Worship Articles

As I procrastinate today, I just wanted to post a couple of articles that have helped shape some of my thoughts on worship.
Anti Excellence http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/46/46-pierson.php
Worship Curator http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/48/48-pierson.php

I'm not sure how all this plays out in real life, but they sure present some interesting alternatives.

The cool thing about being Anti-Excellence and being a Worship Curator is that you can foster creativity and diversity, while also fostering rest and flexibility for people that traditionally do all the work. You no longer need to find musicians, a sound tech and a powerpoint operator every week when you allow corporate worship to be expanded beyond the box of singing. The purpose to bringing diversity to Sunday mornings is not to add more to the worship leader's plate ("Now I have to figure out how to integrate a poem into Sunday morning") but to allow the Worship leader rest as he/she allows someone else to lead through different media.

Mike

Prodigal Son or Compassionate Father

I was reading Luke 15 today in the New English Translation (NET) Bible.

Something struck me in the heading of two sections:
15:11-The Parable of the Compassionate Father

What?? I have never seen that one before. Well, I had--in all the other versions, it is usually called "The Parable of the Prodigal Son"

I think I like "Compassionate Father" more, because although the story seems to be about the son, it really is about the father. The punchline of the story and the hope it gives us has much less to do with the fact that we reject our Father, as the prodigal son did--but that our Father is compassionate towards us when we come back home. The Father could have, rightly so, told his son to get out of his sight or could have just made him a common servant, but he didn't. He welcomed him back with open arms and prepared a feast to celebrate. It is really the story of a compassionate father, not of a prodigal son...

Mike

What if we had poets in the church?

I want to take my earlier post on worship in the church further.

Having played a role in the worship ministry at my previous church, I know that one criticism that contemporary worship music gets is that it is shallow, repetitive, at times narcissistic and 'me centered.' Often in church singing, we say and claim more about us (and the things we are doing and are going to do) than we say about God. Often people say that we need to go back to 'the good old hymns' because they have the depth that is lacking.

I want to make it clear that I am making a generalization at this point. There are good examples and bad examples of contemporary worship music (as well as good and bad examples of hymns). My point isn't to pick out which ones are good and bad. My point is to wonder what our worship gatherings and even the worship music itself would be like, lyrically, if we made prominent worship positions out of those who possess non-musical artistic gifts, like we do with music leaders. What if poets, writers, readers, painters, photographers, were given equal spotlight with the musicians, and allowed to lead worship ministries.

I happen to wonder how much more rich and deep our corporate worship would be if we hadn't kicked all the poets out of the church. How much more depth would there be if lyrics were not written to be sung (being bogged down by having to keep a catchy rhythm or a particular chord progression), but to be simply read. Even if they are adapted to song, how much better would those songs be if music was written around the words, rather than the words around the music.

This isn't just about poets either, what about other types of artists:
I happen to wonder if musicians would be inspired by visual art in the church (more than just pretty PowerPoint backgrounds for their songs). Could a painting or a sculpture inspire us to see a bit more of God's holiness and give us visual pictures of what it means to live for Him? Could visual art help to inspire the poets and musicians?

I don't know that I have the answer to this, but I know that we will never know until the musicians of the church release their grip on corporate worship and allow other forms to enter in. I think that our community and daily worship can be enhanced and inspired by these other art forms. Further, I think that if musicians are willing to step back from the mic and empower other artists in a corporate worship setting, they will gain a whole new source of lyrics and inspiration that they can build into the next generation of worship songs.

I dream of the day where a poet, writer, actor, lighting designer or a painter can be given the role of worship leader in a church community. I dream of a day where worship arts doesn't mean music and then some pretty pictures for lyrics projection. I dream of a day where people who don't like to sing (or aren't good singers) can share their gifts, publicly in a corporate worship setting.


I even dream about the beautiful songs that we may one day sing to our creator if we allow the creativity from those who have been pushed aside to inspire us and our musicians.

Mike