Over at lublink.ca there is an interesting conversation going on about the “emerging church” and whether it is a valid model of church. The bit that stuck out for me was a comment that:
…sitting around drinking coffee is not an acceptable substitute for going to a more traditional worship service. IMHO.
Now what I’m intrigued about is what constitutes “worship” and in particular what constitutes corporate worship, which I think is the issue that is really at hand.I’m not sure I have a real answer to the question myself, but I’m slowly but surely realising that true corporate worship is not constrained anywhere near as much as the boxes we try to put it into.
For example I can cast my mind back to a conversation I had with a small group of people when I worked for the Anglican Church in the UK. The people involved were friends and colleagues and they were having a discussion about the merits of “happy, clappy worship”. Two people in particular were extremely opposed to this medium saying that the root of any spiritual experience within it was caused by emotion rather than the Holy Spirit!
Being in a corps at a time that was well and truly within the “happy, clappy” branch of expression this did not sit too happily with me. Now these two came from what has been called the “Bells & Smells” form, ie the form that is firmly in the classical music and incense burning end of the worship spectrum. I questioned them that the same could surely be of this style of worship. I was told in no uncertain terms that to question a form of worship that had been proven over many years and had given them deep and personal experiences of God was totally uncalled for and simply proved their point!
More than anything I think this shows just how deeply attached we are to the styles of worship that we are used to. We feel comfortable in them and this can very easily lead to us believing that this expression is the only valid form and that God is unable to speak to us through anything else!
Now I won’t begin to claim that I have experienced all types of worship but I have been in many styles. Even so I’m not sure I would find Brethren style worship or Quaker styles very easy to cope with.
So that brings us back to the question in hand. Can the emerging church with it’s widely varied styles of worship which are often very different to the ways of corporate worship we are used to really be an “acceptable substitute”?
Peter and Sarah, thanks for some very provoking thoughts about the emerging church movement. I too am trying to discern its implication in my own ministry.
The current generation on the one hand seems tired of “traditional church”, yet is thirsty for a meaningful encounter with God. In this way, I see the emerging church movement as outreach. Still, the people need to be nourished and need to encounter the living God - will they find it in the emerging church? Maybe, I don’t know yet, I am not familiar enough with the movement.
While it is true that the Lord is present when two or three are gathered in His name, worship is more much than that - it is a deeply encounter with God, using all our senses. If the emerging church can facilitate this, great!