Worship Experiences
I'm torn. I admit, my heart goes in several directions when it comes to worship styles. Perhaps it is because of my own experience. Raised in the Lutheran church, I worshipped in two set ways: p. 5 and p. 15 of THE Lutheran Hymnal (TLH). Then, just before I left NC for NY to go to college, I began worshipping at a Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, where worship consisted of Praise music and classic Gospel hymns, like those of the Wesley brothers, Fanny Crosby, Isaac Watts, and the like. Marianne and I, when in college, mostly attended Passaic Bible Church in New Jersey, that is, when I wasn't teaching children's Sunday School at a Korean Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn.
I returned to the Lutheran church of my youth when I was living in Dallas, TX, working for Marriott, and going to graduate school at Dallas Theological Seminary. Marianne and I did not know the worship liturgy, but it was familiar to me, like an old habit. Get on the bicycle and guess what? You discover that you can still ride it because you know it. Liturgical worship was that way for me. However, it was not the liturgy alone that attracted us to the Lutheran church. It was the fact that our church home -- Bethel Lutheran Church on NW Hwy in Dallas -- was Christ-centered, Bible-based, mission-minded, very friendly, and family-oriented. Being family-friendly was important to us because we longed for community. Even though we had no children at that time, we still volunteered to teach Wednesday evening children's Bible club. I sang in the choir when Marriott would allow. We got back into the swing of being liturgical Lutherans in a congregation where that meant worship would be done with excellence, centered on Jesus, proclaim God's Word, and celebrate the sacred acts/sacraments that God gave His church: Baptism and Holy Communion.
Recently, at an Air Force chapel, I had the opportunity to attend four different types of services during Holy Week. I went to Catholic Mass, a "traditional" Protestant service, a "contemporary" Praise service, and a classic African-American "Gospel" service. Interestingly, all of them were Biblical and Christ-centered. I preached at none of them. I worshipped, and I found my soul refreshed after worship. Yet the week after this, perhaps because I had not been the preacher/leader, I had people complain to me. They complained about the length of the service, the level of the volume, the lack (or abundance) of participants. "Why don't people come?" they lamented. Or conversely, "Why do so many people attend during Easter week, and not the rest of the time?" I wondered to myself, "Why don't you just worship and forget about what everyone else is doing, or not doing?" I didn't ask that because I'm generally well-behaved and I try to be non-confrontational. OK, OK. I said, "I try"!
I began to wonder: what is the right style of worship? Which one has the most relevance? What is most important when we gather to worship? I'm not giving answers here. I'm raising questions (sorry folks, it's my spiritual gift!). Here's what I will assert: I think that people most frequently find their answers to these questions by appealing to what they are accustomed to, and what they are most comfortable with, according to their habituated preferences and personal histories, as though somehow God is impressed with us, or somehow bound by our experience. He is not, of course. Yet we try to shape worship into something for us, instead of it being primarily God's activity. "Pastor, I'm not being fed" is a frequent refrain among Christians. "Worship has got to be relevant" is another constant comment, not to mention comments about hymn selection, particular musicians (does he have to play that bass guitar so loud? Can't the drummer quiet down? Can we have more cow bell?). Somewhere, the focus of worship shifts from God, who encounters His people, to God who caters to our preferences.
In the midst of my questions, I hear Jesus speaking to a half-blooded Jewish women, who had a fairly faulty moral compass, and minimal theological training: "The Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth." She wanted to pin him down about the geography of worship -- whether here in Samaria, or there in the liturgical temple in Jerusalem? But Jesus didn't respond to her questions. He spoke to her heart. Maybe that's what worship is all about? God speaking to the hearts of His people. "In many and various ways, God spoke through the prophets, but in these latter days, He has spoken to us by His Son" the Scriptures say. The real God encounters the real me, and blows away all my sin, doubts, questions, and concerns with the glory and grace of simply being Himself, in Law and in Gospel, He is with His people, assembled around His Word. What a wonderful worship experience!