The Future of Worship

Last week, I had my first opportunity to meet and converse with Sally Morgenthaler, author of the 1995 book Worship Evangelism.  Our pastor, Bill Hybels, had invited Sally to come to a small leadership gathering we have once a month which includes the leadership team of our church, the leadership team of the Willow Creek Association, and our 4 Campus Pastors at our regional sites.  This small group of about 25 leaders came to the lunch meeting having already digested Sally’s recent article in Rev! magazine about her current views on worship in the church.  In that article, Sally courageously questions some of her own assumptions from a decade ago, and probes evidence which indicates that worship evangelism has not effectively penetrated into the culture of the non-churched.  For over an hour, we had the opportunity to hear from Sally and dialog about her observations and where we might be headed in the future.

The next day, Sally played a part on a panel at the Arts Conference where several of us explored many issues concerning our worship gatherings.  Mostly, we raised a lot of questions, and created much discomfort without really resolving anything.  Sally made a point that she believes the worship subculture is in a major decline, and that we need to have the guts to start over and re-invent together what our gatherings should be going forward.  I share her concerns that much of the Christian worship music all sounds alike, and is easily distinguishable from where secular music has gone.  I also believe that our gatherings have become far too predictable, dependent almost exclusively on music and teaching while abandoning many other art forms and communication tools.  A worship subculture exists, and in most of our churches, we cannot point to huge gains in reaching those outside the church with our weekly worship gatherings.  So what does all this mean?

I looked out at our conference, at 5,000 people who invest their time every week in planning and preparing weekend experiences we hope will build up believers AND be accessible to those outside the faith.  Starting over?  That’s frightening.  And while one might accuse Sally of yelling “Fire” and overstating the nature of the “emergency”, I appreciate her prophetic wake-up call and simply challenge us all to courageously re-visiting our assumptions.  While we continue to serve our God and our churches week to week, we must carve out some time to step back outside that process and take the big picture 40,000 feet look at where we are and where we are headed.  I certainly don’t have the answers.  But I welcome the questions, as uncomfortable as they may be, and encourage my fellow artists and church teachers to face these questions head-on, without fear and defensiveness.  We all want the same thing, I think - to create experiences that move and ultimately transform people on their spiritual journeys, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we will listen attentively to the culture, to our congregations, and to our Creator…we will begin to make our way out of the clouds and discern where to go next.  Let’s keep the dialog and questions going…

Comments

[donna]

thanks for the link to the article - these discussions had started at our church before we came last week - i was so glad to know you are having them too - and are continuing - -living in the tension -- trying to sort out what our corporate worship gatherings are about -- i have more questions than answers right now -- and more books/articles to read than i can begin to absorb -- i loved the statement in the article "He (Jesus) did not make the building—or corporate worship—the destination. His destination was the people
God wanted to touch, and those were, with few exceptions, people who wouldn’t have spent much time in holy places." We, too, are trying to hear what the Spirit is saying and waiting for the clouds to part a bit ...

[Butch Whitmire]

Thanks for posting this, Nancy. Our leadership team read and digested Sally's article a few weeks ago; I think she is on the right track. There is still much yet to consider on the strategy.

The Christian worship music subculture is, in my opinion, real and can be a barrier to reaching the unchurched.

We are doing what we can to share as much Truth on our weekends through secular music as possible. Billboard's Top 10 has been a little discouraging as of late. I will be praying for God to inspire Switchfoot, U2, Cold Play, Leland or anyone other artist with the courage to write ouutside the lure of money songs.

[Terry Timm]

Nancy,

Thanks for including Sally in the Arts Conference. I believe she is a crucial voice as the People of God seek to create the future. Her work greatly influenced me 10 years ago and continues to speak into my life and ministry today.

I believe one of the keys is enlarging our understanding of worship and helping people move beyond a Sunday only experience of worship. What would it look like if we extended our worship outside our walls. I am doing some speaking and writing recently on missional worship and kicking around this definition of worship, "worship is taking our everyday, ordinary lives and offering them back to God for the life of the world."

Artists (and I still believe Sunday worship gatherings) have a huge role to play as we envision fresh expressions of worship that encompass our neighborhoods, schools, the workplace and the public square. What might worship look like as it becomes embedded in our acts of mercy and justice?

Thanks for your leadership!

[Zach Nielsen]

Nancy,

Thanks for the post. I think preaching and singing need to be central on our meeting times as believers because it seems that the Bible paints this picture when the people of God gather together. At least this seems to be the Biblical emphasis to me. I don't see these two going away.

[Wes Roberts]

Counting Sally as a good friend and hearing her take on the conference just this past Tuesday evening as my wife and I dined with her and another good friend back home here in Denver...I want to commend you, Nancy, for your own prophetic courage in creating a conference that, for once, leaves people in the tension of good questions. You are a brave soul, one I've heard about for a long time, and I am grateful for your stepping out. It will be great sacred fun to see what happens with you and Sally as you continue to have conversation. Thank you for leading in new and very necessary directions.

