Reinventing Sunday

Today, I started exploring Brad Berglund’s book “Reinventing Sunday”. The book is written firmly from a mainline perspective, though many of its components are VERY emergent friendly. Let me lift up a couple of helping issues raised by Berglund. Brad helped me extend some of my thinking about the nature of worship. About 18 months ago, for instance, I began to speak with our Worship Team about establishing a church where “worship is created not consumed”. Brad goes one step further than I. He writes, “In many ways, worship is not created; it is discovered and recreated” (xvii). The danger of my approach is that it implies that worship originates in us rather than with God (more specifically, as a natural response to God’s nature). Thanks Brad for taking me outside of my conceptual loop and broadening my horizons! When it comes to conceptually framing the worship experience, I really resonated with Berglund’s mining of a lesser known prayer of St. Francis. The grounding prayer to guide worship and our spiritual formation is simply: “Lord, who are you and who am I?” (8). A prayer offered in such humility and openness would clearly create worship space where we are truly open to the leading of the spirit. I also greatly appreciated Brad’s practical suggestions about dealing with the first two movements of a worship experience (the “Gathering” and “Encountering” elements of the worship). For instance, in terms of dealing with the ever-present challenge to get folks to sit quietly and reverent in the sanctuary before the beginning of worship he suggests we invite individuals to pray for (rather than talk with) the persons sitting beside you in the sanctuary. Not only is this suggestion practically helpful but it is theologically wonderful as well!!! Brad’s comments on prayer were very helpful as well. He notes, “Each worship prayer has a unique function, but whatever the function, always direct your prayers to God. Praying is not a veiled excuse to preach, make announcements, or offer theological dogma” (38). I also appreciated Brad’s sensitivity to embodied elements of worship. This only makes sense in a community that proclaims an incarnational experience of God. He gives helpful ways to effectively incorporate movement in preaching, prayer, and the worship music. My only critique thus far from my emergent perspective is that Brad seems to put a high priority on excellence and competence for worship leaders. While I ABSOLUTELY think worship should be intentional, I worry that too much of an emphasis on excellence and competence can cause a worship gathering to become performance rather than worship. I am really looking forward to attending the worship gathering that Brad co-leads – a gathering called Threshold here in Denver – next Sunday. This will give me a better sense for how Brad wrestles with this issue (performance vs. worship). Check back tomorrow for my comments on the last half of Brad’s wonderfully helpful and engaging book. Til next time…