Some
Theological Reflections on Seeker Friendly Worship and Alternative Worship for
Non‑Churched People
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INTRODUCTION
Arriving as the Anglican Chaplain at HMS Raleigh in 1998 I was presented with a modern church with a congregation consisting of a core of no more than 20 long term members of the congregation and a transitory group of between 200 and 400 young people aged between sixteen and twenty-seven each week. These young people were new entrants to the Royal Navy and very few had any previous experience of church worship, yet on five of their seven Sundays in New Entry Training they would attend a church service. The existing pattern of a straight Alternative Service Book Rite A Holy Communion seemed quite inappropriate with this group of whom no more than perhaps 20 would be confirmed.[A] The problem was not just that few could receive the bread and wine and the vast majority were excluded from the focus of the event,[B] but that almost every part of the service was culturally foreign to them. My problem was that expressed clearly by Riddell et al: How could these young people “gain the basics of the faith that will enable them to become consistent mature follower[s] of Christ?”[1]
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Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church with CDROM. Jenny Brown, Jonny Baker (Compiler), Doug Gay (Compiler) A resource book & CD-ROM with theoretical and contextual essays about alternative worship |
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In 1999 the Archbishop of Canterbury held a weekend entitled ‘Time of our Lives’ for young people at Lambeth Palace.[C] I took a group of ten young people from Raleigh: volunteers from those suffering from long term injuries and hence temporarily withdrawn from training. These were typical Naval trainees: one of the group was confirmed but the rest had very little church background. We attended an evening service at St Paul’s Cathedral led by the Soul Survivor[D] worship team. Their music was culturally right up to date: it could have been from a club, or from the top 40. This was emphasised to me by the way that, when I asked the young people what they made of the music, they said it was ‘all right,’ but they had not really noticed it. They had noticed the lyrics of the music and they had been bowled over by the content, and the overall experience of the event, but they had not noticed the music. It was a culturally invisible container for the Christian faith. Such invisible packaging was quite new to me.
My response at Raleigh partly involved alternating a somewhat abbreviated but liturgically complete form of ASB (latterly Common Worship) Holy Communion with a non‑eucharistic service. More important was an attempt to come at least part of the way towards using their culture. Appropriate music played on a CD[E] could render culturally foreign content such as creeds and readings palatable. It was played in the background (where occasionally people sang along – notably to secular pieces), or in the foreground creating a framework for an element of worship. In addition I was able to link into parts of Christian culture they could relate to: building on music commonly used in school assemblies we often used hymns from ‘Come and Praise’, the BBC Hymn Book. Further information is given at the Appendix in the form of a short list of ‘hints and tips’ written for other Naval Chaplains.
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Alternative Worship in the Church of England (Grove Books Worship Series). Paul Roberts. Alternative Worship theology and practice in the Church of England |
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It was from my three years at HMS Raleigh, and from the service in St Paul’s in particular, that my interest in worship for the non-churched was sparked. Many years ago a report in Chelmsford diocese spoke of school assemblies as bringing children “to the edge of worship.”[2] That is not enough to offer the non-churched: we sell them short if this is all we provide and we present a false (as inadequate) image of the faith. We should, surely, seek ways to bring them with us into the heart of worship. How this can be done is the question I have sought to explore below. In this Project the term ‘non-churched’ is used to mean those with no church background. Typically this is used to in distinction to the ‘unchurched’: those who have at one time attended a church but have ceased to do so. It should however be borne in mind that there is no universally accepted definition of these terms.[F]
SUMMARY
This Project discusses two styles of incultured worship and their value for the non‑churched: the more conservative[G] Seeker Friendly approach and the more radical Alternative Worship.[H] The term ‘Seeker Friendly’ was first popularised by the (American) Willow Creek Community Church and has been adopted by some churches in the United Kingdom. The term ‘Alternative Worship’ is wider, but includes the concept of being accessible to those outside the culture of the traditional worshipping community. Their similarities and differences are examined, concentrating on their value in the church's mission. Although written from an Anglican perspective much of the discussion both draws on and applies to other traditions.
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The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Generations. Dan Kimball. Postmodern church explained for the mainstream US context. |
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The issue of
postmodernism is central to the discussion and there is a brief look at the
meaning of the term from secular and Christian sources. Seeker Friendly worship is seen as
essentially modernist; Alternative Worship as postmodern. They operate very different models of truth
and hence operate very differently at the interface between Christian truth and
the non-churched. Both seek to be
biblical and to express the faith in an incultured form. Both seek to provide a vehicle through which
churches can attempt to reach the non‑churched.
Similarities
and differences between Seeker Friendly and Alternative Worship are then
analysed. At the personal level their
organisation and leadership, their worshippers and their different attitudes to
congregational involvement and the concept of community are examined. Their
uses of formal liturgy and their approaches to issues of certainty and
provisionality and creativity are then considered, followed by the externals of
their worship: its multi-sensory nature, use of robes and dress, music, art and
technology. The attitude to worship as
evangelism is seen to mark a particular distinction between the two styles of
worship. In a short biblical reflection
worship in the Acts of the Apostles and in 1 Corinthians is considered.
Finally
three questions for the future are raised, and some indications of the scope of
any answers sketched out:
§ Can churches provide adequate teaching for
the churched in a service appropriate for the non-churched?
§ Is there a minimum size of congregation
before Seeker Friendly worship or Alternative Worship become viable?
§ Should, and if so how should, existing
congregations be encouraged into Seeker Friendly worship or Alternative
Worship?
The Project finishes
with the conclusion that both Seeker Friendly worship and Alternative Worship
can be effective vehicles in reaching the non-churched. A short paper about the worship at HMS
Raleigh is included as an appendix.
POSTMODERNISM
The question of postmodernism is central to the discussion below. One explanation of this popular term from a secular source[3] is as follows:
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Contrast of Modern and Postmodern Thinking |
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Modern |
Postmodern |
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Reasoning |
From foundation upwards |
Multiple factors of multiple levels of reasoning. |
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Science |
Universal Optimism |
Realism of Limitations |
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Part/Whole |
Parts comprise[I]
the whole |
The whole is more than the parts |
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God |
Acts by violating natural laws or by "immanence"
in everything that is |
Top-Down causation |
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Language |
Referential |
Meaning in social context through usage |
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Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World. Robert E. Webber. Rethinking evangelicalism for a postmodern world |
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Roberts, writing from a Christian perspective (and interestingly without mentioning God!) includes much of the above and adds that postmodernism includes “affirmative, open‑ended and open‑minded approaches [and] a continued openness to individual experience as a guide, but without trusting it implicitly or absolutely.”[4] Whilst Seeker Friendly worship is essentially a modernist approach, Alternative Worship is postmodern. Thus for example Seeker Friendly worship operates a closed model of truth and is happiest explaining that truth to the non‑churched, whereas Alternative Worship operates open models of truth and speaks in terms of joint exploration of it. There are however many areas of similarity and overlap between them. Both will seek to be biblical, though they may handle the bible and its story in very different ways.[J] Both seek to inculture their worship, and thus to express the faith in terms which can be understood by those not yet part of the faith.
THE PROBLEM STATED: MOTIVES FOR
INCULTURED WORSHIP.
