I had an opportunity to attend a Pastor’s Appreciation breakfast sponsored by Houghton College. Houghton has put together a Master of Art in Theological Studies, so part of the reason for doing this breakfast was to introduce and advertise their new Masters level program.
Still, they had a wonderful breakfast, and then a message by Michael Walters, the Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Houghton. Walters said that many churches are polarized at one extreme or another in their style of worship.
To illustrate this, he told of a recent trip to Australia with some students. The first church they attended was very informal, so much so that in the middle of the message people would get up and get some coffee and goodies, conveniently located in the sanctuary. This was just way to informal for his liking. The following week, they attended a service at a very formal Episcopalian church, very High Church, with an incredible choir that sang only in Latin. Much of the elements of the worship service almost seemed to be in code for the students there, they were lost.
I suppose that the best place for a church to be is somewhere in the middle. Visitors need to be comfortable enough in our worship service that they can follow along, and know what we do and why we do it, yet it needs to be formal enough to experience the holy. Symbols can help, the practice of the Sacraments can help, the lighting of the Alter Candles can help.
Our Worship Style needs to appeal to the surrounding culture enough that they will be comfortable joining us, yet formal enough to give them a taste of the divine.
How do we do that? I don’t know, let’s talk about it. If you have any ideas, leave a comment, we’ll get a discussion going…
Still, they had a wonderful breakfast, and then a message by Michael Walters, the Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Houghton. Walters said that many churches are polarized at one extreme or another in their style of worship.
To illustrate this, he told of a recent trip to Australia with some students. The first church they attended was very informal, so much so that in the middle of the message people would get up and get some coffee and goodies, conveniently located in the sanctuary. This was just way to informal for his liking. The following week, they attended a service at a very formal Episcopalian church, very High Church, with an incredible choir that sang only in Latin. Much of the elements of the worship service almost seemed to be in code for the students there, they were lost.
I suppose that the best place for a church to be is somewhere in the middle. Visitors need to be comfortable enough in our worship service that they can follow along, and know what we do and why we do it, yet it needs to be formal enough to experience the holy. Symbols can help, the practice of the Sacraments can help, the lighting of the Alter Candles can help.
Our Worship Style needs to appeal to the surrounding culture enough that they will be comfortable joining us, yet formal enough to give them a taste of the divine.
How do we do that? I don’t know, let’s talk about it. If you have any ideas, leave a comment, we’ll get a discussion going…
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