Complicated Worship Trends

Dan Kimball explains why, in one sense, it's hard to pin down what kind of worship style churches should be pursuing today. You can follow this link to the whole article, but the conclusion is excerpted below:

I realized that worship trends among the young were complicated. Those raised in contemporary churches found practicing liturgy and following the church calendar refreshing and meaningful. But some who had grown up in traditional and liturgical churches saw these same practices as lifeless or routine. They were eager to incorporate more contemporary forms. One group wanted to rediscover the past, and the other was trying to escape it.

Several years later I worked with a team of young people to plant a new church. We decided that it would not help our goal of reaching the lost if our worship pretended it was stuck in A.D. 800. But we also did not want to dismiss the rich history and depth of ancient practices. So on any given Sunday our young congregation sings a mix of contemporary choruses and traditional hymns. We now celebrate Advent each year with candles, responsive readings, and benedictions. We draw from liturgical elements in ancient worship and prayer books. But we also display modern art, project videos, and use a variety of 21st century worship elements.

We have found that the goal shouldn't be to maintain the past or to always be on the cutting edge. Our goal is to worship in a way that represents our community to God and God to our community. That means contextualizing worship for today, but not forgetting the family of God throughout history to which we belong.

Perhaps this means that cutting-edge contemporary worship does well at some things (immanence) while ancient practices have a different advantage (transcendence). Or it may reflect the fact that we too often look for our worship experience to carry us or take us where we need to be-- kind of like when I think that buying one more book on prayer will make me a more faithful pray-er, or learning one more evangelistic tool will make me a better witness. They certainly can help, but everything does not rest on these means. I must be seeking God and relying on his Spirit while pursuing a regular, balanced diet of the word and prayer in the fellowship of God's people, trusting him to make me his faithful, fruitful servant.