1 / 28

Worship in the Emerging Church: What Resonates with Post-Christians

Worship in the Emerging Church: What Resonates with Post-Christians. Dan Kimball, Sally Morganthaler CCN seminar – May, 2005. Definition of Worship. “To bow down,” prostrate Submission to Lordship of Jesus Christ Encounter. The Cosmic Work of God.

betty_james
Download Presentation

Worship in the Emerging Church: What Resonates with Post-Christians

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Worship in the Emerging Church: What Resonates with Post-Christians Dan Kimball, Sally Morganthaler CCN seminar – May, 2005

  2. Definition of Worship • “To bow down,” prostrate • Submission to Lordship of Jesus Christ • Encounter

  3. The Cosmic Work of God • Early Christian response to the presence and work of God: • Psalms, hymns, songs • Prayers • Communion • Proclaiming the story • However we package worship, these are the crucial elements

  4. Changes in Culture, Changes in Worship • Culture: “VABEs” • From Judeo-Christian to post-Christian • Post-European • Generational issues: music, language, dress, worldview

  5. Modern values Excellence (tightly run worship experience) Cognitive and conceptual learning through one-way preaching Sometimes, the removal of ancient or spiritual Going to church Postmodern values Avoiding any sense of performance (relationship and chemistry trump excellence) Experiential learning through interactive teaching encounter trumps information Palette of senses Sometimes, the desire of roots, history, and supernatural Being the church Worldview Gap: From Modern to Postmodern

  6. Teens and 20s in Church? • Barna: 4% of GenX in leadership in any church • Emerging generations have the lowest rate of church connection of any generation • Emerging generations suffer from being “hyper-spiritual” rather than being too secular

  7. Remix • Ancient-future • Multi-cultural • Narrative • Instead of abstract or bullet points • Collaborative • From print to broadcast to interactive digital

  8. What does it look like? • From primarily cognitive “graphs” • Order of worship • Preaching and singing • to palettes of visual and tactile experiences

  9. From Program to Gathering • Not a performance but hosting a gathering of people to experience God • Hospitality issues of atmosphere

  10. The Palette Brushes • Prayer • Involves the community of faith as co-creators of the worship they will experience • Scripture • We are not elevating simply the human experience, but the story of God that catches up our human experience

  11. Priesthood of All Believers • Richly textured worship among co-creators • Beyond McDonalds to gift-based, passion-driven expression of the community of faith

  12. Preaching in the Emerging Church • Preaching: “heralding” or “proclaiming” • Not ourselves, but The Story • From: male, up-front, wordy, bullet-points • To: oral/aural, visual, tactile, interactive, kinesthetic

  13. How we learn and retain • 10%: what we hear • 15%: what we see • 20%: what we hear and see • 60%: what we do • 80%: what we do with reflection • 90%: what we teach

  14. In every classroom there are: • 2 auditory learners • 4 visual learners • 4 tactile-kinesthetic learners • Chinese proverb: “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand”

  15. The point of teaching … • Is learning • Not just a matter of the preacher saying, “I did my job, hope they get it!” • We teach in different ways so that people will be more likely to learn and be transformed

  16. Creating a culture of dialogue • Via small groups • Reflection opportunities • Post-preaching dialogues • Beyond answer-spew and into engagement • Early churches met in houses – they had opportunities for dialogue • From news-anchor to the blog • From “preacher has all the answers” to push-back on the blog

  17. Sacred Space and Environment • Worship spaces in the Bible: • Garden of Eden • Jacob’s pillar (Gen.28:18) • Tabernacle • Temple • Synagogue • House churches

  18. Sacred Space and Environment • Worship spaces post-Bible: • Basilica (co-opted government town hall space) • Cathedral (pulpit replaces altar as center; no chairs till 1400s) • Lecture hall (after printing press) • Tent and auditorium space • Revivalism reflected in architecture tilting toward theatre • Non-religious theatre

  19. Sacred Space Reflects Values • If there is a desire for a sense of the transcendent, then how would the worship space look and feel? • What value does your space communicate? • How does our space help us connect to God and each other? • If you value “response,” is there room for people to move?

  20. Music in the Emerging Church • Recent excesses of musical worship emphasis: • Turning the leader into a star • Equating music with worship • Imbalance of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs • Imbalance of celebration and lament • Music not often enough the “servant art,” too often the “lead art”

  21. Music in the Emerging Church • Spontaneous worship • Pay attention to lyrics and theology of songs • Introducing ancient songs and hymns

  22. Not just teaching the importance of prayer but providing actual time, space, and permission to do it Creating non-chaotic prayer stations which enhance teaching and offer places of spontaneous response Making sure you have times and places in worship that give people opportunity to move and respond Offering places of conversation in worship Lord’s Supper? Offertory? Prayer time? Prayer Stations and Interactive Response

  23. Use of artists within the community Indigenous expression Artists, poets, photographers, web designers, hobbyists “Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts to make artistic designs …” Exodus 31:1-4 Art in the Emerging Church

  24. Film in Emerging Worship • Have clip be a catalyst for response • Use film to set a “vibe” • Use during message, times of meditation • Sometimes more difficult to produce indigenously and thus easier to buy

  25. Some Final “Don’ts” … • Don’t begin experimenting, make sure you teach the “why” and theology behind it. • Don’t necessarily begin with sweeping changes, but incremental, subtle changes. • Don’t just copy another church; make your worship an expression of the gifts and passions of the people God has brought here. • Don’t create “worship consumers” by focusing too much on the performance of worship.

  26. Some Final “Do’s” … • Do start without waiting for huge budget and technology helps. • Do keep Jesus in the center of planning creative worship gatherings. • Do be mindful of how much money and time we spend on creative worship vs. what we are doing with the poor and needy and in fulfilling God’s call for us in the world.

  27. Resources • www.vintagefaith.com • www.sacramentis.com • www.ccn.tv – worship seminars on DVD • www.midnightoil.com • www.churchmedia.net • www.sermonspice.com • www.highwayvideo.com • www.barnafilms.com • www.angelhouse.com

  28. Worship in the Emerging ChurchWhat Resonates with Post-Christians Dr. John P. Chandler www.rasnet.org John.chandler@vbmb.org Copy right John P. Chandler, 2005

More Related