Churches are shrinking
It is a commonplace that the church is not cutting it with young people – or with any group really. Church attendance surveys provide evidence of church attendance declining dramatically over the last 25 years, with the largest denominations suffering particularly badly. Baker focuses in on this: “The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church have each seen Sunday attendance drop between 40% and 50% in the last two decades. It is worst amongst the young.”[5] That worst is very bad, with 1000 young people under 15 leaving the church each week.
The traditional methods of church growth, care for the core and mission to the fringe, will continue for a while at least to work in some places: “don’t let me stop you”[6] says Hill. But even where pews are full the wider local community may be scarcely touched by ‘successful’[K] churches which have abandoned those beyond the fringe. In the parish of St John, Great Clacton where I served my second curacy in the early 1980s we had a full church: 250 or so on a Sunday morning. The Methodist church, the only other place of worship in the parish, would get a creditable 75 or so. Wonderful! But each Sunday there were over nineteen thousand people in the parish not joining us for worship: what of them? The church’s impact looked very different from this different perspective.
Churches fail to provide culturally
appropriate worship
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Multi-sensory Church. Sue Wallace. Ready-to-use ideas for creative worship using art, liturgies, rituals. |
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Why have the churches done so badly? One reason, though by no means the only one, is that the Church of England and other churches, from amongst all the immensely varied menu of worship opportunities, have offered very little worship that is culturally appropriate for the great majority of the country’s population.
Partly this is because “churches often fear and shun popular culture”.[7] This refusal to engage with popular culture results in energy being diverted into other areas such as theological exactitude or musical excellence for its own sake, or the emergence of a 'safe' Christian sub-culture.[8] The theological single issue parish (be that issue women priests or creeping Popery), the robed choir for whom the rest of the congregation exist and the hopelessly out of touch ‘trendy vicar’ leading ‘Kum by Ya’ are not always as much of a caricature was we would like. “Our ludicrous attempts to make ourselves more relevant, more hip, more acceptable, more user friendly, more accommodating, more theologically sound – have failed.”[L] Hibbert, writing in 1992, says that there are non‑Christians in our community who would find a traditional service of hymns, organ music and sermon “alienating and uncomfortable.”[9] Within a decade this has become almost farcically understated.
There is a further difference from past generations: the cultural gap has grown in terms of depth not just width. In the past someone who visited a church for a single occasion knew something of church culture and could at least potentially come to feel at home in that culture. The priest could learn the language and culture of his people.[M] But the faith is intimately bound up in the (modernist) culture within which it was originally inculturated. In a postmodern world the cultural gap between the non‑churched individual and church culture is seen as virtually unbridgeable. As the elderly die, so the churches slowly die, and few younger people can make the cultural jump into the life of the church. So this becomes an issue of mission, and not simply an internal issue about the quality of our worship. In days “where one whole lot of people were in the church, and another whole lot of people were outside the church, then there was a need for some to cross borders and learn the language of the other. In these strange days the truth is that ‘everybody’ is missing from the church. While people all over the joint may be seeking and exploring spirituality and finding and experiencing God, few are flocking to church to conduct that search.”[10]
People do not find the spiritually
real in church
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The Prodigal Project. Michael Riddell, Mark Pierson, Cathy Kirkpatrick. The theory and practice of Alternative Worship, from its most famous Australasian practitioners. Includes case studies and multimedia CD-ROM |
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What is tragic is that this is happening at a time when spirituality is a growth industry, yet people seek, and apparently find, spiritual food everywhere except in the churches. The recent sale for pennies, at a church jumble sale, of valuable church silver could be a picture of the churches neglect, even abandonment of our spiritual riches. Jones uses an agricultural metaphor: “if it’s true that the culture is more promising now – the soil is richer – how sad if, through the lean years, we’ve sold the farm machinery and eaten the seed corn.”[11] Sweet speaks of a major spiritual awakening in our culture, which “ironically … is being fuelled by siphoning off stuff from [the church's] own tanks and then remixing it for popular culture.”[12] Our failure is public: Keillor speaks of the abbot who “has mastered the act beautifully, but one look in his eyes tells you that nobody is at home, he is a vacant shrine.”[13] Even though people may not be looking for spirituality in the churches they do, even in this postmodern era, come into our churches and attend our worship, but every time a non-churched person attends a service of worship[N] and fails to find spiritual reality his belief, that church is not the place to find God, is reinforced.
The Church is called to mission
There are further and better reasons for producing worship that is of the culture of our time than getting more ‘bums on pews’. It is true that what we are doing is not working, but it is not adequate to treat the gospel as a brand of soap powder that needs reinventing or the firm will go bust. The firms (particular historical church denominations) can and do go out of business, but God does not - and God is a God of incarnational mission: “the word became flesh”.[14] As Christians, ‘little Christs’, we are called to reflect the nature of our Lord. Hill quotes Brunner: “the church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning,” and concludes that “as mission lies within the heart of God so we are called to be a missionary people.”[15] Thus the Willow Creek church’s “very reason for existence is God’s concern for the lost.”[O] That this sounds rather threatening in an American accent indicates more of our preconceptions of American evangelism than any defect in the philosophy: if translated as ‘God’s love for the non-churched’ it becomes a biblical[16] and heart warming motivation for mission orientated congregations.
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Reimagining Spiritual Formation: A Week in the Life of an Experimental Church. Doug Pagitt. A week in the life of an experimental church. |
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Called to mission perhaps, but we are not good at it. There is a dearth of successful strategies for mission, and available courses such as Alpha come as packages including theology that many are unhappy with and a weight of cultural baggage from their middle class roots. Even those happy with one or other of the packages on offer may find that they do not ‘work’ in their own context[P], and to be involved in unsuccessful mission is soul destroying. That which we fear we avoid: McCulloch claims that it was “perhaps fear of failure which led to an observed superficiality in many responses to the decade of evangelism.”[17] To turn churches around into mission will first mean facing fear of failure and hurt from the past.
We are not even feeding the
committed
We must improve what we do for the sake of our existing congregations too. Culturally appropriate worship will not simply attempt to “'claim the youth for Christ' once again [but be] a survival method for disillusioned Christians.”[18] In the USA Barna has found that a third of regular churchgoers feel they never experience the presence of God in worship.[19] One article draws attention to the ‘walking wounded’ Christians who “don't want anything to do with church, or are hanging on to their faith, but only just … [who] want to express feelings in worship more fully and connect with a deeper and more questioning understanding of theology and spirituality.”[20] There is a craving too for openness, honesty and acceptance which traditional church services seem not often to provide: “we must seek to create a place … which is authentic for ourselves and the people with whom we stand, [offering] realness, safety, honesty, integrity, openness, and tough love.[21]
Neither gimmicks nor compromise are
acceptable
It is tempting to look for easy answers, or to rail at churches which seem to thrive through gimmickry or compromise, whether “evangelical model [churches] full of snide model evangelicals”[22] or “churches [which] have found a measure of growth through worldliness, seeking popularity in being all things to all people whilst compromising faith and doctrine.”[23] My own view is that such churches are chimera. People are too canny to accept gimmicks, and do not take long to see through the emptiness of compromise. There are certainly churches which appear to grow through the simple application of one technique or another, but I doubt this is actually happening. Where it does appear to happen, and I would include here some churches which have achieved growth through courses such as Alpha, I would put the success down to realities incidental to the course; life-giving ‘secondary infections’ inadvertently brought in or activated by the course and whose effects are credited to the ‘gimmick’.[Q]
Flowing from all these motives is a yearning for change: “surely you can have a church that meets on a bench; in a nightclub” says Jones, recognising that “we must change or die”.[24] I move on to look at some attempts to meet this yearning.
