Too Much Bono in the Church? –– Part Two

Is it possible that one of the unintended consequences of spectacular worship is that it teaches us we cannot truly worship God without the lights, band, and sound system? For all the good it can offer, might our programs accidentally reinforce the belief that people can only fully encounter God in a rocking church? This is worth considering.

Instead of putting all our resources into providing “amazing worship experiences” every Sunday, what if we spent an equal amount of energy teaching people how to have eyes to see God all week long? Yes, God can be experienced powerfully as we sing at the top of our lungs, and I hope we keep doing that. But God can also be experienced in our conversation with the stressed-out cashier at Target, if we have eyes to see. And God can be found while cutting the lawn, riding the subway, giving our kids a bath, weeping with a broken-hearted friend, and taking that first glorious sip of coffee in the morning. The question is not, “Is God in all those moments?” God is fully everywhere, for it is in God we live, move, and have our being. The question is whether we have eyes to see.

Thus a gracious, holistic church will offer its community wise practices, clear teaching, and safe spaces in which to cultivate eyes to see and worship God every moment from the sanctuary to the soccer field to the dinner table. . .

Church communities are not consumers to be entertained or donors to be appeased. They are instead God’s deeply loved daughters and sons who need to be lovingly pastored. How can we make sure we are pastoring them well? Get clear about the question you ask that drives your worship choices. The question we ask will direct the outcome. If the driving (functional) question is, “How do we get the room pumped up in the first thirty minutes of the church service?” the answer will never be, “Corporate confession.” Or prayer for the world. Or silence. Or blessing our enemies. Or an extended reading from scripture. Or lament. Or lectio divina (reading scripture in order to pray). But if the question is, “How do we form each person into Christlikeness for the sake of the world?” then all of the above will be deeply necessary and healing. And such a gift to all who are on the treadmill of figuring out how to top last Sunday. I recommend that each ministry team try to name the question driving what you do. (Not the question you know you should be asking and answering, but the actual question framing your church and ministry.) Very little can change until this question changes.

A gracious, holistic church will offer its community wise practices, clear teaching, and safe spaces to discern the questions driving us and allow God to give birth to new, deeper, and more life-bringing questions.

Aaron Niequist is a worship leader, songwriter, and pastor. Currently, he curates a discipleship-focused, formational, ecumenical, practice-based community called “The Practice” at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois.

Aaron Niequist, “Too Much Bono in the Church?” Liturgy 32, no. 1 (2017): 42-45.

What is Good Worship?

The January 2014 issue of Liturgy asked the question “What is Good Worship?” Guest Editor E. Byron Anderson’s explanation for posing this question covers a lot of ground, regarding the issue as important  

. . . not only because of the variety of possible answers, but also because the ways in which individuals and communities answer it are, along with questions about musical style, among the more contested and contentious discussions in church life today.

– E. Byron Anderson is the Styberg Professor of Worship, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois.   

Here is the link to Anderson’s full introduction:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0458063X.2014.867133#.U-0EzUvtjRo.

Anderson further makes the point that taste is not the only arbiter for what is "good" worship. And to give some truth to that claim, here is a sample of one insightful pastor’s experience at a small church he ventured into as a stranger and a worshipper. It is offered here to support those small congregations that do not concern themselves with being trendy but rather invest themselves in what is nourishing at the deepest level.

Perhaps I should not admit this for national publication, but I usually do not attend worship when I am on vacation because I have experienced too much bad worship. It has been depressing to experience liturgical language that remains exclusively patriarchal and narrow, preaching that skates across the surface with fifteenth-century cliché, and music that could have used some preparation or, at least, a fresh arrangement. On the opposite end of the perspective, I have been to worship services that so desperately want to be relevant that any hint of a tradition is erased by leaders who are convinced that blue jeans and a visible tattoo can reverse every sociological trend in church decline.

 However, with a serious illness in the family, we needed the Eucharist during this year's vacation. We needed a community to pray around us, to offer a greater thanksgiving than we could muster ourselves, and to sing a few sturdy hymns that might gently nurture our faith. . . [W]e found [a Lutheran congregation] online that promised a wide welcome, liturgical worship, and weekly Eucharist. Our only fear was that, because it looked like a very small community, we would be more conspicuous than seemed comfortable. Truth be told, I was afraid that we would be invited to stand and introduce ourselves to a room of strangers. However, our deep yearning for healing proved to be more important than maintaining our introverted security, so we went to church. 

 We found a small congregation of about forty people, meeting in a sanctuary built in the simple, adobe style of the American Southwest. . . It was late in the Easter season, so the bulletin outlined a full version of the Eucharistic liturgy with nothing left out: Thanksgiving for Baptism, a procession with the choir, Kyrie, Hymn of Praise, three lessons, a psalm, an extended Gospel acclamation, a fully expositional sermon on the appointed long text from John, the Nicene Creed, two choir anthems, Prayers of the People with enough time for members of the congregation to add their own petitions, a Eucharistic prayer with every sung response, Easter hymns. . . a Paschal blessing, a recessional, and an energetic sending. . .

 This little church celebrated its liturgical heritage, relishing every alleluia, letting the symbols of water, word, bread, and wine be clear and open. Yet there was no hint of the kind of rubrical pretentiousness. . . There was no apparent anxiety that a lay assistant might do the wrong thing, no military-style precision, and a wide variety of people participating in leadership, some with much experience and some still learning their way. The liturgy was reverent, honest, inclusive, joyful, and relevant. Most of all, it felt authentic.  

– Bradley E. Schmeling is the pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota.

The question about "good" worship remains for all of us in the assembly and in leadership to ponder weekly. What is nourishing? What is distracting? What helps to "build up" the body of Christ? What calls more attention to the presider, preacher, musician, or special effects than to the triune God? How is a leader of worship to be transparent to the Lord? Certainly, Pastor Schmeling has pointed to solid ground, and there is more to read about this.

Welcome to Liturgy. Give yourself an opportunity to mine its riches. 

E. Byron Anderson, “What is Good Worship? An Introduction,” Liturgy 29, no. 2 (31 Jan 2014): 1-2.

Bradley E. Schmeling, “Held in Grace, Pushed Out of the Nest: Worship as Oscillation,” Liturgy 29, no. 2 (31 Jan 2014): 47-51.