Can who we worship with become an Idol?
November 8th, 2007 by AjIn the previous post quoting an interview with Madeleine L’Engle she made reference to her son-in-law’s take on being “an atheist for Christ” - “He means that Christians build up little gods, little temples of Baal. We begin to worship them. And we must tear them down, destroy them. The gods we erect are easier to worship than the Creator of the universe. They’re more comprehensible.”
As I’ve mentioned I’m part of a worship discernment group at my faith community. We have three Sunday services that are all the same (rather than having a contemporary, a classic, etc. - we are not Burger King “do it your way”). Members of the community feel that the Spirit is leading us to examine whether this is the way God is calling us to worship God right now: they feel an itch, an ache, that something must change. Others have no such feeling: they’re fairly confused that the status quo would be in question because they find Sunday morning worship to be very fulfilling, and isn’t everyone else like them?
So we’re laying everything out on the table. Or so we think . . .
The elders gave us the task of looking at different worship models that utilize our strengths as a multi-generational congregation while being present to meet the needs of our community. Now, I don’t know one member of the task force who can get behind that mission: too many questions, too many misconceptions. And such a task doesn’t really lay *everything* out on the table.
“Strength as a multi-generational congregation.” First, we’re trying to figure out what that means. But also, even though we’ve experienced blessings at having a faith community of differing ages and walks of life, are we always called to that? Some folks would say ‘yes’: we should be widely varied in our backgrounds and ages. Some folks would say ‘no’: we can be more effective when looking at a specific group to minister to.
This gets into that whole “seeker sensitive” schebang which I don’t want to deal with; others have said things much more eloquently.
But I do wonder - have we made an idol out of being multi-generational? When I hear folks say, “God couldn’t possibly call us to minister to one group” or “Our body will always have multiple generations as part of the community”, I wonder - are we worshipping the way we worship (or who we worship with) more than worshipping God? Perhaps God called us to be varied in age — for a time period — and maybe God calls us to be not as varied — for a time period. Just because it’s good doesn’t mean we’re always called to do it.
This is poorly fleshed out. But it’s a start — sending thoughts out into the blogosphere — casting seeds — seeing what will come of it.
What all have we erected that needs to be torn down? And will we actually follow through?
Posted in Listening Life, Worship |
November 8th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
This really excites me. Even if the end result is the services remaining the same, it’s cool to see after so many years that there is a ‘tug’ to explore what may need to be changed in order to maybe reach more in the community. This is just one ‘baby christians’ opinion, but it seems that at least 1 contemporary service would be SO beneficial in reaching the 100’s of college kids residing in our little Quaker town. Thanks for sharing; being so new in this church, it’s fun for me to learn more about goings-on!
November 9th, 2007 at 7:33 am
Excellent question, AJ. I’m absolutely convinced that the outward formats of worship can and do become idols - and when they do, they become empty of worship.
Regarding our church, I’ve never been so torn: On one hand, the format of our service definitely satisfies the needs of a large demographic; on the other hand, some days I wish we could close the whole thing down and revert back to house churches.
In looking forward, I read a quote from E. Stanley Jones a few years ago that I can’t get away from: “People say that we must adopt the language and culture of the day to be relevant today. That is a mistake. If the church marries itself to the spirit of the times, it will be a widow in the next generation.”
I have no idea how to apply that thought to our (or any other) congregation, but I think it’s a warning we need to heed.
(BTW, my thanks to you and the others on the discerment group for your willingness to step up and ask the hard questions.)
December 18th, 2007 at 11:15 am
While I do enjoy the way we currently worship at NFC, and I would have no problem with things staying the way they are, I also have no problems with changing things up, too. I can see the benefits to a different style, especially for the younger generation(s). But, at the same time, this conversation also strikes me as very “my-church”-centric: there’s several other churches in the area which offer worship experiences geared towards these younguns.
If we are the body of Christ in Newberg, then why do we feel the need to appeal to an even broader subset of the community at our church? Can every church appeal to every person? Should it?
One thing that struck me in your writing about these idols, is that we could pretty much call anything we like or are comfortable with an idol, could we not? I feel like some people are misusing this idea of idolatry when they want someone else to do something differently. I get concerned a bit, though not so much on this specific blog, when I am told I need to be constantly challenged and to be moved to discomfort about things. There’s many many a sermon and open worship sharing about people wanting to shake things up and make others uncomfortable for the sake of change. Is there really something wrong with being comfortable? Am I a lesser Christian because I find the current form of worship enjoyable and stimulating? And my relationship with God, while always growing and changing, to be in a good place?
Can the constant desire for something new and different be called “worshiping change” and therefore an “idol” as well? Where does this all stop? Or does it? The questions being considered here by the group are difficult. I do not envy your task.