SEEKER FRIENDLY WORSHIP AND ALTERNATIVE
WORSHIP AS ATTEMPTS TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM
The following paragraphs attempt to examine points of difference and points of similarity between Seeker Friendly worship and Alternative Worship. The content of a Seeker Friendly service is not hard to analyse. Essentially it is a normal liturgy with those items which may be difficult for outsiders removed or made more acceptable. At Willow Creek visitors are instructed to ignore the offering; congregational singing and prayer is likely to be absent; modern translations of the bible are used. The appendix describes what was done at HMS Raleigh to make the service more Seeker Friendly: it is probably not untypical of what may be done.
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The Rise and Fall of the Nine O'Clock Service: A Cult Within the Church? Roland Howard. How a famous experiment went tragically wrong. |
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Any attempt to categorise or analyse Alternative Worship is
a little like trying to herd cats. It
is notable that in describing themselves groups often begin with what they are
not. Thus Phuture begin their
‘Guide to Alternative Worship’ by saying: “You've had enough of conventional worship services. You want to
experience worship that has an impact unlike the worship you are used to. You
want to worship in a way that connects to your life situation,”[25]
and continue by saying that Alternative Worship is “any worship service that
breaks away from your customary style of worship.”[26] Incultured worship means “not doing things
they way they used to be done.”[27] Given that Alternative Worship in two neighbouring churches may take two
completely different forms this leaves us little further forward, but more
helpfully they at least list some of the external features that may be
involved, varying from a “standard
church service with more culturally relevant music and messages”[R]
to café church, worship based
around a band, dance party;
arts displays, meditation services, the unstructured
exploration of prepared worship space and celebration dinners.[28]
There is therefore great variety, but even so it is possible to identify
some typical characteristics of Alternative Worship.
Organisation and
leadership
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Refreshing Worship. Brian Draper, Kevin Draper. An accessible guide to the whys and hows of Alternative Worship, from the originators of Labyrinth. |
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There is a perceived tendency by newcomers to focus on what is immediately and obviously different on the surface: the technology, music, lighting and modes of speech. From the inside Alternative Worship is seen as primarily about relationships and a theology of the role of the laity: creating things to offer to God in worship “is not a 'priestly' role - one active person doing it on behalf of 300 passive on-lookers - but something that everyone should be doing.”[29] Thus the organisation of an Alternative Worship service is almost always a team activity. This is partly for practical reasons: single handed it is impossible to control the technology and multimedia elements that are likely to be present. But the use of a team to share planning and responsibility is seen as vital: “Don't attempt to do it by yourself. You will be burnt out in no time. The key word is team … without forming a team to share planning and responsibility, you will fail”[30] (their emphasis). This is discussed below, but the well publicised demise of the Nine o’ Clock Service provided a warning beacon against leadership centred on one person. Hoyland says that there must be “no 'figurehead' - worship proceeds without a leader, or many people are involved in leading;”[31] the Late Late Service has “no 'front' or single person leading the worship;”[32] and at a London cathedral the service was ‘curated’ not led.”[33] Riddell et al ask bluntly “where are your mates?”[34] Cell Inc[S] attempted to explain their style of leadership (and participation) graphically:[35]
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One Model |
Another Model |
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Jesus
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Multi-sensory Prayer: Over 60 Innovative Ready-to-use Ideas. Sue Wallace, Sarah Mayers (Editor), Darren Hill (Editor), Mike Kazybrid (Illustrator). Creative prayer ideas using, art, the body, the senses. |
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Not only will the team be mixed (“try to achieve a balance of male and female voices and perspectives”)[36] but groups will attempt to achieve balance in all areas of culture and difference. The restricted age range involved in most of the services will militate against including the elderly, however, and even when children are present in a group there are few examples of churches discovering how to enable children to exercise leadership in worship.[T] It may be that the idea of involving children in leadership is a non‑starter, but I wonder if it is a failure of vision. Alternative Worship churches do attempt to involve children in the ‘main’ worship but recognise the tension between involving children in meaningful ways and yet not pitching the service entirely at their level.[37] Seeker Friendly churches will generally provide separate facilities where children can be instructed, and the leadership of the Seeker Friendly service will not necessarily be in the hands of a team: many may be involved but the service is likely to be strongly focused on one overall leader.
Leadership by a team is unusual for Anglican ministry. The traditional pattern has been that of worship led: by a ‘President’ (ASB and Common Worship), or by the ‘Minister’ (Book of Common Prayer Morning and Evening Prayer) or the ‘Priest’ (Book of Common Prayer Holy Communion). Liturgical revision after the Second World War led to the 1980 Alternative Service Book. Here there was scope for lay involvement, but arguably all that happened was that the tasks were shared round – more cynically that lay people were simply doing the President’s job for him. Thus a lay person might lead the prayers; a lay couple bring the elements forwards and a lay reader preach a sermon. The relationship is still essentially one of consumers and providers: described as early as the late 1970s as a “collusion in dependence.”[38] Riddell et al describe it as a dysfunctional system, where “our church life has been reduced to the clergy desperately trying to drag us around and us desperately trying to resist.”[39] One reason why the Alternative Worship movement is primarily lay led may be that our attempts to keep the show on the road have diverted and subverted our clergy. The clergy have made a “surrender to function” laments Jones.[40]
The worshippers
The Greenbelt guide points out that Alternative Worship typically
involves the 20+ age group and not youth groups.[41] I believe this to be a temporary phenomenon
in that the age group may be incidental to the sociological group. If this is the case those currently involved
will continue to be involved, thus the age range will widen. The members of the Nine o’ Clock
Community[U] say
“somewhere along the line we got older … but we haven’t gone away.”[42] Collins expresses this well: “Our picture of
what is going on is confused by the way we talk about 'youth culture'.”[43] He points out that youth culture is no
longer just for the young but is the culture of 50-year-olds too; indeed
everyone under 45 has grown up entirely inside it. Where the church has interpreted engagement with contemporary culture
as engagement with young people it has then been able to believe that
culturally relevant worship is required only to keep them in (or draw them
into) the faith, and that they will 'grow out of it' and accept more
traditional forms of worship as adults.
But “we no longer 'grow out of it.'”[44]
Soul Shaper: Exploring Spirituality and Contemplative Practices in Youth Ministry.
Tony Jones.
Exploring spirituality and contemplative practices in youth ministry.
This will raise issues of power and leadership, as the constant tendency to fossilise the inculturation of the gospel is faced up to. That “those who remain committed to the old style of faith freeze that style in the particular culture in which it originated”[45] is as true of this new generation as it was of past ones! For this reason some Alternative Worship communities limit the length of time during which individuals can be involved in leadership roles.
