls than sanctuaries. These buildings mold us into stage-actors and audience. The form of our architecture tells us that a worship service is something that we attend and others perform.
  

• In many church services, the only opportunity for congregational participation is through singing. However, even in churches that sing a lot, it is not uncommon for the band and singers on stage to be so dominant that the congregation does not have a sense of lifting their voices together in musical praise. The atmosphere is more like a concert where people show enthusiasm for the music without really being the choir that produces the music.

• In these same services, often the only people who speak during the service are those who speak from the stage. The congregation learns that its main job is to sit and listen.

Now, contrast this with a typical service from the liturgical church we attend:

• Welcome by pastor, with response by congregation
  
• Gathering song, sung by the congregation (with no "worship leader"—we all sing together and follow the instruments—same with all hymns and songs)
  
• Responsive greeting between pastor and congregation
• Sung Kyrie ("Lord, have mercy"). One singer, standing at congregation level, leads us by singing the verses and congregation sings the refrain with him.
• Hymn of praise (congregation)
• OT reading, by reader who is member of congregation
• Choral Anthem by adult choir
• NT reading, by reader
• Gospel song, sung by congregation
• Gospel lesson, read by pastor
• Children's message, children gather at altar and are taught by pastor
  
• Sermon, by pastor
• Hymn (congregation)
• The Creed (said together by congregation)
• Prayers of intercession (said responsively with reader and congregation)
• Offering, followed by offertory sung by congregation
• Responsive prayer before communion (pastor and congregation)
• Communion, made up of many elements that are responsively read or sung by pastor and congregation, including the Lord's Prayer, said together in unison. Communion is taken at the altar, distributed by pastor and reader, and a couple from the congregation
  
• Blessing, by pastor
• Closing hymn
• Announcements, given by pastor and other congregation members

Whatever you might think of the individual elements or how they are practiced in this particular church, you must admit that this service is overwhelmingly congregational. The only extended period of sitting and listening is during the sermon. In every other part of the service, the family of God is actively involved in giving worship to God. In this church, we don't attend worship, we worship!

Congregational participation is a Gospel value that is integral to genuine worship. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is creating a forever family, and he wants his whole family to be actively involved in worshiping him together. He wants to hear from each one of us, as well as speak to each one of us. He desires that we experience the unity of the Spirit as we lift our voices together to give him offerings of praise.

The word "liturgy" means, "the work of the people." No spectators allowed when it comes to worship! We should reconsider any forms of "worship" that diminish congregational participation.

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY, part three

THE CENTRAL ISSUE: Worship (lack thereof)
Part One

The most important issue to us in our journey has been that of corporate worship. For thirty years now, this theme has always been at or near the center of our thinking and practice in ministry. In the last post, I summarized my critique of what passes for worship in many evangelical congregations today, especially in the pacesetting megachurches. Today, I give my own definition of worship.

Of course, worship can be defined or described in various ways. In its broadest sense, we worship God whenever we faithfully respond to his grace and live for his glory (1Cor 10.31). Paul also uses worship language to describe our total response of faith to the Gospel (Rom 12.1-3). However, we are talking about something more specific here—corporate worship—when God's people gather for what we call a "worship service."

Before giving a more detailed critique of contemporary evangelicalism's approach to worship, here is how I define it...

Worship is a meeting with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in which a congregation of believers, in response to God’s revealed character and acts, presents offerings of...

• praise
• thanksgiving
• confessions of faith
• confessions of sin
• prayers of petition and intercession
• vows of obedience
• readiness to hear and respond to God’s Word.

For his part, when his people gather to meet with him, God applies the benefits of his saving grace in Christ to them through...

• the living Word, by which the Holy Spirit renews and transforms his people
• his Sacraments, by which the Holy Spirit reassures and sustains his people
• the koinonia of the Holy Spirit, which produces unity and mutual edification among his people
• the filling of the Holy Spirit, which empowers his people for love and service.

What do you think of this definition?

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY, part two

A few months ago, I wrote a post called, “Where’s a Pastor to Go?” I began that post with these words:

How does a pastor find a church when he is between churches? What does his family do when their life has been built around the routines of church life, and then the rhythm changes?

An unexpected journey, it eventually led us to a surprising destination. After thirty years of worshiping and serving in mostly non-denominational evangelical or fundamentalist churches, we chose to become members of a mainline congregation—a Lutheran church (ELCA).

The rest of the story...

In retrospect, this should not have been so surprising. My own studies and experiences have led me to question many aspects of the contemporary evangelical approach, particularly in the area of ecclesiology. I have long been a contrarian against conventional church culture and practice, and found it difficult to not to laugh (or cry) at the all too common assumption that following Christ is to be equated with participating in someone’s clever church program.

My critiques grow out of a personal disillusionment, not only with certain church practices, but with a much larger culture—the culture of American middle class suburbia. At its root, my critique is that contemporary evangelical churches have, by and large, uncritically adopted the perspectives and values of American suburban affluence rather than allowing the story of the Bible, Jesus, apostolic Christianity, and the history of the church throughout the centuries, to inform their ecclesiology and practical theology.

