Two online headlines caught my attention this week:
The first, a blog post responding to a recent talk Francis
Chan gave where he stated,
“If I just read the Scriptures, I wouldn’t even think so much about the gathering. You know–Like, my first thought wouldn’t be, “Let’s have a gathering.” Out of the Scriptures, I would think, “I’m on a mission. Like, I love this God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and now I’ve got to go out and make disciples.”
The second, a post poking at the topic of
preaching. Will preaching be the
same lecture based, 20-40 minute talk in the future?
Both articles really provoked me to think about the
future of worship.
I get what Francis Chan is saying. We focus so much on the gathering, on
the Sunday morning event, that we can easily lose focus on living for Christ the rest of the week. We focus so much
on what has become a production of sorts that we’ve lost focus on the
mission. I agree with that. But…I also think he’s sort of created a
false dichotomy between worship and mission. We can’t have one without the other.
So what is the future of the two held
in tension? This is something my
generation struggles to understand, grasp, and see in the church today. To be sure, there are many churches who
get this tension and see worship and mission as both being vital to healthy
Christian living, but there are so many others still caught up in worship wars
or in trying to prove they are doing the most ‘missional’ work in the
community. I’m asking, how can we move forward in worship and mission so we don’t
lose even more young people to cynicism and doubt in the leadership of the church?
Though I preach only 7 times per year or so in “big
people church,” I have often thought about the future of preaching. Can we continue to expect people to sit and listen for 20+ minutes without interaction, dialogue, or
opportunity to discuss/interact with the biblical material? What is the future of preaching? As I process my experiences with today’s youth both in youth
ministry settings and “big people church,” I see that they are extremely
distracted, easily lose focus, and aren’t afraid to show that by texting,
surfing the web, or playing games during worship. Again, will we continue to preach and teach in the same way
and risk losing more young people?
I don’t have answers. I’m asking questions, and in some ways that’s safer, easier,
less risky. However, I know that a generation MUST eventually answer these questions. We must critically evaluate what we do in worship, and how we model and lead in mission, if we are to further the kingdom and keep
each others’ eyes focused on Jesus.
4 comments:
The whole texting during worship thing is somethinf I can certainly relate to, its very disconcerting...
You have an awesome blog, I love reading it!
Now maybe I'm just old school but I think discussion of sermons is something you do after the sermon over lunch or at bible study. I'm all for interaction services with communion but for me, sunday morning sermons have a specific place. But perhaps being even 26 I am still too much of the older generation in how I choose worship.
btw, Chad, this is John Pinney. I should totes put a link to my blog here, shouldn't I?
I've seen some like Mark Driscoll use texts or tweets during a sermon to be interactive, and it worked okay, but that really doesn't get at the need we each have to wrestle with scripture.
I thing we need to look at other ways to gather or provide discussion time and ways to "regather" if we really want to work the word into our lives.
thanks for the comments everyone! it's all exciting to think about!
Post a Comment