BeChurch

Ok.... So I guess I'm going to write my first "real" post to this blog. I don't mean to start with all guns blazing or anything, but I was just reading an article on the ooze and it started my brain working. The article was about recapturing mystery in the church and also about the value of liturgy. The author talked about how she left an old stuffy liturgical church for something more "rock and roll". The liturgy thing was just getting old and it wasn't real any more. Just a bunch or words.

I didn't grow up in the church so I don't know a much about the whole super traditional liturgy thing. My experience of christian culture has mostly been in the sphere of charismatic, "relevant" church. You know... loud music, lots of fun, all the newest christian worship hits. Since I haven't experienced the liturgical worhip thing the only understanding I have of it comes from what I've managed to learn from friends who grew up in it or from articles that I've read about it. From what I've been able to gather, it seems to me that one of the reasons that people are/have been leaving this traditional worship style is that they feel that it is dead and lifeless. That the words have lost all meaning and are now, well, just words! The meaning of the liturgies and prayers has been taken away and now people just say them because that's just what you do at church.

I've heard so many people say that they are sooo happy that they are going to a new church where there is "freedom" and 'life" and they don't have to conform to an old, dead system of worship. Maybe they're right and they have found a new freedom, but for me I feel almost the opposite.

This whole "contemporary" church thing is so predictable. In the beginning when it was all new it seemed so "cutting edge" and different, but now that I've seen it from the perspective of a leader and now what goes on behind the scenes it's just as liturgical as anything else.

It seems that every week when I go to church (no matter where I go as long as it's a "contemporary" church) It's the same old thing. It's like we have a liturgy of our own. Now, it varies a little from place to place, but I think that for the most part it's all the same.

greeting, worship, speaking, end. Sometimes there's a coffee break in there and sometimes they skip the greeting, but this is pretty standard. It's just the way it flows. the part that really gets me though (apart from almost the whole thing) is the modern worship liturgy that we try to pretend doesn't exist. We pride ourselves (especially in the Vineyard or other churches like it) of having this super intense, intimate, and relevant worship. Man... it's so not true! Most of the time it's like a big christian juke box. We always sing the hits! The hippest new songs! As long as it's cool it fits into our liturgy. The worship leader will pick the songs that he/she thinks are COOL (the same ones he/she thought were cool last week) and we'll all sing along like at a campfire.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but after a while the words don't mean anything anymore!!!! Especially after you've sung them a thousand times. They just become part of the tune. It's like when I listen to Radiohead or a band like that. Half the time I don't even know what the heck he's saying I just kind of make some noise that sounds like it fits. When I first became a christian it was all new and the words really touched me, but after four years of singing the same christian hits week after week the words have all just faded away into a big blur of sound.

I swear.. If I heave to sing "fall on me" one more time I'll puke!!!! It's so played out... actually... every song is so played out! It has lost all meaning! It's almost like singing period has lost all meaning. We just do it because that's what you do at church!
I think that if God ever opens the doors for me to start a church I'll get rid of the singing at least twice a month. We'll only sing every second week or maybe only once a month. That way singing will be special and will have some value. The way it is now it doesn't mean anything. We just do it for the sake of doing it! (no matter what we say in that "heart of worhip song")

I honestly think that a "contemporary" church would melt down if all of a sudden the leadership got rid of the sing along. I don't think people will be able to figure out what to do instead of singing. It would be like getting rid of communion at a church that does it every week. What would they do to fill the time!?! I think there would be chaos. Especially if you asked people to spend the time worshiping through prayer instead of music. Could you do it? I couldn't! I'd be falling asleep after like 5 minutes!!! Church attendance would start dropping week after week until all that the only people who are left are the 2 or 3 people who are actually there to spend time with God and not the intense, intimate and relevant music. The crazy thing is that I'd probably be one of the people streaming out the doors! But I don't want to be. I want to rediscover the authenticity and wonder in worship. I just wonder where I'll find it!
* imagine the chaos that it would cause if you got rid of both the music and the preaching! There would be no reason to go to church!

The reason I'm going off about this is that it seems that everyone I talk to feels the same way, but no one will speak up about it or try anything different. We're afraid of losing the people (and their tithes) and we're afraid of being bored, or uncomfortable, or maybe just alone with God and no noise. the same people who tell me that they're so happy they go to a "lively" church are also telling me that they feel the words from the songs don't mean anything anymore. Isn't that the problem they had at the stuffy litrugical church that they left? It's the same crap...different pile. I guess I'm just looking for an alternative. Do will kill the music for a while so that people unlearn the habit, or do we limit the music. Do we try new songs that no one knows every week, or maybe just songs that have crappy melodies so that no one can get into a groove and follow along. I really don't know! I"ve been wrestling with this one for a while!

# posted by Jamie @ 4/10/2003

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