Naomi's Notes - 05/21/06
Thoughtful worship planning requires a delicate balance between "What does God want?" and "What do the people want?" None of us is qualified to know exactly what God wants. And worship surveys always indicate that the wants of our congregation are diverse indeed, and often conflictual.
Dallas Willard, in The Divine Conspiracy, writes: "If we honestly compared the amount of time in church spent thinking about what others think…with the amount of time thinking about what God is thinking, we would probably be shocked… Often the 'eyeservice' that occurs in present-day church services comes in the form of trying to 'move' people. 'Wasn't that a great service?' we often say. But what do we mean? Are we really thinking about how God felt about the service? What is the correlation between God's view of a great service and the human view? We need to be very careful about this, or the rule, 'Truly, they have their reward' may apply to us."
The role of worship planners is to help people learn to worship God (which doesn't happen automatically) and to help them differentiate wants vs. needs while keeping the focus on God. "I wonder if in the rush of creative planning and the desire to see people enjoy our worship gatherings in the modern church, we have pushed to the sideline what we are supposed to be doing." (Dan Kimball, The Emerging Church)
One problem with "doing what we are supposed to be doing" is that throughout the ages, secular culture has always had a direct influence on the Church. Corporate worship takes place within the context of our culture - a culture that is market-driven. It's no surprise that several of today's popular worship philosophies state that only certain styles of worship will attract lots of people.
David Batchelder comments: "Worship that is shaped by consumerist mentality depends on exit polls to see if its people will continue to want its product. In a 'feel-good culture,' people want less emphasis on sin and sacrifice and more on blessing and abundance. Failure to deliver what people want will mean they shop elsewhere. Such a competitive marketplace tends to silence the prophetic nature of authentic worship that confronts culture with an alternative vision of life."
In our personal lives we balance "Christianity vs. culture" and "Christianity in culture" every day. Authentic corporate worship tries to achieve the same balance. At Immanuel, our worship is unique, mostly because of the makeup of our diverse congregation. Unique also because our focus is neither to copy any other church, nor to offer watered-down worship simply to attract people who want only feel-good religion.
Are we influenced by our culture? Sure. Are people attracted to our church when we have "great services"? Certainly. Can God use our worship to transform people? Absolutely! Our primary concern should always be what God wants from our worship and from our daily lives. And God mostly wants our hearts.
See you in worship this Sunday -
Naomi