“In worship we keep an appointment with God. [God] comes to us with grace, even though we are a fallen people. Without [God’s] grace we would choke on the hay and stubble type of requirements life forces on us every day. Worship unchokes us.

We can come to worship with hopes or doubts, fears or expectations; we can come in pain or in joy. The only way we cannot approach real worship is casually. There are no casual hymns, or preludes, or prayers, or anthems, or offerings, or amens. Worship is love. We don’t approach love casually. It is both joyful and serious.

In the late 1960s, perceptive people began to strive for renewal in worship. The old would no longer do and was declared phony or empty. They questioned whether traditional practices and symbols had contemporary meaning.

New voces were proclaiming a ‘post-Christian era.’ Some even said: ‘God is dead. The church is no more than an escape mechanism for the aging. Preachers should be confined to the streets. And worship – it’s meaningless.’

Church leaders panicked. Some cried:

‘Jazz it up!’

‘Let the streets write the agenda,’

‘Put some life into it!’

‘Come hear our choir. It’s what’s up front that counts!’

‘Make the church swing, baby!’

These slogans became the battle cry of those who wanted to rescue the church from the death of dull worship.

Hope for new life was legitimate. Many shared in it. However, sometimes the means toward good ends became ends in themselves. Eager ministers and musicians began experimenting.

It is hard to believe that anyone really expected dancers in leotards and Coca-Cola Communions to become the norm for Sunday morning worship, but such things claimed our attention. Many persons in the pews deplored the ‘shock treatment.’

Some worship leaders felt that all we needed to do was to adopt new media for communication. The Old World learned by reading. Then suddenly we were in a world of instantaneous reality. Television offered a higher deegree of participation and was more emotional than a dull diet of words.

Those most hungry for new media, the synthesizer sound effects and reversed screens, were young people whom Marshall McLuhan called the ‘post-literate’ generation. They were not so much interested in what was said in church. Their question was, ‘What happened?‘ They became bored with the lack of action. ‘We sing a few eighteenth-century hymns, say a creed, and pray. But nothing really happens,’ they said.

Yet the hope for revitalizing worship is not in ‘jazzing it up.’ Nothing is gained by substituting dull liturgy with ‘lit-orgy.’ This term is not mine but was first used by Paul Hoon in The Integrity of Worship (p. 298; Abingdon Press, 1971). The promise for more meaningful worship is not faster tempo but in better understanding.” (17-19)

Shortly after these words Tom Are posits about Christian worship – and offers extended exposition that this post will not be able to include as a result of space limitations.

“If worship is to have theological integrity, there are several boundaries that must be observed.

“1. Christian worship must be a reverent response to the Creator, God.

2. Christian worship is centered in Christ.

3. Christian worship has integrity only when mediated by the Holy Spirit.

A sensitive person has respect for emotions. Anytime we have an awareness of God’s presence, it is an emotional experience.

Some leaders of worship, however, not really convinced that the person in the pew would recognize the presence of God, decide to play it safe. They learn how to produce emotional experiences, especially with music, as proof of God’s presence. Others reject this empty substitute and label it sentimentality. It is shallow and phony and divorced from reason and reality. Perhaps they overcompensate.

Emotion and reason are not in opposition to each other. The gospel is good news and our worship is an emotional response. The presence of God is known through feelings. In short, God is felt.

Worship is exciting and too deep for logic. It is no casual happening. It moves beyond theology. Worship becomes doxology.” (19-24)

These last four posts have set the stage for me to begin writing my thoughts about worship, church, music, and such – and while I do not fully know how this will develop – I am absolutely sure of one thing – PLAYING IT SAFE IS NOT THE CORRECT DIRECTION – CHRISTIANITY NEEDS TO BE RADICAL TO BE GENUINE – A COMFORTABLE ENVIRONMENT LIKELY DOES NOT CREATE OR COMMUNICATE DOXOLOGY! More to follow – grace and peace.

Are, Thomas L. Faithsong: A New Look at the Ministry of Music. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981.