Participative
In Alternative Worship the concept of worship as a team activity spreads beyond organisation and leadership to the entire congregation. If leadership is plural and mixed[V] then involvement is universal: creating worship is not for specialists[46] but should involve all as participants. It is not infrequent for clergy to refer to the congregation as the (or my) ‘audience’ or ‘customers’: this approach is anathema for Alternative Worship where all are to be involved. “At Grace everybody contributes ideas to the planning of a service.”[47] Ward perceives Alternative Worship to be a failure as it has not attracted large numbers and says that this is because they do not recognise congregations as “worship consumers.”[48] Every group likes to attract people of course, but Alternative Worship congregations generally refuse to regard this as a measure of success: success rather is in the development of community and relationships. “We do it for ourselves … [others] are welcome to join in or leave at any time”.[49] Note that they may join in: they are not invited to spectate.
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Christi-anarchy: Discovering a Radical Spirituality of Compassion. Dave Andrews, Tim Costello (Introduction). Recovering the vision of Jesus from the ruins of Christendom. |
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For some this will raise questions about the appropriateness of non‑churched people participating in worship: should they not attend merely as recipients? Tolls have no doubts: “We accept responsibility to be contributors.”[50] Draper and Draper say that a characteristic of such worship is that there is congregational involvement and interaction is encouraged.[51] Hills, writing of Seeker Friendly worship, takes the opposite view: the emphasis will be on “presentation rather than participation.”[52] There are two points of difference here. One is the status of the non-churched. Are they outsiders, fit only to be the passive recipients of a gospel presentation? Or are they too “God’s children”, do they too “live and move and exist” in him?[W] The other difference is the nature of the participation envisaged. Hill is thinking of invitations to sing choruses, and that ‘come and join in’ has the sub‑text ‘join in with a culture within which we are comfortable and you are not.’ In the context of Alternative Worship ‘come and join in’ means ‘join us as fellow travellers on a spiritual journey none of us have completed.’ There must be participation both because churches can not “run a show”[53] for others and more fundamentally because we will find “fellow-travellers in unexpected places.”[54]
Community
For Alternative Worship “the Christian faith is about
community,”[55] and the
church exists to “incarnate connectedness and inculcate greater consciousness
of connectedness.”[56] So pivotal is this in Alternative Worship
that all else may be incidental. The
self description by visions[X]
uses the abstract and subjective language
of accepting relationships: “a church for people who don't like
church … that feels … we can talk … the love of Jesus Christ … be yourself …
doubts, fears and messiness … accept you anyway.”[57] They are “experiential, participative and connected,” and there is “no substitute
for the sort of relationship-based model”[58] of worship that will pass
on the tradition. Cray says there has
been a U-turn in the mode of entry into mature discipleship: whereas an earlier
generation was taught the faith, responded in commitment, and then faced the
task of integrating into a community, the postmodern generation begins with
community and moves through to commitment, with teaching following on
thereafter.[59] ‘Belonging precedes believing’ has become a
catchphrase: “faith is eased into sometime after participation. Often the decision point is difficult to
locate, though it is always good to mark [a decision point] through a
definitive event like baptism”(!)[Y]
HMS
Raleigh offered a pre-formed community: that of new entrants to the Royal
Navy. It was perhaps that sense of community
which enabled young people to tolerate being made to attend church on five
occasions in their first seven weeks in training.[Z] Within that community Cray’s pattern of
entry into discipleship did seem to hold true.
Of the large number of young people[AA]
enquiring about baptism or confirmation only a minority did so in response to
an evangelistic appeal: the majority did so from a more general sense of
becoming involved in a journey into faith within the context of the worshipping
community.
In
Seeker Friendly worship there is no such prior requirement for community. Willow Creek recognise the importance of
relationships in mission: the first of the seven elements of their philosophy
is that “it is the responsibility of every church member to build relationships
with non-churched people,”[60]
but the relationships are not those of equals.
If developed purely as recruiting tools such relationships will be
insincere and exploitative.
Liturgy
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A Churchless Faith. Alan Jamieson. Why Christians leave churches while continuing in the faith. |
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Sweet calls for worship to be decentralised,[61] and in the light of all the above it may seem unlikely that formal liturgy would find much place in Alternative Worship, but this is in fact not the case. Even those whose natural inclination is in other directions recognise its value.[BB] Hoyland speaks of being “anti‑independent: determined to remain part of existing churches rather than form new denominations.” Any “separation … between liturgy and personal spirituality [is] nothing short of disastrous for the mission of the church.”[62] Visions proclaim (somewhat defiantly) “we're part of the Church of England with a Vicar”:[63] their claim to be “developing a model of disorganised religion” is more of an advertising slogan than a reality. Whilst not feeling themselves restricted by the liturgical provision of Common Worship they will at least on occasion use it, selecting options to suit the particular emphases of their worship. Asked if they used Anglican liturgy in their services their one word answer was "sometimes", and they continue “… we quite like [Common Worship eucharistic] prayer G actually, but also like some of the stuff in the Anglican New Zealand prayer book as well as various Celtic prayers, Iona community stuff, David Adam and Ray Simpson, and some home grown stuff.”[CC] It is not surprising that eucharistic prayer G, with its emphasis on creation, is preferred over others.
Both Alternative Worship and Seeker Friendly approaches would apply this principle to the rejection of culturally incomprehensible language and the adoption of suitable alternatives. The Church of England, following the Ante-Nicene Fathers, has from its foundation adopted the principle that the service should be understood by the congregation: [DD] “it is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have publick prayer in the church, or to minister the sacraments, in a tongue not understanded of the people.”[EE] The York Statement calls the use of vernacular language “foundational to inculturation” and recognises that new expressions of worship will be developed at very local level, not simply by individual provinces.[64] My own approach has been to quiet my conscience by using the provision of Canon B5[65] that the minister may “make and use variations [of the form of service] which are not of substantial importance.”[66] Perhaps this fig leaf is unnecessary. The Anglican church has cultural appropriateness as a central principle of worship: “just as language forms change from one place or time to another, so the whole cultural appropriateness of styles and expressions of worship should be ready to vary similarly.”[67] The principle of Common Prayer is held in creative tension with a “general assertion of the freedom of Churches and Provinces … to develop their own distinctive forms.” [68] But even though it recognises that “Liturgy has often to serve truly multi‑cultural congregations”[69] York did not – could not when it was written – understand the depth of the cultural gap that was developing between church and society.