[Sally Morgenthaler]

Nancy,

It was my great delight to meet you after all these years, and to experience your prophetic voice and vision firsthand at this year's Willow Creek Arts Conference. You communicated bravely and clearly, calling us all to affirm that which is and has been good in our worship, as well as that which concerns you. It is time for the big questions. We cannot afford to just keep doing what we've always done. That has been Willow's message for thirty years: the need for reformation. Now those of us who have been faithful at the contemporary, entrepreneurial model - especially praise and worship - must ask again if what we are doing is really transforming lives and expanding the kingdom.

People who know me will say that I'm not into throwing out the baby with the bathwater. For instance, in worship, there is much the liturgical or classic Christian expressions can offer to us and I called for a fusion of old and new in Worship Evangelism. So what I am not saying is, "Get rid of worship." Yet, how does a missional, "embedded" perspectiive (i.e., being the church outside the building) inform what we do each week? I believe we are at an incredibly exciting juncture where an out of the building focus will re-make - re-form - our corporate gatherings in ways we never imagined. For worship services to be the overflow of our lives in the kingdom instead of the destination - now that is a vision of beauty and faithfulness worth all the wrestling and disequilibrium we can stand. Change is never easy. But the faithful church is always the changing church. The reforming church.

What a time in history to be a Christ-follower...to be a Romans 12: 1,2 worshipper! We are only limited by our fossilization in past formulas. Let us all re-imagine worship and mission for the now of life, the now of God.

Thank you again, Nancy, for calling us all into uncharted territory. I say a hearty yes to being on this journey with you.

Sally Morgenthaler

[dwayne moore]

Thank you, Nancy and Sally, for your powerful and courageous call to reinvent our worship subculture. Very convicting! Nancy, I used a small excerpt from this entry on my website. Forgive me for not asking permission ahead, but I am leaving on vacation and wanted to post this before I left. I linked back to this post and encouraged everyone to read yours and Sally's entire entry. Blessings! - Dwayne

[Tamara Murphy]

Thank you, Nancy, for this follow up post on the conversation that Sally began during the conference. Truth be told, I was not registered for the conference until I read the news that Sally had been added to the panel. (not that I didn't desire to come earlier, but that was just the 'push' I needed to hop in my car and drive the 13 hours to Chicago!)
I could talk and ask and talk and ask about all that has been introduced (even in this post) but what I most want to say is "Thank you" to both Nancy and Sally for your courage and grace and love for our God. The human tendency to live in the 'bubble' is a fierce one. I was able to strike up a conversation with a couple from Germany after session with Dan Kimball and the panel. They told me that a much smaller percentage of the population in Germany attends church so I asked them if that made it harder to live in the bubble? They laughed, "No!"
I get shivers thinking about how God is going to help us 're-imagine'!

[brandon]

I don't think we need to re-invent anything. I do believe we need to return to what worship truly is. It's not a performance and I've seen a lot of church's trying to mimic an earthly "christian" subculture.

[Peter Hamm]

Thanks so much for adding Sally to the panel. I think in the next year or two it would be good to have her speak on this at either the Arts Conference or even the Summit.

So, Sally, I had never read "Worship Evangelism" and picked up a copy a few weeks back. Then I read that excellent and provocative REV article. Should I even bother reading the book?

;-)

[Tana]

I am so happy to see that others are engaging in this conversation, and happily surprised that a large organization like Willow Creek is actually seriously making these considerations.

My husband, a friend and I have been seeking how to integrate the arts back into church, allowing worship to be more than just "singing songs" (or watching a performance in some cases). I am excited to engage others in conversation regarding these thoughts.

There is a book called "What every church member should know about poverty." It brings up some excellent points that can be applied to church services, worship, and how we "package" ourselves for the "unchurched." I highly recommend it as a way to start thinking in a new way...

thanks for keeping the conversation going...

[Scott Sterner]

According to D.A. Carson in Worship By the Book, today’s Evangelical worship culture has done nothing less than to create a “new liturgy” for the church. If we would take a moment to compare our “new liturgy” with the great tradition of faith, I think we would be a bit startled at how narrow and two-dimensional we have become. By no means am I trying to belittle the many wonderful things that have happened in recent decades within arts ministries in the church; however, I do agree that we are beginning to face some not so pleasant music as we are left scratching our heads asking how it is we can effectively engage new generations of believers and seekers with the gospel of Christ.

[Nancy Beach]

To Wes,

thanks for your words and your encouragement for Sally, myself, and others to engage in ongoing dialog on these issues. What a gift to explore the questions and options together in the kingdom!