In this post, I will give a general outline of three areas of dispute that caused me to look away from the contemporary evangelical church to other options when we were looking for a church home. Succeeding posts will add detail.

THE CENTRAL ISSUE: Worship (lack thereof)
Worship in the evangelical church has consistently followed patterns established by the American revivalist tradition. The “service” is essentially a stage show. Music and other elements prepare for and build up to the main event: the sermon. After the sermon, the preacher calls for response through an invitation. The “actors” are those who hold forth on the stage. The congregation is the “audience.” The preacher is the “star.” The sermon is like a sales pitch and the invitation gives the listeners the opportunity to buy in. This inevitably leads to a performance mentality on the part of those on the stage and a spectator mindset for those in the audience. Even those who do their parts with best intentions can’t overcome the unspoken messages they are sending.

Let me say unequivocally—this is not worship. I'm not saying that these services don't serve a purpose, particularly in mission settings, and it's true that some may find a way to worship while they sit in these shows, but on the corporate level these types of services are not designed so that God’s people may offer worship to him. We chose to seek a church that prepares and practices worship, not a stage show.

THE PASTORAL ISSUE: Hey Look! I’m an Entrepreneur!
It seems the primary models for church leaders today are celebrity megachurch pastors, successful business leaders, and media-savvy spokesmen. The successful pastor’s study has been transformed into his office, complete with a staff to insulate him from people who might waste his time. He imposes his will (sorry, vision) upon the congregation. His main tool is not his Bible but his Blackberry. He dresses cool, refuses to stand humbly behind a pulpit when he preaches, and majors in “practical” messages filled, of course, with pop culture references.

Eugene Peterson once said he was horrified to hear himself answer an inquirer’s question about his work with the sentence, “I run a church.” But this is the evangelical model, and it has run amuck. We chose to seek a tradition in which the pastoral role is defined and practiced differently.

THE MISSIONAL ISSUE: Living in the Temple
Large, “successful” evangelical churches now have “campuses” filled with buildings in which a multitude of programs take place. Those who defend them say that they are designed to attract the community so that they can hear the Gospel. However, they are much more successful in providing safe, “Christian” environments for the faithful and their families. In my generation, we have also seen the establishment of an alternative Christian culture that has created a world of its own, from homeschooling conventions to stores filled with “Jesus junk,” from Christian amusement parks to creation “museums,” from lucrative music and publishing industries to media empires. Christians need not ever leave the evangelical fold and venture into the world. And many don’t. Since, in the suburban world we relate to others according to “networks” rather than “neighborhoods,” believers can plug into the evangelical network and never have a meaningful conversation with a non-Christian if they so choose.

The evangelical church has become an artificial cosmos unto itself. It is of the world, but not in it. We chose to seek a tradition and church practice that is more organically related to real life and Jesus’ mission in the world.

AN EVANGELICAL'S LAMENT AND JOURNEY, part one

This is part one of a series on leaving the contemporary evangelical church and returning to a mainline congregation. My wife and I recently joined a Lutheran church (ELCA) after having pastored and served in mostly non-denominational churches for 30 years.

The rest of the story...

Here's a bit of background about us...

• We met at and graduated from a fundamentalist, dispensational Bible college
  
• Served in an independent Baptist church in New England
  
• Went to seminary at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Ev Free Church), one of the most prominent evangelical seminaries in the world
• While there, served in a fundamentalist Bible church (IFCA)
• Moved to Indianapolis, where I was an associate pastor at a non-denominational, evangelical "Community" church
• Moved to a sister church, where I was the senior pastor
• Resigned and began serving as a hospice chaplain, a ministry I hold to this day
• While exercising my chaplain ministry, I helped at a couple of independent churches—one with more of a Bible church/Baptist background, the other with folks who came from the Nazarene tradition

Let me also share some facts from my journey that are pertinent to this series of posts.

• Bible college taught me to love the Bible as God's Word, and that one of my primary duties as a pastor would be to mine its riches and give God's people the tools to do the same.

• My first pastoral experience, in a small, rural New England village church, taught me that people matter most. That congregation really trained me to have a pastor's heart and not to put too much stock in programs or strategies. I did a lot of visiting, leading worship, teaching, and pastoral care.

• During those early years, I began to study about worship. A few significant trips to Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA, an evangelical church with a high view of worship, introduced me to the subject and whetted my appetite for deeper understanding in this area.

• In seminary, I took the first class on worship they had ever offered. My teachers also introduced me to Eugene Peterson and his teaching on the pastoral role, which is deeply critical of the way the vocation is being practiced in contemporary America.

• Seminary also helped me focus my attention on the Apostle Paul, not only his doctrine but also his pastoral theology. I began to hunger to see the same convictions and priorities that moved him motivate me also.
  

• As an associate pastor I was responsible for worship and music. This proved to be an apprenticeship in learning and teaching about worship, as well as overseeing the practical details of planning and implementing worship week after week. Robert Webber's writings began to have more of an impact on my thinking, and I had the privilege of having him come to our church and lead a worship seminar.