There are prima facie legal issues for Anglicans here, but in practice the church has been affirming of Alternative Worship. The York Statement “gladly acknowledge[d] that true local cultural expression in worship has in some places gone far ahead of official provision” and affirmed that “such ways should be welcomed, not wholly uncritically, but with a strong prejudice in their favour.”[70]
Certainty and Provisionality
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The Complex Christ: Signs of Emergence in the Urban Church. Kester Brewin. Signs of emergence in the urban church. |
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Seeker Friendly worship has answers for the spiritually thirsty. As such there is a definitiveness about it; a substance: it may be one beggar telling another where to find bread but the first beggar knows for certain what the bread is and where to get it![FF] Alternative Worship takes a diametrically opposed view, arguing that the church is generally all too concerned with having all the answers and that there is a need for “a church which allows us to question [and] evaluate.”[71]
Creativity
Creativity is a
consistent feature of Alternative Worship and is expressed in many different
ways. Hoyland speaks of worship which
is eclectic, non-linear, provisional, tolerant and local: each community
finding its own style of worship.[72]
Another City adopt Draper and Draper’s views in speaking of an
“exploration of creativity” in worship.[73] Morganthaler links creativity with mission:
high creativity levels flowing from the inclusion of non‑churched artists
in planning services brought a new
dimension to worship planning: “evangelism … the witness of a living community,
gathered around the common task of creation.”[74] Roberts suggests that this creativity
flows from technological possibility: he cannot mean that it is dependent on
technology. Rather, all of life is
brought into worship: “everything to Caesar that is his and everything to God
that is God's: art, music, poetry, words, stories, prose, photos, movies,
plays, paintings, maths, physics ... .”[75] A strong association is asserted between
creative expression and spiritual growth, and the associated development of the
individual is closely linked to the experience and worship of God: “creativity
in alternative forms of worship allow[s] us to experience other parts of God's
character, and [to] offer praise in new ways.”[76] Combined with the multi-sensory nature of
this worship it may indeed be a vehicle for an offering in worship of the “life
in all its fullness”[77]
our Lord offers us. This brings risk:
in a live and creative event things may not go well. Grace are willing to take the risk, believing that “stumbling but genuine contributions are
worth far more in worship than empty fluency.”[GG]
Multi‑Sensory
|
Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times. David Lyon. Religion in postmodernity. |
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Alternative Worship is normally designed to address people at every sensory level. “Whatever you do in worship, find ways to involve the body and as many of its senses as possible.”[78] Taking seriously the York Statement’s instruction that inculturation must “affect the whole ethos of corporate worship, not only the texts but also for example, the use of buildings, furnishings, art, music and ceremonial”[79] all five senses will be involved. “The entire fabric of the worship service speaks truth – permitting all of our senses to receive and respond to revelation, not just the left side of our brain.”[80] A look through the ‘Visions’ photo gallery[81] will illustrate how sight and touch are important. Often eating together is a key part of Alternative Worship: “we decided to make this a regular event, to … have a hearty meal together, which would include a short Eucharistic liturgy.” [82] Incense is an obvious possibility but the sense of smell can be stimulated by more than just traditional church incense: “wash and dry each other's or your own hands or feet in warm scented water”[83] suggest Riddell et al. Seeker Friendly worship is again more conservative here, and whilst music and drama will be used, smell, touch and ambient music are unlikely to find a place in the service.
Robes and dress
Hines speaks of the function of clerical vesture as “a kind of uniform,”[84] and in the context of my own work within the Royal Navy this is easily appreciated. In society more generally however things are not so clear. The longstanding debate about dress for lawyers has recently taken a new lease of life; ‘Dress Down Fridays’ are common and politicians[HH] have pioneered a more relaxed approach to dress. There is little in the literature about what is worn for Alternative Worship services, but it appears that traditional vestments or robes are only sometimes worn. The photographs on the Visions website show everything from luxurious red vestments,[II] through a white cassock-alb worn at a marriage service[85] or a simple open robe in a dark material with lighter trim,[86] to a suit or a casual sleeveless top.[87] In the Willow Creek Seeker Friendly context the minister uses jeans and T-shirt when preaching and sits (on a bar stool) “to avoid preachiness and be more conversational.”[88] This suggest the approach Hines identifies of wearing clothes with which members of the congregation can identify, but which in light of the diversity of UK culture provokes him to the question: “which members of the congregation: … youngsters …Asian women … those in “Sunday best” suit?”[89]
Alternative Worship finds deeper issues around the question
of what those leading services wear.
The strong emphasis on approaching God as a whole person means that the
question asked is likely to be individually “is what I wear authentic for me as
an individual before God,” and corporately “does what we wear as a congregation
reflect our corporate being before God.”
Further, the participative nature of the worship and the refusal to
allow it to be led by just one person may militate against the robing of just
one or two people. To that extent Hines
helpfully raises the question of the dress of the whole congregation, not
simply those at the front. Canon B8[90]
lays down requirements for “the minister” or “the presiding minister,” but if a
service is led by lay people, as much Alternative Worship is, there are no
issues of canon law involved. The
emphasis on the transcendental and on the importance of tradition in Alternative
Worship means it is not in itself a problem to wear robes, but they will be
worn only when the context is considered appropriate, and they may not be
traditional robes. Riddell et al speak
of an interview as part of a service where “video images of traffic, housing,
people, etc. were projected onto our light-coloured clothes and spilled onto
the screen behind us” adding that “Mexican ‘poncho-style’ over-clothes [made]
of white fabric make great projection screens when the wearers hold their arms
up.”[JJ]
Music
|
Liquid Church. Pete Ward. New patterns of church in postmodern consumer culture. |
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Alternative Worship is likely to make use of ambient music pervading a service and helping to set a worshipful atmosphere. Given the postmodern emphasis on choice and the importance of tradition it is no surprise that not only modern music but church organ and plainsong may be used on for this. Seeker Friendly services may use carefully selected (often for its intellectual content) secular and sacred music and tend to eschew congregational singing. The function of music (and of a choir if there is one) in Seeker Friendly worship is to entertain and instruct: at Raleigh I used the metaphor of music as gravy, rendering solid slabs of liturgy palatable.
Both groups will draw from popular secular music, either from the ‘chill’ end of the club scene, or using more thoughtful offerings from the top 40 world, varying from the more radical Cold Play and Moby to the ‘classics in a modern style’ of William Orbit. Much of this music has overtly spiritual lyrics, or is indeed taken from Christian source material. Both make use of traditional material, often reworked with a modern slant. Where older ‘modern’ hymns[KK] sometimes jarringly attempt to blend different cultures both Seeker Friendly and Alternative Worship communities will provide new skins for new (or re‑newed) wine, using incultured music whether the text is new or traditional. Visions report starting to “experiment with using hymns in our worship, not only remixing the music, but also rewriting the lyrics, keeping the sense of the original work while translating the poetry and imagery, sometimes quite radically, into phrases that are meaningful to our community.”[91]
Music for small groups is an issue. At the Glenbrook Community Church a simple solution was reached: “we have very few musicians so we often sing along to CDs played through our ample sound system.”[92] Working with small congregations on board ships I used recorded music where live music was not available, and this actually proved more helpful in worship than live music did, not least as the quality was guaranteed. The congregations always expressed a preference for live music however, possibly as in that context there was an established relationship between all present and the use of live music was an expression of that relationship. My impression is that Seeker Friendly worship normally tries not to happen with small groups both as the anonymity of being present as part of a large gathering is considered to be valued by the non‑churched and as having large numbers is linked to the believability of the message.
Technology and
the arts, and cost
Alternative
Worship typically involves a great deal of technology and art: “The space itself is likely
to be marked out by televisions with looped images and screens with projected
still images.”[93] Overhead projectors and slide projectors may be used; computer
display projectors give greater flexibility.
The Grace ‘DIY worship pack’[94]
on the following page gives some indication of what hardware is involved. Significantly it does not include a bible, or indeed
any books at all. This is not because
of any unwillingness to use the biblical tradition as the core of worship,[95]
but is an expression of the postmodernist understanding that the meaning of
language is to be found in its social context.
