What is worship? I have felt uncomfortable for years about this notion that if we have great worship in our churches, people who don’t know the Lord will come in to our meetings and be transformed. Nowadays, with few exceptions, it is only with great mental effort that I manage to get through a contemporary church worship time with a good attitude. The question “why are we doing this?” pesters me incessantly. As a worship leader, this is an extremely uncomfortable position for me to be in, so I am very much enjoying an extended “worship- leading” fast at the moment (6 months and counting). I long ago gave up the expectation that what normally goes under the heading “praise and worship” would actually attract outsiders to Christ.
I found this article (courtesy of The Edge ) written by a former praise and worship “guru”, entitled Worship as Evangelism. The context really doesn’t apply to France, as it is speaking more to the American mega-church culture. Where we live, a mega-church has a hundred people! And yet the church here is still influenced by the “praise and worship” movement (an example: Hillsong has now launched a church in Paris - a little taste of Australia in the city of light! Apparently it’s doing really well - some of our Paris colleagues are involved there).
I liked this article because it poses deep questions about this view that church is fundamentally a “worship centre” that draws people (the basic function of a temple), rather than a mobile community which goes out to demonstrate Christ in the world. The very idea that “evangelism” can effectively take place within a church building seems contradictory to me now.
Take a look if you’re interested - it’s a very well-written article. Do you think I’m being too cynical?
One of the blogs I like reading is that of Floyd & Sally McLung in South Africa.
There are some interesting reflections there on John 15 and living a fruitful life, which I find very applicable to us at the moment.
Have been thinking a lot lately about the purpose of this blog. I’m aware that there are a number of things that we are involved with that aren’t really appropriate for posting on the Internet. But on the other hand I have benefitted so much in recent months reading various blogs of people, around Europe especially, who have been going through a similar transition to us. Especially in the area of seeking a simpler and more authentic experience of what it means to live out Christian community.
I’m also aware that there’s a lot of pontificating out there on the blogosphere which isn’t necessarily that helpful. It’s a great way of “living transparently” before people, but sometimes it’s hard to know just how transparent to be. I like that fact that it forces me to think about writing things that I would be happy for anybody in our various circles of acquaintance to read. It’s a good exercise in “being real”. I think the current buzzword for that is being “holistic”.
So I’d like to keep this going, but I think the blog is going through a bit of an identity crisis at the moment.
We had been three weeks and five days without telephone or Internet at home. It is surprising how irritating this has been, and how powerless we are when we are dependent on technology that we use without really understanding how it works.
We took the plunge a while ago and replaced our regular telecom line with a VOIP line, and without realising it at the time we also gave up any right we might have once had to that old fashioned notion we used to call “customer service”. In France, at least, VOIP is where you pay for a service whether or not it is provided, and when something goes wrong, you either figure it out yourself, or go gradually bald as you discover the hard way that there really, truly isn’t a real person somewhere at the end of that infuriating series of recorded messages.
Our provider, a company with the euphemistic name of “Free” (i.e. you are free to part with your money without ever worrying about getting something back for it) has tactfully chosen as their background music, to be enjoyed as you wave goodbye to your 34 cents a minute, a song with the following soothing lyrics “Don’t worry baby, there’s a way that we can work it out.”
Just when we were wondering what to try next, lightning struck very near our house during the night, with a huge thunderclap. We heard an ominous click, and lo and behold, this afternoon we discover that Internet and phone are again working. Could there be any relation between these two events? I don’t know, but we have all been very quick to download a copious backload of emails, in case our connection to the outside world is short-lived.
Anyway, I know you’re not supposed to give excuses for why it’s been ages since you’ve written in your blog, but I think you get the idea.
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