Worship that demands an open kind of honesty
Our guest blogger this week is Robin Vincent, who creates contemplative tunes and scripture meditations, and asks that we approach worship with an open honesty.
In episode two of the BBC’s new sitcom “Rev” we find our bumblingly earnest Adam, vicar of a declining urban parish, faced with sharing space and services with a temporarily displaced horde of happy clappy evangelicals.
A comedy clash of styles is inevitable but it’s not the marrying of the different ways of worshipping that the programme focuses on, it’s the caricature of the evangelical vicar Darren. He’s written as supremely arrogant, certain of his role and rightness with a patronising rudeness that causes Adam’s wife Alex to remark on their first meeting “what a knob-end”.
As a stereotype Daren’s character had some threads of recognisable truth but it was so overdone as to make me wonder where this level of cynicism comes from. Darren’s church arrived with plasma screens, lighting, a large P.A. system, comfortable seating and a smoothie bar, devices used by many a “Fresh Expression” to create an environment in which people can meet with God. Why do the creators of the programme believe that this is something to be scorned?
Is there something in the world outside the church that requires it to remain the same, to be as expected, so when they do happen to pop along for a wedding or a funeral they will find it reassuringly empty, cold, joyless and crumbling? Or perhaps it’s because they can see through the vain attempts of the church to appear trendy and modern when it’s not actually very good at it.
Jesus doesn’t want observers of worship, he wants active worshippers, knee deep in the love of God and each other
Fresh Expressions or Alternative Worship can be seen as a way of jazzing up the church, to make it more culturally accessible, but that’s not the heart of it. At the heart is a desire for a new honesty in the church. An honesty that asks questions about why we are here, why are we passive participants in a gathering that doesn’t seem to have a need for us?
Fresh Expressions emerge out of the involvement of the body, out of the desire of normal people to express themselves, to meet the creator with their own creativity, to move beyond the singing of songs into a wider experience of art and life so that everyone’s talents may be employed in the worship of God. Is this self-serving? Of course it is! Jesus doesn’t want observers of worship, he wants active worshippers, knee deep in the love of God and each other, a people who want abundant life to break out in their abundance of worship.
Redressing, rebranding or repackaging in an effort to appear trendy is building on the sand of fashion and culture
Church should evolve from the marrying of people’s desire to worship God and their desire to express themselves. A Cathedral may be a place of worship but in a moment of honesty we see that it also celebrates the architectural endeavours of man. The architect may desire to worship God but he also desires to design and build a great building. The stained glass artist may desire to worship God but he also desires to produce great glass work. The Bishop may desire to worship God but he also desires a community of believers. A worship leader may desire to worship God but he also desires to play well, or a worship band may desire to worship God but also just wants to enjoy playing together.
Creativity has always played a vital role in the gathering of believers and when we lose that, when we leave it all to the couple of people at the front, then we will find ourselves asking “why are we here?” Redressing, rebranding or repackaging in an effort to appear trendy is building on the sand of fashion and culture. To build on people’s desire to worship through the expression of themselves is to build on the rock of the faith in peoples hearts and from there these other things may well emerge.
If instead we approach worship with the sort of honesty that has doubts and asks questions then it opens it up to our contribution, our participation, our expression…
It wasn’t the plasma screens, lights or even the smoothie bar that was dishonest about Darren’s church, it was his belief that it was all somehow the work of God and much more important than dealing with the realities of the people in his midst, especially those that didn’t fit the image. If instead we approach worship with the sort of honesty that has doubts and asks questions then it opens it up to our contribution, our participation, our expression which will find itself reclaiming ritual, invigorating liturgy, finding new breath in old songs as well as creating new ones. This is what connects us to God and each other as a creative body of worshippers. Church then becomes an invitation into a creative process. Robin Vincent is a Norfolk-based fiddler and abuser of music technology. His creative output is split between creating contemplative tunes and scripture meditations through Molten Meditation (www.moltenmeditation.com) and writing for the PC Music Guru website (www.pc-music.com) This blog is courtesy of EdgeOfTheInside |
