Well, since my last blog post about ten days ago about a contemporary worship service Rose and I attended, there has been a fair bit of traffic on this page and a few comments--both on the Network and to my personal email. So now maybe it's time to keep the fires burning, the sparks flying, the synapses clicking (or whatever synapses do).
A friend sent me the following link to a video that really does a send-up of probably the most egregious elements of contemporary worship. What do you think? Is this video helpful? Offensive? Needless? Disrespectful? Something else? Check it out--because I don't know how long things like this remain available:
Admin's Note:
Not long, evidently! After noticing that the video had been removed, we contacted the creators (North Point Ministries) and here's what they wrote us:
While we are very pleased with how the video turned out, we discovered that it was getting some negative attention online that we did not intend. This video was created as an opening video for a session at our Drive conference that put the video in its proper context. Without seeing the talk that followed this video, it was very easy to misconstrue our intention in making the video. And this was happening online, so it has been removed.
Too bad, since it elicited good discussion in the 2+ months we had it online in this post (and elsewhere across the web). But we respect North Point's decision. If you missed out on seeing it, sorry! This is probably a good time to mention that you can get all new blog posts via email. Just click on the "Subscribe" tab above to receive weekly updates from this network and others.
I strongly believe that all folks who plan worship, who put so much time, prayer and thought into words, songs, readings, personal presentation and appearance have to be respected, whether that is for traditional, blended, contemporary, avant garde or whatever. Worship planning is not simple, but we work on such a huge continuum of choices, resources. Can we tease each other respectfully? Can we learn from each other hopefully and faithfully? We pastors do this not for a living, but for a significant part of our vocation before God. So we have lead responsibilty to do it well, with beauty, winsomeness, love, hope, joy.
Most importantly, how can we focus ever and always on keeping God the centre of our lives, our worship?
OK, let's go folks!
And by the way, check out the "Imagining an Early Worship War" article. It's kind of old, but then so am I.