I was listening to NPR yesterday and they were reading emails from listeners about a story involving an Episcopal church that was having its tax-exempt status investigated because the pastor questioned the Iraq war in a sermon last year around the time of the election. One person emailed in saying it was limiting free speech and the government can’t regulate what is being preached in churches. The other email was much more interesting and reflects what I think is wrong with American Christianity. The woman wrote that she believes the church and state should be completely separate and she doesn’t want to hear politics when she goes to church. She said that the service is her time to worship and be with God and should be just that, HER TIME.
I’ve noticed that in my life and in most church services I see worship is a selfish endeavor. It’s my time with God and it needs to be done in a way that is appealing to me. I’ve caught myself thinking and saying several times lately that I don’t feel like I’ve worshiped corporately for the last six months. I don’t know what to do with these thoughts. I feel like I learned how to worship at Christ Community but increasingly I also feel trapped by a form of worship. If worship becomes a matter of preference then I am just as egocentric in my worship as the woman who only wants to hear “spiritual” words in her time with God.
On the other hand can I worship corporately in a service that is centered on being relevant and appealing to the community of consumers in which the church building sits. I learned at Christ Community that corporate worship is an act of selflessness. A celebration of what God is doing in the scattered community and an offering to God given by the gathered community. I became used to a thoughtful and structured corporate movement towards God in worship. Now I just see us going through a sentimental range of motions and words that lead us to feeling. God becomes nothing more than an emotion.
I am struggling through these thoughts and I am trying to embrace the community because I must. The difficult part is trying to be a prophetic voice within the community and trying to move the community out of egocentric worship and service while feeling like I haven’t worshiped corporately because the service isn’t what I like. I am sure there is movement that needs to be made by both parties and I am encouraged by what I see happening in some of the people and in my life.
This is the problem with American Christianity. We are so used to having things our way that when we don’t we know that someone else is offering a better and more appealing product. Consuming is so much a part of us that it seems natural. Only in becoming a disciple of the master and dedicating ourselves to his teachings and communion with the Spirit can we begin to love God and love neighbor.
my time
Posted by David at 12:20 AM
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6 comments:
Had this conversation with a former Rasta from Trinidad who began following Jesus as an alternative to drugs and heavy crime. His name is Marcus. We talked about how void "christian" labeled music and worship/gospel music is of anything social (which makes it void of everything real). Being that we both know so much of Bob Marley's lyrics and context, we began sharing how he affected our lives in our very different contextual situations.
For myself, I only began to understand what it looked like to follow Jesus through hearing socially conscience music like Bob Marley or Bob Dylan.
All that to say, I usually take a walk outside during traditional or contemporary corporate worship because it is so ugly and oppressive - However, I find myself worshiping God anytime I am singing and/or dancing to music that is actually about community, peace, suffering, and injustice at a show (big or small), or just with friends in my living room.
Also, I am not sure of any hymns being sung that were written pre-enlightenment - why would they be anything other than hyper-individualistic in nature?
Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth." - John 4
Unity with God and each other. Honesty about our brokenness. That's what God wants from us man.
Kyle, I wonder if you've lost perspective. Do you really think everything "modern" has been evil? Or that you can sum up 500 years as "hyper-individualism? Such thinking is very irresponsible and reflects a lack of historical understanding. Just because we may disagree with much of what the Church is the US has become we shouldn't disparage what God did through his people during that time. People in the modern era like Luther, Calvin, Wesley, C.S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, Nouwen, Merton, M.L. King Jr. etc. would challenge you to gain some perspective. I guess I just don't want you to start thinking too highly of your own thoughts. That's when you end up in the mess we're in right now. You know I've got nothing but respect for you man. Peace...
Great stuff DH. I think I may have come across as promoting that you (my brother) need to just suck it up and be connected and truthful. I didn't mean it like that. I agree with Kyle that sometimes worship in our context is oppressive. Not because I don't like the songs (or because I may be postmodern in my thinking), but because we are neither connected nor honest. I feel for you in this situation. I feel responsible for not being open and honest with you in the first place.
I know that denominations like the Nazarene Church need entire communities that will bridge the gap and lead us into a place where we can be "true worshipers". We've got to get to the place (far from our PC culture) where we can openly say that we see major flaws in our community, worship, compassion, etc. while at the same time desiring for those things to be brought into alignment with God's Kingdom. Loving the Church so much that we are willing to be persecuted for it (by the very people that make it up). You need to be able to say about New Albany, "Our worship is oppressive to me. I am not connected to anyone and I can't be honest about it or about who I am." I want to be able to do this with the same kind of love and reluctance that the prophets had. Reluctance because they loved the people so much, but action and honesty because the loved God and the people so much.
I've got some possibilities for bridging the gap. I'm trying to work it out now. I'll get back with you soon...
John,
I will say that I do not trust anything that is "modern", rather than defining it as evil. I don't think that I ever disparage what God has done and is doing through all of our humanness, but do disparage the direction in which we are still going, even as an "emerging" church. There is still no honesty of our brokenness, just a changing of the guard - to protect our religion, rather than letting it go.
I have some developing thoughts on some possible connections that I have made in the past few days, that seem to apply here, and I hope to post about them. I hope to get your perspective.
500 years - I do want to study further, and am by no means in a position to make many of the conclusions I make, but I make them anyways so if they are not true, they will be debunked from someone who knows - then I may believe it to be something other than a movement of the individual.
great discussion. tb, bub, david, thanks for the replies they have been very helpful.
I guess I've come to a point where I realize that I don't pick my neighbor or my community and if I really believe this kingdom message then I better start living it. I don't want to be a Nazarene or anything else, but here I am. I'm labled, for better or for worse, and I guess that's ok with me because labels come from outside of myself. I also feel as though I have finally learned to worship in all aspects of my life and I have definatley found myself worshipping to the songs of Dylan, Marley and many others who would not be considered "Christian". But I still long for authentic worship with the community of faith. More and more I want that to happen at New Albany Nazarene. I want to shed the mask and take the risk for the sake of the kingdom message.
Maybe only a few will really hear and I guess that's all I really expect. I haven't shared this transformation with anyone here, David. It's sad that no one in my community knows this radical change Christ's kingdom announcement has made in my life. That's all I care about now. I'm tired of waiting for the "right" community. It's time to tell the Church to be the light, and wherever I am they will hear it because the kingdom has come and I have commited myself to Christ and thus the Church.
Not really any thing to do with the jist of your post but... If the gov't makes rules that say if your church does certain stuff you lose your tax exempt status then that's fine cause the gov't has everyright to do that. So if we want to say things that the gov't says we can't with a tax exempt status then we just give back our status and then we can say what ever we want. I get so ticked off when I hear churches saying that can't say or do what they want to because they are afraid of losing their tax exempt status. Since when is our tax exempt status our god?
kp
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