Faith Works 2-8-20
Jeff Gill
Beware the De-legitimization Project
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Last week I talked about dealing with the "worship wars" as akin to meeting a rattlesnake on the path.
Fairly or not, I think it's an issue that both fascinates and horrifies all at the same time, so we can't help but lean in even as we (or at least most ministers) try to stay away from getting bitten.
A few years ago an otherwise intelligent and thoughtful online blog talking about church life said "the worship wars are largely over." For once, I just enjoyed reading the comments for the next week on that post and kept out of it. Apparently in this preacher's neck of the woods, or at least in the quarters he wanders across, the debate is over, but that's not true in the rest of the country.
I'm reminded of a seminary professor I had, a very intelligent and perceptive man, who said in class in 1985 that congregations no longer had expectations of ministers' wives in church activities. He quickly backpedaled to "well, not what they once were" but quickly conceded he had spoken out of turn, and from a lack of detailed awareness. Maybe he was right in certain areas, but in many churches . . .
Peter Drucker, the management consultant, famously said "Culture eats strategy for breakfast." In religious communities, this is the crux of how change does and doesn't work through a system: you can bring in outside consultants or send members out on field trips or hand around books or worksheets or outlines 'til the cows come home, but congregational culture, like any organizational culture, is real, and while often not the same as the governance documents, even more binding. Church culture eats vision strategies for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. How do you change church culture? After nearly forty years of ministry, I will admit: I have no idea.
You may have noticed I have yet to tell you, dear readers, which form of Sunday worship is the right one. The previous column noted the vast amount of ink and/or pixels that were spilled over a church in Minnesota under ambiguous circumstances trying to change from traditional to contemporary worship styles. I said then, and will say again, I think the vehemence of the reaction to the very idea of doing this (and the stern resistance to hearing the narrative change as new elements of the story came out) is the real point of interest here.
I will say, as a practicing parish minister: you can do traditional worship well and faithfully, and a church can do it poorly and without any spirit or Holy Spirit present. And I equally affirm that contemporary worship can be done in a powerful and witnessing sort of way, and it can be canned and tinny and lifeless for all its outward energy. I don't think there's a "right" side on this debate.
The question is two-fold for any congregation: what is the best way to worship the living God in your setting, in our current now, where you are located with the history and congregation you are working from – and if the life and spirit is seeping out of your gathered praise and thanksgiving, who decides and how do you go about changing your worship design?
In some polities (governance structures), it's simple. The minister or priest or presider has the last word. In others, the congregation or delegated representatives have the ultimate say. Even there, though, if the leadership sees a path opening up in the Holy Spirit in a certain direction, and a group says "no, not that way" then there's a clash of cultures ahead, and a challenge for the church to navigate.
What I most dislike in any of these tussles I've been within earshot of is the tendency to defend one's preference by trying to de-legitimize the alternative as awful, un-Christian, even evil. This is the besetting sin of our current political round, to not defend your own best sense of where we should go as well as you can, but to pour your energy and assets into demonizing the other side. I call it the "De-legitimization Project" and it's engaged in all manner of social debates and competing world views.
Let's not do that in worship approaches. There's room for both in the Christian landscape, and I would argue a need for both. For each church, though, there's a need for a healthier approach to how we do our discernment around when and how we make even the smallest changes, let alone the big ones that sometimes have to come.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's probably not done on this subject, but you knew that. Tell him what you've wondered about worship at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
