The Feel Good Pep Rally as Worship - The Place of “Praise and Worship”
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
So I was sitting having lunch yesterday with a friend who has been a part of our church for the last year. He complained that our church has too much “Praise and Worship” type singing. He reported that a number of people don’t sing. And he implicated that perhaps we too had befallen to the dreaded temptation of the “Feel Good Pep Rally” style of worship, the critique I myself had levied at some contemporary worship services in The Great Giveaway. I listened and replied telling him that I thought he might be the exact person in need of such singing and returning praise to God. It might be exactly what his wearied soul needs to order his body and soul towards the order of God in praise. I challenged him to submit to the singing that comes pretty much at the end of every service at Life on the Vine after the preaching and hearing of the Word.
At Life on the Vine singing comes at the end because it is always a return to God for what He has done, what He has said in His Word and what He will do in the days, weeks and years to come. It is not always an up-style singing because sometimes the hearing of the Word may indeed require some confession in song (especially during Lent). During our service there are always versions of the threefold functions within liturgical movement: confession, submission and affirmation of truth. What happens in high-church services through the reciting of confessional prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostle’s Creed, happens at our church using art, poetry, Scripture reading, and various call-responses. The worship is hopefully alive with participation in these movements in the work of God. There is also the preaching of the Word, and of course the Table of our Lord. As we gather before the mystery and presence of God, hopefully there is a sense of a people receiving and then giving, hearing and responding. The response at the end comes usually in the lifting up of praise, thanksgiving, affirmation and exaltation unto God. This last element too takes practice. And it changes us all. It does not come out of thin air, but as a response to the hearing and seeing of God’s Word and work. It is an act of obedience. It really can shape our experience of our selves before God.
The feel good pep rally approach to worship personally turns me off. Many times I have felt manipulated and sometimes falsely moved. And I confess that at Life on the Vine we have a “worship band” typical of the feel good worship services of evangelicalism. The hymns, and tunes used are contemporized as well as all the liturgical movements in the time of worship. So there is the ever present danger of the feel good pep rally at our church (sorry if your haven’t read the critique but in is available here and here in slimmed down versions). So for people like my friend, we have to watch the words we sing. Make the words substantive and rich yet contemporary and inviting enough to foster real participation. We have to say some words to help lead people into what this singing is about. We then must use the full range of music to reflect the beauty and majesty of God. We simply can’t do without authentic praise of the Triune God.
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We’re back from Russia with our son “little Max.” All is well. Next week I hope to blog on yet another list of the “must theological issues” I think are confronting the emerging church.
Posted by David Fitch | 3:15 PM
COMMENTS:
I really like what your saying about liturgy and worship. Is there somewhere I could see what it looks like? Maybe and order of worship?
I am trying to move towards this in my ministry and would love some tips.
6:44 AM
Welcome back, Fitch fam! And congratulations!
Regarding your post (and the conversation that precipitated it): I wonder if some who don't enjoy responsive worship are engaging in the same sort of thinking that they disdain in those on the opposite end of the spectrum: the idea that worship should reflect their own comfort level, needs and feelings. We toss the cliche around that it's not about us, but really, most of us might actually kind of hope that it might just be.
Check out this link to an old post on my blog from a month or so ago: tp://parablelife.blogspot.com/2006/02/it-only-takes-spark.html
It tells the story of a church service entirely devoid of music.
7:44 AM
Dave,
Have you asked yourself why this is such a hot button for some folks? Does it need to be a hot button? Why do we devote such time and press about it?
I thought our liturgies (whatever they are) are about God. What about worship and the lament? What about worship and joy? Are we setting up laws around worship?
10:46 AM
Thanks Paul,Michelle (good post on your blog ...), MM ... Paul ... try contacting Aaron Lindloff on the Life on the Vine website and swee what he can send you in the way of "orders of service," liturgicons etc...,
11:57 AM
Congratulations, that is brilliant news and we look forward to soon seeing you and your family.
8:59 AM
"Praise and Worship" isn't dead. It follows on the heals of "blues" (conspicuous lack) and "rap" (conspicuous consumption). This is to say, it manifests a SPIRIT of "have" (rather than have not) in spirit's move toward a "world music" (a Pentecost). So whereas, at times in the past, the Pentecostal "dance" may have been relegated to "swaying with serpents" (and was a music of beauty, as such, but also of death); still (and though) the lyrics are those of a baby (or baby "spirit") ... and the baby isn't crying any more. Let me explain: Repeating "God is love. Because God is love. I said God is love. Yes, God is love" (Praise and Worship) is no different in a sense than repeating "I'm going down town to see my girl. Yes, I'm going down town to see my girl. Said I'm going down town to see my girl. 'Cause I'm going down town to see my girl" (Blues) ... except for the CONTENT, I mean. And, like the African American rise from blues to rap (which illustrates that they have achieved success even if they might be faulted for bragging about that success); the progression from snake charming to pep rally is encouraging. This is to say, perhaps it is accomplishing what it purports to accomplish (enlivening an otherwise "dead" (church) body).
3:31 AM
Thanks Mindrec ... i think that I also have no problem with repeating phrases ... in fact the nacient liturgies pretty much are defined as repeating phrases ... sometimes again and again and again ... And I have no problem with praise and worship music that does that ... when it is placed in relation to God via a response to Him ... and via words that do not always start with the individualistic "I" or ... the "it's not about ME." ... In these cases we submit to a liturgy that forms our consciousness into approaching God only in terms of a predisposed "me"...
3:50 PM
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8:20 PM
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