Thus an Alternative Worship service can be ‘bible centred’ without
having a printed bible in sight.
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The technology may be more noticeable to visiting clergy than to the target group of worshippers. Within the Royal Navy, my own work-place, video projectors and large interactive display screens are commonplace: the use of a projector during a worship service would not be surprising. It is important that the technology is used for cultural relevance not for its own sake.[96] Visions see technology as of value in their discovery and use of talents in the visual arts and dance. One value of the technology is that the constituent parts of individual services can be kept and shared: thus larger groups offer material on the Internet for others to download and use. The use of technology is apparent also in the media used by Alternative Worship groups. Rather than publish a book they are more likely to publish on the web: such publishing always holds the idea of provisionality. Even when books are produced other media are involved: “The Prodigal Project” is published as a book and CD together: the CD not only holds additional material but enables a reader to surf the material non‑linearly rather than simply reading it.
|
Making Sense of Church: Eavesdropping on Emerging Conversations About God,
Community, and Culture. Spencer Burke, Colleen Pepper. Emerging church conversations from TheOoze.com. |
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With a strong emphasis on ecology it is somewhat surprising that Alternative Worship congregations do not reject technological aids to worship. They do see them as ultimately unnecessary though: Riddel et al point to the human body as the cheapest and most readily available and accessible worship tool.[97]
The topic of money is not especially evident in the literature of British Seeker Friendly or Alternative Worship churches. The American Willow Creek church makes Christian stewardship one of the seven steps of Christian discipleship, but even so “is not obsessed with money … indeed at the Sunday Seeker service it is strongly stressed that “the offering is for members of this church, if you are a visitor please don’t participate.”[LL] The lack of references to finance is interesting as the technology both approaches use so freely is expensive. It is likely that, with core congregations which major on those in the peak earning years and who are strongly committed to the life of the congregation, these churches are not so dominated by income generation as more traditional churches.[98] They are also more likely to use other than traditional and expensive to maintain buildings. Collins says that running a successful Alternative Worship service doesn’t have to cost much, though he recommends spending money to achieve good sound quality. Costs have fallen dramatically in the past few years but a simple one screen projector and computer would still cost in the order of £2000 as a minimum. Multi‑screen installations quickly become very expensive. As always in church life things can be done on the cheap, but when the medium is so bound up with the message it is not easy to compromise.
Lifespan
Long established
churches are used to long lived incarnations of their liturgy: even the ASB
managed 20 years. In contrast to this Phuture
say it is “highly likely that your Alternative Worship service will have a life
span less than five years.”[99]
I suspect that this is not generally true.
The services themselves may have very short lifespans, not least as the
technology which makes a service possible today makes possible something quite
different tomorrow. The communities
that create Alternative Worship services however do seem in some cases to be
enduring. Alternative Worship is a very
young phenomenon: perhaps ten to fifteen years old. Inevitably some services simply did not survive, and Riddell et
al helpfully include failures as well as success stories amongst their ‘Hopeful
Rumours.’[100] Some groups have lasted, however, developed
and continue, constantly changing in response to the ever changing nature of
their ambient culture. The sense of
provisionality may give them a permanent sense of fragility which belies a
strength flowing from the quality of their relationships as a community
Buildings
|
Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X. Harvey Cox (Foreword), Tom Beaudoin. The spirituality of Generation X. |
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The
use made of church buildings varies between the two styles of worship. Hibbert points to the value of a well lit
and practical building with clearly marked and clean toilets, good visibility
and acoustics.[101] Alternative Worship sometimes appears to be
conducted exclusively in the dark! More
seriously both want a well maintained, welcoming and comfortable building and
are happy to use non-church premises where these offer better facilities. Once again the similarity in approach flows
from different motives: Seeker Friendly worship looks for a building the non‑churched
are happy to enter. Alternative Worship
communities may find that a church is insufficiently adaptable for their needs,
or that the traditional congregation and church leadership are unhappy with the
use to which the building is being put: for example many conservative
evangelical churches would find the use of incense and candles
problematic. Questions of finance are
not often addressed in the literature, though Phuture ask “how
will you meet the costs involved?”[102] Hiring premises avoids the crippling burden
of maintenance of ancient buildings that is such a drain on many congregations.[MM]
Worship
as Evangelism
|
The McDonaldization of the Church. John Drane. Why the Church doesn't reach large parts of our society. |
|
Perhaps the greatest distinction between Alternative Worship
and Seeker Friendly worship is that, though both are accessible to the non‑churched,
only Seeker Friendly worship is primarily or explicitly evangelistic. Collins says that Alternative Worship is not
about dressing the church up in contemporary clothes to appeal to outsiders or
putting on a spectacle in order to get a message across, but an attempt “by the
people involved to make worship for themselves, in forms that allow them to
bring their whole selves and lives before God.”[103] That this is more accessible to outsiders is
a (welcome) side effect. Tolls say “what we plan, set up and
do in our services we do together as a community. We do it for ourselves because without worship we die. Anyone else is welcome to join in or leave
at any time.”[104] Alternative Worship communities may even
reject the Seeker Friendly approach as debasing worship by making it simply a
means to an end.[105] Paradoxically not being overtly
evangelistic; the absence of ‘threat’; the leaving of power in the hands of the
non‑churched visitor and the refusal to define required outcomes makes
such worship all the more powerful as a tool of mission. The one warning is that this is not an
instant fix: “change … like turning the proverbial oil tanker, may not be
visible until long after the rudder has been swung.”[106]
SOME BIBLICAL REFLECTION
Jesus gave very few instructions as to the form that Christian worship should take and the early church expressed the Gospel in a variety of forms, each having its own distinctive ethos.[107] Early Christian worship drew on its Jewish heritage and was adapted for the culture within which it existed. As we do today the early church faced a non‑Christian culture, and informed by a proper hermeneutic we can use its principles to analyse Alternative Worship and Seeker Friendly Worship.
Early Judaism provided for liturgical ministry to be strictly limited to the Levitical Priesthood, however by the time of Christ the Synagogue movement had provided a route for ordinary Jews to be involved in worship. There is little record of Jesus and his disciples at formal worship, though we know that Jesus habitually attended the synagogue and at least on occasion preached at the service.[108] New Testament instruction on worship is actually quite rare; examples of worship amongst the new Christian community more so. I will look below at worship in the Acts of the Apostles and in 1 Corinthians.
Worship in the Acts of the Apostles
|
Mission-Shaped Church. Rowan Williams (Foreword). Church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context. |
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In the early chapters of Acts there is a notable emphasis on the reality of worship: the sense of meeting with God. Whether expressed in speaking in tongues at Pentecost or the healing of a lame man “at the hour of prayer” the disciples do not ‘just worship’. In Chapter 2 the fact that the disciples have all things in common[109] is closely linked in the text with their worship at the temple,[110] and this could be seen as demonstrating the sense of community and connectedness referred to above.