• My last senior pastor position was in a troubled church, and though many good things came from our stay there, ultimately I resigned in the midst of insoluble problems and found myself for the first time wondering about my vocation and not knowing where to turn next.
  

• In God's providence I was able to find a position as a hospice chaplain. This work has been an unmitigated blessing. As one who goes every day to people's homes, hospitals and nursing homes, I began to experience more than ever before the great joy of ministering out in the world and not just within the "temple" (church programs).

In a nutshell, this summarizes some of the formative experiences and influences that have shaped my view of the church, worship, the pastoral ministry, and the mission of God's people in the world. Of course, this is just a summary. There is so much more to say, especially about the specific people who have blessed and influenced my thinking and life.

These points will help you understand a little bit of where I'm coming from in upcoming posts, as I lament the condition of evangelicalism today and relate why our journey has led us in this season of life to a mainline congregation.

PLEASE READ THIS!!!

iMonk has a fantastic post today that I'm asking you to read and consider. It's about the opportunity that mainline churches have to reach out to evangelicals who are tired of the shallow, a-historical, stage-oriented, programmed worship and church life of the evangelical movement.

I am about to post a series on returning to the mainline. This article would be an excellent place for us to start talking.

Read it HERE, and join in the discussion. Please.

Why Don't We Go to Church on Christmas Day?

In my experience, I have found it rare that churches hold services on Christmas Day. Christmas Eve, yes, but not on December 25.

Why is this? Christmas is arguably the second most important holy day in the church year, behind Easter Sunday. On Christmas Day we mark one of the most remarkable events in human history: God taking on human flesh to inaugurate his promised salvation and new creation. Should this not be an occasion of highest worship?

What do our practices say about our real feelings regarding Christmas? I read one question and answer column where it was asked, "Does your family go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day?" A respondent replied, "No, for us Christmas is to be spent with the family, not with the priest." As a pastor, I heard that sentiment many times.

It tells me that our cultural celebration of Christmas owes more to Charles Dickens than to the Biblical text or church tradition. In the early 19th century, the author almost singlehandedly transformed and revitalized the holiday as an occasion for family, feasting, and charity through his story, "A Christmas Carol."

While Dickens saw his work as complementing and applying the message of Christ to confront the sins of his own society, isn't it striking that the church plays no role in his ethic?

Scrooge's transformation of heart leads him to value good things: human kindness, the simple gifts of home and hearth, compassion for the poor and needy, concern for the conditions of workers, and a spirit of joy, optimism and cooperation. These are all aspects of our mission as the church scattered in the world, and we must not neglect them. But is there no place for the church gathered on Christmas Day?

I would love to hear comments on this.

WEDNESDAY QWOTE: On Contemplation and Prayer

Today's quotes are from Diana Butler Bass's book, Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith.

In her chapter on "Contemplation," Ms. Bass writes an extended meditation on the need for holy silence and making listening to God in prayer a priority in our noisy world. She quotes Richard Rohr, who wrote, "When the church is no longer teaching the people how to pray, we could almost say it will have lost its reason for existence." She records the words of a church member, who reported that she had come to recognize the importance of silence. "Not many churches give you real silence, if you think about it. I've come to value it..."

Then she records this indictment of contemporary churches:

Some church growth specialists think that successful churches entertain people during worship--the more activity, the more noise, the more loud music, the better. From that perspective, silence is boring and an evangelism turnoff. Quiet churches cannot be fun churches. Contemplation is not a gift for the whole church but something practiced only by supersaints. ...Following this logic, it is best, I suppose, to keep everyday Christians distracted with overhead projectors, rock bands, and podcast sermons.

Thankfully, there are churches and pastors who understand the foolishness of this approach. A priest named Gary has come to realize that

"intentional reflection, attention to God, and restraint" are necessary practices of the devout life. He claims that "We need it now greater than ever. Our haste leads us to forget the needs of the soul. We will latch onto anything to feed us. We hope that something--our clergy, a new love relationship--will satisfy our restlessness."

Diana Butler Bass concludes:

Human desire for fulfillment cannot be satisfied by the world. True knowledge of the self, of love and meaning, comes only in silence.

WEDNESDAY'S QWOTE: Marva Dawn on Worship

Cartoon courtesy of www.mattglover.com

Today's words come once more from Marva Dawn's great book that deals with the "worship wars" in our churches. Like so many of us, she observes that the church in America has too often chosen to be "of" the world and not "in" the world—the opposite of what Jesus said we should be. And this shows in our worship, our music, and our sermons.

"How will we teach Christianity's specialness if the music in our worship services imitates the superficiality and meaninglessness of the general world and our sermons talk about subjects that those in the pew can learn from psychologists, sociologists, and the local television station? I am very interested in using modern music, as future chapters will demonstrate, but our music must contain the substance of the faith, the heritage of the Church's uniqueness, the character-forming truths of Christianity. Similarly, our sermons must be focused on the Word of God, which is the "special" domain of Christianity."

Marva Dawn
Reaching Out without Dumbing Down