Once and for All, Let’s Stop Trying to Make Worship Relevant

Last updated on: September 1, 2018 at 4:02 pm by Jonathan Aigner

Once and for All, Let’s Stop Trying to Make Worship Relevant 2018-09-01T16:02:51-05:00 Jonathan Aigner

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“For the most part institutions are lost, not because they are stormed by hostile outsiders, but because their custodians, overcome by apathy, indifference, and intellectual fecklessness, simply give them away. Will we give away the Church and its gospel power by dumbing it down or by failing to reach out?… Truly, all of us who serve the Church want to be faithful and not to be dumbing down the Church. The question is whether we know when or if we might be doing it. Teachers in schools know that they are dumbing down the work and tests, and many educators are trying to counteract the societal forces that necessitate it. Do pastors, musicians, worship participants, and parish leaders know when we are dumbing down the Church? Do we sometimes know that we are dumbing down worship, but think that we must do so in order to appeal to persons in our culture?… Most of all, let us all together always be asking this basic question: Do our efforts in worship lead to genuine praise of God and the growth of character in the members and the whole body of this Christian community?… Out of concern for character formation, churches must think very carefully in planning the liturgy. We must not ask, ‘Is this liturgy attractive?’ but always, ‘What kind of character does this nurture?’ Does our liturgy focus on feelings rather than on God’s character, which evokes those feelings?’ If so, it will nurture a faith that depends on emotions rather than a faith that can cling to who God is in spite of human experiences of sorrow or estrangement.” – Marva Dawn

Are we dumbing down worship?

Would we even know if we were?

Those questions are haunting, to say the least. And in my mind, they beg a few other questions.

Will we let it continue, church? Will we keep giving our indenture away until there’s nothing of value left?

Is worship really something that can be recreated in the image of each generation?

Will we continue substituting our story for God’s?

I think the key to avoiding the dumbing down is to stop allowing the idol of numerical growth hijack worship. Let’s get back to what it is supposed to be: liturgy. We aren’t there because we can add anything to God’s substance and character. We show up and participate because it places us as participants in God’s story. And we linger there for a few brief moments, caught up in the drama, recalling the acts that shape us as God’s people. We feast on the Word, and dine at Christ’s own Table.

But this poses a problem for our commoditized pseudo-sacred sensibilities. It’s not easy. And since it isn’t easy, it’s not an easy sell to the casual. It probably won’t pack in the masses. Worship that leads us to the depths and heights of the gospel story through Word and Sacrament is not relevant in the least to outsiders. It cannot be made relevant. While the ad hoc worship “experiences” offered at the big box McCongregations sell you on an entertaining “answer key” to the great mystery of faith, the liturgy calls you into something much deeper, and much more dangerous. The finished work of Christ is treason, and all of us who participate in the liturgy become co-conspirators. And then, we are sent back out into the world to become God’s subversive prayer for it. So worship must be true, it must be weighty, it must be saturated in the substance of our faith, and it must never be molded by the appetites or sensibilities of a potential consumer audience, or it will never carry us through the evil and ugliness we see around us.

May we take Jesus at his word, and stop pretending we know better. May we not be the generation of Christians that coughs up our liturgical and missional identity in search for a wider commercial appeal. Instead, may we leave the church building carrying a vital, subversive Christian presence into our neighborhoods and around the world.

And in reality, there is no more relevant news to the world, and it’s the one proclaimed in the historic liturgy of the church.

Photo:
flickr, creative commons 2.0

Uncategorized

relevance

relevant worship

Previous Post

August 27, 2018

Next Post

September 6, 2018 The Contemporary "Worship" Song I'd Love to Ban For All Eternity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Church of St. YouTube congregational singing congregational song contemporary critiques corporate worship Hymn of the Week hymn singing hymnody and hymnology hymns masturbatory worship Uncategorized worship Worship Quotes

Select a Month February 2023 January 2023 October 2022 September 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I fall like lightning from heaven. I will be bound in the Abyss for a thousand years. Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Satan A fallen angel The false prophet The Red Horse and Rider