The concept of expressing the gospel in the culture of the surrounding society is usefully illustrated in Chapter 17. Paul is in Athens, and his address at the Areopagus is commonly used as a paradigm of incultured mission. He is clearly familiar with, and uses in his evangelistic address, the philosophical concepts and popular texts of the Athenians. A modernist age might ask the question as to whether the texts Paul cites bear the interpretation he places on them. Postmodernists are unlikely to care. A parallel in my own ministry might be the use of the lyrics from the song ‘I believe’ by the secular group ‘Savage Garden’. A text such as ‘I believe forgiveness is the key to your unhappiness’ seems too good to waste, even though it is somewhat unlikely that ideas of substitutionary atonement were in the minds of the group when writing them.
Mention should be made of Paul’s prayers immediately before the shipwreck in Chapter 27.[NN] The words do not quite support the idea that Paul’s breaking of bread was a Eucharistic celebration,[OO] however he does worship, and crucially for our purposes here he involves his non-churched shipmates in that worship. It may be significant that he is part of a distinct community, one formed by the general experience of life on board ship and the immediate and specific threat of death.
Worship in 1 Corinthians
This epistle includes a significant section of instruction about worship.
1 Cor 11:17ff.[PP] The immediate context for this instruction about the Eucharist is that of division in the church and the practice of eating together. The practice does more harm than good says Paul, for some go hungry and others get drunk. His command is as a second best to eat at home, but best is to wait for each other and eat together. Eating together is part of worship in many Alternative Worship congregations, and provides a powerful tool to incorporate newcomers into the community.[QQ] Eating together is seen as sacramental, and the connection between a shared meal and the Eucharist is sometimes blurred, perhaps especially in communities with a free-church foundation. Certainly even a minor element of concern for the whole being, body as well as soul, expressed in food or drink can change an atmosphere.[RR] Collins comments that “many Alternative Worship groups are experimenting with Holy Communion … for many groups it has gained new significance through being taken back to its original setting in a meal with friends.”[111]
|
A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey. B.D. McLaren. A tale of two friends on a spiritual journey. |
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The following two chapters of 1 Corinthians[SS] feed into Chapter 14 which continues the theme of appropriate worship. First Paul says that whilst tongues of ecstasy are of value to the speaker, the gift of prophecy is of value to the whole community. Thus the one with the former gift is to pray for the ability to interpret it into plain language. Paul’s aim is that believers should be built up but he does specifically expect that the non-churched will sometimes be present. There is however no sense of ‘dumbing down’ worship for their benefit, even though hearing tongues of ecstasy the visitor will not understand, but will be convinced only that believers are mad.[112] It is when hearing prophecy that he or she will be convicted and be led to worship.[113]
Paul continues by speaking of worship which involves all members of the congregation. If “each of you contributes”[114] then all are participants: no ‘audience’ or ‘worship consumers’ here. Significantly Paul says the visitor will hear “from everyone something that searches his conscience.” Paul does not say they will be converted, though we might draw this as a likely outcome. Alternative Worship churches are unlikely to look for dramatic and sudden conversions, concentrating on process rather than outcome: “we talk much more about ‘journey’ rather than ‘conversion’.”[115] There are issues here for the Seeker Friendly approach of ‘presentation rather than participation’ to address.
The following section returns to the theme of the careful control and ordering of worship.[116] Two or three prophets may speak but ‘if someone [else] receives a revelation let the first speaker stop’, for God is ‘not a God of disorder but of peace’. At first sight this might seem to raise difficulties for Alternative Worship, where we would expect a great deal of flexibility or even chaos. In practice this is not the case: “the worship will rarely be as open ended or as non‑directive” as we might fear,[117] perhaps because the technology involved constrains the leadership from sudden deviations from the planned programme.
I have no intention of opening up Paul’s much argued over instruction that women should not speak in church. This is not the place to rehearse the arguments on both sides of the debate of the ministry of women in the church. Alternative Worship congregations would treat Paul’s words here as culturally relative: Seeker Friendly congregations might be more ambivalent.
|
The Post-evangelical. Dave Tomlinson. Why many Christians are rejecting Evangelicalism as previously understood. |
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The final section of the passage to consider is Chapter 16 verses 1 and 2: the offering for the churches in Judaea. The instruction is to put aside some money on the first day of the week, when Christians would meet for worship. The commentators agree however that the offering here is not within that context. Barrett points to the words: “let each of you set aside for himself (not, contribute to a church collection).”[TT] Bruce says that it is doubtful whether there is any liturgical significance in this mention of the first day of the week: “nor were the individual sums to be taken to church and handed over to the community treasurer; each member is to put something aside par’ heautõ, ‘at home’, and store it up there.”[118]
Questions for the future
In this final section I have attempted to list some of the questions the discussion above has raised.
Can churches provide adequate teaching for the churched
in a service appropriate for the non-churched?
Seeker Friendly churches say not, and this raises a requirement for a separate service for the committed, where they can receive the sacraments and be taught. Alternative Worship models seek to provide for the growth of all present and need no second service. This does however lead to a significant need for theological orthodoxy and understanding by the worship ‘curators,’ or the worship will lose contact with its roots. Ultimately it may subside into “quiet reflect[ion saying] ‘now what was the message? Is it something I should tell anyone else? …’.”[119]
Is there a minimum size of congregation before Seeker Friendly worship or Alternative Worship becomes viable?
|
The Post-evangelical Debate. Graham Clay. Responses by UK theologians to The Post-Evangelical (see above). |
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For Seeker Friendly worship in particularly it seems likely that size matters. This may be because below a certain size of the committed congregational core the message will not have conviction: ‘if your message is true why are there only six of you?’ Alternative Worship has less problems with numbers in terms of authenticity: “size is unimportant,”[120] though providing the more technologically complex support to the worship will be difficult without significant financial support and enough people to operate it.
Should, and if so how should, existing congregations be encouraged into Seeker Friendly worship or Alternative Worship?
Seeker Friendly churches will seek to encourage all members of the congregation into active support of the Seeker Friendly service: Hill makes the point that properly speaking being Seeker Friendly is not enough, the entire congregation must be Seeker Targeted.[UU] As already observed, Alternative Worship services recognise the postmodern good of choice[VV] so are more relaxed about involving only a self selecting part of a wider congregation. There is also a realism that the traditionally churched may find worship involving ‘pray-dough’ or a Labyrinth too far out of their cultural comfort zone to be of value.
Conclusion
Both Seeker
Friendly worship and Alternative Worship approaches have their place in the
church’s missiological armoury. They
are very different styles; the former modernist and the latter
postmodernist. They will suit very
different congregations, areas and churches.
The Revd Simon Springett Royal Navy
Chaplaincy Team Leader
Royal Naval Air Station CULDROSE
May 2003
Appendix
to:
Some
Theological Reflections on Seeker
Friendly
Worship and Alternative Worship
for
Non‑Churched People
Loose Minute
CE/LM/3/00
Nov 00
WORSHIP AT HMS
RALEIGH
This is the start of a paper designed to inform fellow Chaplains about how worship is planned at HMS RALEIGH. I will probably never complete it, so on the principle that half a loaf is better than none ...
1. You have to own (or develop) a puerile dirty mind. I have removed all use of the word “come” from the service: “… will come again!” is (deliberately) misunderstood by many. Ditto "bosoms", "organs", "dews and damps" etc. I wasn't even entirely sure I didn't hear a snigger or two at "Will you ride, ride, ride …"
2.
