Theory Meets Practice

I finished Brad Berglund’s book “Reinventing Worship” this afternoon. The book was helpful for the most part. In today’s reading, I covered everything form Baptisms through Benedictions. I found the material very accessible to folks from a variety of theological traditions and backgrounds. What really jumped out at me was Brad’s strong commitment to blending spiritual formation (formerly Christian Education) and worship. This was particularly true in his sections on the liturgical calendar and lectionary. As someone whose first career (and on-going passion) remains education, I must say I loved this approach. As someone who was raised in the mainline church, I just assumed all churches observed the liturgical calendar year and used some form of the lectionary. It wasn’t until my seminary parish experiences that I realized this wasn’t the case. While I have been able to do some work bringing spiritual formation and worship together in my first five years, books like Brad inspire me to do much more. Before I leave Berglund’s book and move into a new realm of exploration, I want to say that there were two things about Brad’s book that I especially appreciated. First, I greatly appreciated its user friendly approach. Each section began with a sort of broad theological framing of the issue at hand. Instead of leaving each topic at the theoretic level, however, Brad included a section marked “Suggestions for (fill in the chapter topic here)" that provided very practical, hands on suggestions for each area. Many of these were very helpful. Second, I appreciated Brad’s sensitivity dealing with issues that often aren’t discussed under the topic of worship (i.e. how to handle announcements). In these sensitive areas you can see evidences of Brad’s years of pastoral service in the local church. He understands how each and every thing that happens from the time an individual enters the sanctuary until the moment an individual departs from the sanctuary after receiving the benediction matters. He treats each of these elements as an attempt to connect with the Holy. I wish all pastors and worship committees/teams did this! Needless to say, I’m looking forward to worship with Brad’s “Threshold” community this Sunday evening. Til next time…

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…

Tensions Within Movement

I haven’t written for a few days, so it’s good to be back. The last few days have been full of good things (Dad getting out of ICU despite some lingering respiratory issues and a viewing of the consciousness-raising “Sicko”) and bad (our Corolla getting swiped by an unknown vehicle in a parking lot of a grocery store). Nevertheless, I’m still standing. I finally pushed through the rest of Robert Webber’s “Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Churches”. As I alluded to a couple of days ago, this book has been the greatest challenge for me to date in my explorations. A huge part of this is that it was incredibly difficult for me to resonate with several of the authors. At least three of the five contributors held Scripture as the final voice of authority – advocating for a position of closed revelation (“we know everything we need to know about the essence and nature of God as it has already been revealed through Scripture”). I hold the Holy Spirit in higher reverence than the Scriptures and believe we live in a time of continued revelation (that “God is still speaking” – as the motto of my own denomination - the United Church of Christ suggests). While a part of me was glad to see that the emergent movement seemed to contain such a wonderfully rich sense of diversity, I wonder if the emergent movement truly does. It felt like there were at least 2 contributors that at least one of the contributors would have said “are not Christian” due to the generous and gracious nature of their orthodoxy. I guess my hope is that through continued dialogue and conversations these awkward tensions might be broached. Of course, I have to realize that these tensions have existed since the earliest days of the church (see the arguments between Paul and the Pillars of Jerusalem regarding circumcision and table fellowship). From the book, I could see a splintering of the movement in the next 5-10 years as some (Driscoll, Burke, and Kimball) would advocate for theological litmus tests (i.e. a particular view of Scripture and profession of one of the historic creeds) for those who would like to use the term emergent. We shall see what the future holds. In the meantime, after 6 weeks of reading texts almost exclusively devoted to the emerging culture, I’m going to start reading more texts related specifically to worship issues. Of course I hope to engage them through the lens of the emerging culture. I look forward to this next stage of exploration. Til next time…

Colleagues

In most of my postings to date, I've focused on the written materials that I've interacted with. I've largely downplayed the one on one meetings I've had with local folks involved in the movement. I thought tonight I would take this opportunity to briefly discuss my first week of meetings with emergent folks I've met here in Denver and highlight a couple learnings/insights I've drawn from these meetings. In the past three days I've met with a wide variety of folks: Becky Pierson (a former United Methodist preacher's kid who recently completed a seminary education at Denver Seminary) and James Mills (a Baptist by background with extensive experience in church starts and various aspects of parish ministry) from the emergent movement here in Denver; and Ashley Seaman (a PCUSA clergy colleague who co-facilitates an emergent gathering in Denver. What a wonderful cross section of folks these individuals represent. Let me share a couple insights I had as a result of these meetings. First, from these conversations I found that many folks in the movement share my passionate desire to transcend the narrow generational focus usually associated w/ the emerging movement. Second, I found that most folks who are passionate about the movement are VERY well-read, theologically-grounded individuals. Clearly the postmodern/emergent movement has incredible spiritual depth as these leaders all embodied. Third, each individual has very personal - very profound story that led them to explore the postmodern/emerging culture (i.e. stories of pain, frustration, isolation, and/or alienation with the institutional church). Fourth, these individuals have an incredible sense of integrity about them and their vision of ministry. To say they have their priorities straight would be a colossal understatement! It was a privilege to share a piece of my spiritual journey with each of them. And fifth, there is an incredible sense of optimism in each of them about the future of the church (or perhaps I should more accurately say "the body of Christ" - for each of them was realistic about the challenges facing the existing institutional church). I walked away from each of these four meetings with an increased sense of excitement and energy about the possibilties that lie before us in the 21st Century. What an amazing and blessed time it is to be called to do ministry. It was wonderful to add these 4 voices to the 5 voices I'm currently hearing in Webber's "Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches" for each of these 4 voices brought perspectives and insights that were not previously touched upon in Webber's book. I look forward to continuing ministerial relationships with these individuals (and others that I have met in previous weeks) as we prayerfully support the emerging ministries with which we are involved. Til next time...