Nancy Beach

[Steve Merrick]

I'm a music director at large church in Southern California. There are many reasons why our music isn't reaching out. 1) The highest leadership is conflicted about it for the most part. Those Senior Pastors who want to reach out, are continually badgered by a vocal minority in their congregation (mainly older long term members) to keep things for the church, for them, not for the comunity. We experience this pull weekly. 2) and EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, The Demographic that we are trying to reach is extremely CONFLICTED. Here is why. The Christian Music Industry gears their music specifically toward women between the ages of 18 & 40 years of age. You're probably shaking your head and saying "what? how can you say that?" Here is how. The top Christian radio stations in the nation do something they call "research". Every 6 months, they put 250 women (from each of their large urban hubs) between the ages of 18 & 40 years of age into one room and play about 1 minute of a musical hook from a new release that the labels have put in front of them. Then, the women vote. The top songs that they vote for go into radio rotation. Now take a church like Willow Creek. I believe that your specific target audience is geared toward men 31 years of age. So everything you do markets toward them, except for your music. It is marketing toward an almost opposite demographic. Think about the broader affects of this practice and all of the trickle down affects. There is NOTHING wrong about feminizing Christian music, UNLESS you are trying to reach MEN. This practice has been going on for at least the last 10 years. I believe that music is the most powerful single force on the earth besides God and His church. Is there a parallel between this "Research" practice and its by-products, and what J. Dobson calls the "feminizing" of our society. Just a disclaimer: I am not against females or feminine things at all. You just can't reach males if everything you do is geared toward women.

[Joy Snyder]

I’m a 24-year old woman, fairly new to the music ministry (industry?) and just beginning to get a glimpse of the vast complexity of the issues at hand. On one hand, I, like many of you, have been drawn to this field because I have a deep desire to see growth, discipleship, and love in the people of God.

But how quickly that desire has been nibbled away at by conflicting philosophies of ministry, stale hearts and the reality of sin in the body of Christ. I’m only 24 and I already feel a deep discouragement because of the conflict within the church universal and local. I long for the church to rid itself of all the extra stuff and fluff we've added to worship, and to find our way back to the very core of the calling: to love God, love people, seek him with our heart/soul/mind/strength (obviously, easier said than done) – all the things that are actually potent to fight sin, reach the lost and draw us closer to knowing God.

I am rejoicing as I read Sally’s article because these are EXACTLY the thoughts that I and my other twenty-something friends talk about: how far are we going to go into the land of production? No wonder our friends don’t want to come to church –it’s so touchy-feely fake! What ever happened to how the church spread in the Bible, through community and generosity and personal evangelism? How is it that the musical part of corporate worship has become SO important and SO conflicted that each year there several major, multi-million dollar conferences around the country to talk about it? (no offense meant to those responsible for hosting those conferences… I’ve been blessed by attending them, but I still wonder). When did worship become an industry? Will we ever be able to do anything about it when we seem to be going against the flow of mainstream evangelicalism?

In regard to this specific topic of needing to reinvent the way we do things, though, I can’t help but fear that what has happened will happen again. We’ve already seen that people and churches are quick to go for the latest and greatest. I hate to say it, but it seems as though as soon as a large church does something that legitimately works, smaller churches around the country quickly hire, fire, re-budget and re-vision so that they, too, can experience the same success. The commercial has trumped the personal.

My concern is this: is there ANY new paradigm that can be promoted by leading thinkers and churches that WON’T become this year’s fully-equipped, power-steering, sure-to-make-the-Jones’-jealous BandWagon? If we’ve turned something as sacred as musical worship into a bland, narcissistic excuse for true ministry, is there a danger of that happening again when This book comes out and That church starts something new? How do you, Sally and Nancy, in your spheres of significant influence, propose ideas without instigating a new era of “fashion?”

I suppose while we are on Earth there will always be twists and imperfections… people will turn even the purest of actions into self-satisfying ventures, and that can only be fixed by personal conviction and the work of God in each situation – and that is no reason NOT to go public with new ideas and corrections. Nor, I suppose, is it a bad thing if all the churches in American began to do things like serving the poor, seeking genuine relationships within their church body, etc. Perhaps “fads” are just how we spread information in our culture?

New teaching is required - However, I would implore teachers to carefully consider HOW you teach. To make it clear that true worship is not going to be glamorous, and you might not get written about in a magazine or invited to perform anywhere. That church growth isn’t always a sign of success. That you may need to stop thinking so much about the right way to worship and be more active. To listen to the Holy Spirit more than you listen to public speakers. That we’re not propagating a solution but echoing a divine command. I know I’m not the only one who recognizes that working ourselves into a tizzy about worship is right where Satan wants us.

Like I said, I’m still new at this, eager to learn, and ready to have any incongruities in my thinking addressed. I care greatly about the church and I HATE that we seem to care more about this mystic ideal of worship than we do about getting down to the nitty-gritty truth of “take up your cross and follow me.”

[Nancy Beach]

Steve,
thanks for your insights about worship music being geared to females...that is fascinating. Also, begs the question of music designed to reach those outside the church which isn't apparently even a research goal...
Nancy B.