Exclusive language has been excluded from all liturgy wherever
possible:
“… and for all men.” is unacceptable.
God, however, is still “He” and this has not been a problem.
|
Postmodern Youth Ministry: Exploring Cultural Shift, Creating Holistic Connections,
Cultivating Authentic Community. Tony Jones. Exploring postmodernity in the context of Christian youth ministry. |
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3. All ancient language, including the trad Lord’s Prayer has been removed. Very occasionally I find a prayer with “thee’s and thou’s” seems to work – very occasionally. Hymns for Today’s Church versions of hymns are well worth using especially when the original has been only very lightly retouched - it's what the editors call invisible mending. Carols for Today is much more conservative and almost always gets the balance right.
4. Three short hymns to sing is as much as we cope with, but there is plenty of music in the service. Modern worship songs to dance/pop accompaniments are appreciated and occasionally produce requests for a CD to buy. Find them in a local Christian bookshop, or read about them in "Cross Rhythms" magazine.
5.
Trainees are unable to sing many of my favourite hymns ("Dear Lord and Father of mankind"
for example). The trick seems to be to
sing only lively music, and simply to play more meditative music on the sound
system. The Taize chant
"O Lord hear my prayer"
does work however … the last line changed to "Father listen to me".
It helps that in George Hesketh we have a very competent organist.
6. 1980s music is not modern. Some of Graham Kendrick’s music for example is culturally foreign to trainees here. Matt Redman is better.
7. I print the entire service – every word said or sung. This includes the words to all music played to be listened to and the words of the reading. People will follow the printed order of service. If a hymn or song has a chorus I repeat it on the new page if this avoids turning back a page in the service. If I wrote my sermons early enough I'd print them too.
8. Bible readings have been from NIV, GNB, CEV … RSV/AV are hopeless for the group here. NIV is sometimes too starchy. The NMAFBS[WW] would like us to give each trainee a New Testament, but we have resisted this. Trainees read scripture each week when it is put in the order of service. Bibles are freely available to those who want one.
9. Good wholesome content – creeds, confessions etc – is guaranteed by our liturgical heritage and is in our context helpfully expressed in Common Worship. It must, however, be digestible. A solid slab of Nicene creed is harder to chew than a responsive creed. Music played on a CD can be the “gravy” which can render things palatable. It may be played in the background (where occasionally people have sung along – notably to secular pieces), or in the foreground creating a framework for an element of worship.
10. Silence is amazingly powerful, and I am always tempted not to allow noise to die down – if I wait long enough it does and there can be awesome silence with up to 300 trainees.
|
The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st Century Church. Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch. Innovation & mission for the 21st century Church. |
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11. Telling the trainees what you want them to do is very helpful(!) – I have given up most “in advance” briefings and explain things (a) in writing at the appropriate place in the service sheet and (b) orally just before they happen – if this is well prepared it doesn’t break the flow of the service.
12. I know that the day will come when I have to tell the congregation to “shut up” – but when it does I will have failed. Well prepared relevant liturgy and a relaxed atmosphere should be enough to control things with no more than an occasional (Paddington Bear style) hard stare from me. I have sometimes likened running services here to making jam – it is necessary to bring the whole assembly to a fast rolling boil – but with a fraction too little heat it goes off and just sits there as a soggy mess; with a fraction too much it boils over.
13. Boredom or perceived spiritual dryness is measured by the "Cough-ometer". The more sense of the Spirit of God in a service the less coughing. Actually of course the Spirit may be no less present at a boring service than a dynamic service - but in many cases our trainees are spiritual babies and have not yet discovered this.
14. I have - eventually - found a way to run Holy Communion with up to 300 trainees of whom as few as 20 or so are confirmed. The aim has been to ensure that those who wish can communicate and those who are not confirmed can receive a blessing. There is, however, an increasing number who hold strong objections to being blessed. The oral brief for the distribution is done before the service: it goes through the written brief and emphasises (a) that being blessed will do you no harm(!) and (b) that the front rows on each side of the church are the key people to set things moving. We arrange it so that the classes which have been at Raleigh the longest are the first ones up - they are the most relaxed and have more confidence than the newbies. Asking the congregation to remain standing until they come forward has two benefits: it allows me to see at a glance how far through we have got (those standing have not yet been up), and it has reduced the level of noise during communion. A small number of trainees each week take the "do not wish even to receive a blessing" option.
15. The written brief from the order of service is as follows:
Please
remain standing in silence while the helpers receive. All move forward when directed and kneel around the blue
platform.
If
you are confirmed please hold
out your hands for the bread and wine.
If
you are not confirmed please hold
your hands behind your back and you will receive a blessing.
If
you do not wish even to receive a blessing
wait until those beside you are kneeling and then immediately return to your
place.
Afterwards
return to your place and sit. We remain in silence during communion. You
might wish to use this time to remember your family and friends, to pray for
those you love, and to thank Jesus for all he has done for us.
16. I wear robes for the service - the trainees all have to attend in uniform, so I do too - but not for the hymn rehearsal beforehand.
|
Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West. Michael Riddell. Why the Western Church is in crisis, and what might be done. |
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17. The prayers used week by week are written by trainees, who fill in small prayer chits during the week and post them in an alms box screwed to the wall. I use them all (actually almost all - I drew the line at praying for Everton FC), though stripped of surnames and of Christian names too if I feel there might be embarrassment for an individual (or when very occasionally the request is likely to be a tease). These prayers have been very effective simply read out over the music of a suitable song - (eg Kendrick's "For the joys and for the sorrows"). Sometimes the atmosphere of the whole service is a bit OTT, and it is no surprise that praying for families, and in particular ill relatives, or for those who mourn, improves things.
18. During "ordinary time" I have taken a standard pattern of four topics, each covered over two consecutive weeks (the trainees attend every fortnight over eight weeks with one extra service). The topics are:
Identity - who are we?
Value - what are we worth?
Community - where do I fit?[121]
Faith - how do I follow Christ?
There is, of course, a constant need for freshness - the part one trainees won't get bored as they move on quickly, but the rest of the congregation - up to 20 or so - might, and I certainly would! The last series linked the basic topics to episodes in Mark's gospel; a future series is likely to link the themes to lines from the song "Affirmation" by the group "Savage Garden." After Remembrance Sunday's ecumenical service we will be into Christmas themes for the final four Sundays of term. Festivals are still for many points of contact with Christian faith, and it is not hard to bring out the mission emphasis from them.
19. Sermonettes may make Christianettes but long sermons aren't an option here. Starting from ground zero[XX] short sermons are the order of the day. I have tried to vary the style, and as well as traditional sermons have on occasion:
• Used secular music to set the agenda ("Say my name, say my name" by the group Destiny's Child)
• Following a brief introduction read a piece of scripture fitted to a Taize chant (1 Cor 13 to the chant Adoramus Te Domine)
• Read a bible passage as a meditation using secular instrumental music to set a framework (Isaiah 40 to one of William Orbit's "Pieces in a modern style").
The Revd Simon
Springett,
CE Chaplain
HMS RALEIGH
November 2000
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Endnotes
