Team
As we embark together on the work of worship design, I want to begin with what I call the Lewis Admonition. The quote below is from C.S. Lewis and struck a chord with me when I read it. In attempting to make worship what it ought to be, we can easily miss it altogether.
A worship service works best when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. . . . The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. . . . Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god. A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. . . . There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was’Feed my sheep’; not ‘Try experiments on my rats’, or even ‘Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’”
C.S. Lewis.
I have worked with enough teams now to know that people inherently want to do it differently than it has been done before-- to make a new mark for God's glory. At the same time, I've worked with others whose insistence on a defined way of doing things can squelch creativity and even grieve the Holy Spirit. Both errors result in making worship an occasion for distraction. The nerve of worship is attention to the point of self abandonment.
One way we are finding helpful is to utilize the ancient Four-fold pattern of worship. Gathering--Word--Table (or Response)--Sending. These four big movements provide a large, generous framework on which a cathedral may be fashioned. At the same time, there is significant flexibility to allow room for creative expressions--even spontaneous ones. You may read a short article that gets more at this idea HERE.
So are you familiar with this ancient Four-Fold pattern of worship? What do you know about it? If possible, do a bit of google research and see what you can contribute to the conversation. Take a look at the And what are your thoughts about the "Lewis Admonition?"
6 comments:
I was unaware that Dr. Ruth had been using this four-fold model in how he talked about worship leading but never named it (at least that I can remember) in our sacramental theology class. It is recognizable most liturgical services that I have been a part of when I stop to think about it.
As a worship leader, a guide like this 4 fold worship is mostly encouraging and freeing. It would help someone structure worship intentionally with accountability, but it is not so tight as to shut down the creativity of what the Spirit is putting in your heart. Of course a danger with any "formula" is to just "plug and chug" without any of the Spirit's breath, but that's not the formula's fault.
As for Lewis, his comments make me nervous about most of the worship that I have been a part of and/or helped lead. Mostly working in settings with teenagers, there is always a strong push to make worship "cool" in such a way that the "cool" factor is noticed. That's not treating the teenagers like real worshipers, as if encountering God wasn't going to be enough. So in our effort to do "more" we actually detract from the worship. We make God look small. That sells everyone short. I guess Lewis leaves me with more questions than answers, but I like it. He gets me thinking about what I do and what I am actually pointing to.
What do ya’ll think?
Yeah...I think we all know where Dr. Ruth got some of his ammo from after the article.
To me, the ancient future idea really speaks out. When I first started thinking about the church that is outside whatever building I happened to be in on sunday morning I actually started enjoying worship.
Brett, I understand the stress that C.S. Lewis put you under. I was always unsettled with that when I led worship.
I really like the emphasis on "Christ is dead, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. I am somewhat biased because this is my favorite part of most communion liturgies. But it really connects this and gets us outside of a self-centered worship box.
The beauty of a corporate worship service that is familiar is that your mind can run free with the Spirit, finding places to stop, to be challenged, to reflect, to hear, to stand in awe.
Fancy, over-wrought worship is like putting makeup on a baby. Unnecessary. I don't think the Lord needs to be dressed up for us to worship him. But the job of worship leaders/lead worshipers is to tell the story of God faithfully, listening to the Holy Spirit, so we actually enact the story.
I really agree with Lewis on this point, which is no huge surprise since his theology has heavily influenced mine, and it's interesting to note that he's writing from an Anglican perspective. What were the worship services like that caused him to write these lines? They weren't worship bands.
Really on the topic of "what should worship look like," I have a lot of questions, and the "four-fold" worship is really flexible.
Good blogging, y'all! Let's keep this up.
Lewis' article hit me home as well!
It's like he is saying that worship is a part of who you are and not something that you have to do! I guess that's what I've been told and done for all my life. I know that worship is not singing to God or done only at church... we've learned all that. But don't do worship well so others can see that you are a true worshipper, but it's out of the overflow of your being.
Since I have been in seminary I have observed how some of our speakers embody the message, song, prayer, even the liturgy... and I have learned a lot from that. For example, when JD goes through the UM liturgy of communion he does it in a way that it's not boring, he embodies that message and he makes it something exciting and meaningful...he is worshiping out of his being and the overflow of his heart as he worships God's redemptive plan of salvation and Christ's sacrifice for us all...
It's amazing!
I only hope that more and more, my worship, my life, will be out of who I am as a gift to God... and not something that I am trying really hard to accomplish.
Just thinking...
Yea! Good Comments!
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