Aspect #2: The Church that Scrutinizes Worship

I've only included this picture because I think it is fantastic!

Aspect #2:
The Church that Scrutinizes Worship

This post is about the worshiping life of Grandview. Ahhh, yes, fools rush in where angels fear to tread. No other issue ... let me repeat ... no other issue has caused more tension during my ministry at Grandview than the issue of what is and is not appropriate worship. Please remember, gracious reader, that we have been through two capital campaigns and a building program. Those things were tough, but they weren’t nearly as tricky or quirky as the worship debate. Grandview has a history of paying very close attention to worship issues.

Let me state the positives attached to our carefulness in the worship arena. Worship has the power to expose theological issues you never even knew existed. To whom do we pray? Did you know there are debates about if it is appropriate to pray to Jesus (as opposed to the Father)? What language is appropriate? When we sing, how often should “I” be the subject of the song? How often should God be the subject and/or the direct object or the subject? Are all musical settings appropriate to the message the words are meant to convey?

Do we design our worship services to reach the lost? If so, then we have to ask why we are letting people who don’t even believe in God determine what we sing when we worship?

What humor is inappropriate (I’ve discovered the limits of THAT one more than once)? When is it okay to write my own parable and then preach it as if it were a true story? I love to write stories. It took me a long time to discover, though, that some people thought I was telling stories that actually happened. I’ve undermined my own credibility at times. Fred Craddock taught me that if you’re going to tell a story that isn’t historical, you have to place very obvious cues for the hearers so they will know how to receive the story. I have received much grace during that whole process of learning

The bottom line is that worship is supposed to be true (in all aspects). We’re not interested in faking emotions or trying to get people to cry or “pumping up” worship with hype. When God shows up in special ways we want there to be no doubt about the authenticity of that moment.

I appreciate the careful attention to implications of the worship we embrace. I believe this careful attention has kept us from falling for fleeting fads. This was driven home to me when I visited churches during my Sabbatical, churches that seemed like they were one big attempt to elicit a spiritual experience. I’ve been to rock concerts that accomplished the same thing--that didn’t make them Christian.

The negative side of this attention, though, is that people are afraid to take leadership roles in worship; they’re afraid of disapproval, of criticism, and of angering people they love and respect--and for fear of making "stupid" mistakes. Fear of God in worship? Okay, at some level that is appropriate. Fear of someone scowling at you instead of praising God? That’s not so appropriate.

I naively believed, when I became Grandview’s minister, that there were two styles of music and worship vying for top dog status. If only! There is the stuff from the 70s (I grew up singing these things ... “in the stars His handy woooOOORk I see..”), 80s contemporary, 90s contemporary (we haven’t made it to the 2000s yet), old-time gospel music, classic hymns of the church, and more.

I can’t remember what I was told when I joined Grandview, but what I heard was that some people wanted contemporary while others wanted traditional worship. I made all sorts of bad assumptions about what that meant. I operated under those assumptions until one day when Charles Taber (man ... I miss Charles Taber!) told me the following story. The story came at me from left field when I was asking his opinion on the worship issues. I wish I had followed up on the conversation with him. I have since learned more about it from his wife, Betty.

“There was a time when this church fell into a leadership crisis,” Charles told me one day, “they needed leaders and they asked some of us from Milligan and Emmanuel to step into leadership. We did ... and we stole their church.”

If you’re like me, you just did a double take.

That’s when I began to realize that some people at Grandview weren’t interested in the grand hymns or the contemporary choruses. They were pining for Fanny Crosby songs. I discovered that even though I was trying to respect Grandview’s worshiping past, I was unaware of the fullness of that past; mostly because the ones who wanted to sing “those” kinds of songs kept their preferences to themselves. They quietly endured songs they didn’t enjoy.

And now the issue gets trickier. If changes to worship style were made without due consensus, then the people who made those changes might be at least a little bit fearful that other people who want to make changes will do so without due consensus. That fearfulness is, I think, at the heart of the angst surrounding the worship.

Want to make the problem trickier? If those leaders had not “stolen” the church then Grandview would most likely still be Virginia Street Church of Christ and most of you would be worshiping somewhere else--and I wouldn’t be the minister. The decisions we make today send ripples into our future as a church.

My personal goal for worship, though, is not tied to any one style. Ephesians 5:19-21 says the following:

“Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

I’ve asked people I trust about the difference between a psalm, a hymn and a spiritual song. I’m not aware of anybody who has answered that question (Isaac Schade is thinking of making this his thesis topic in completion of his M.Div.--go Isaac!!!). I assume, though, that the Apostle Paul sang at least three distinctly styles (types?) of songs.

Back to our theme: how do we use our past in service of the Kingdom of God? How do we move BEYOND where we’ve been? For me the lesson is clear. If worship is an offering from us to God then it will need to reflect the gifts God has given us. God has given us a wide range of musical talents and tastes and we need to use them in worship. This means our worship should be less centered on a specific style and more centered on using the gifts of the people who are here. If we (as Ephesians 5:21 suggests) submit to one another out of reverence for Christ then we will value each others' gifts and celebrate those gifts with them in worship.

Only when we love each other more than we love our preferences will worship become what God intends it to be. Are you seeing a theme? Yesterday’s post wasn’t meant to be anti-intellectual, it was meant to point out that regardless of our intellectual standing God calls us to love those who aren’t like us. The same is true for worship styles. Worshiping well is important, but we need to express love to people whose gifts in worship don’t match our tastes.

In Luke 1:68-79, Zechariah bursts forth in song because of the gift of a son named John (the immerser!). He sings out “This was the oath God swore to our father Abraham, to set us free from the hands of our enemies, free to worship without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.” Our worship should be holy. Our worship should be righteous (right). And our worship should express the freedom God has given us to proclaim God’s greatness.

That doesn’t mean we need to be oblivious to the differences between appropriate and inappropriate worship. I believe the fear some of us feel is simply that our style will be lost if we give an inch. This post is a call to trust each other enough to sing each others' songs--together.

Tomorrow's Post: Aspect #3
A Surprising Willingness to Change