Worship Weblog

Surrey Book Group (Wilma's group) – Third meeting

Posted by cicw

Monday, August 17th, 2009

Book Groups

We invited 34 book groups across the U.S. and Canada to meet and discuss The Church of All Ages and its implications for their worship, and to share their notes here.
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We opened our meeting singing together Marty Haugen’s gathering song “Here in this Place,” noting its barrier-breaking invitation (we are the young, whose lives are a mystery/we are the old, who yearn for your face) and its visionary picture of life with God (gather us in all people together/fire of love in our flesh and our bone). Music is a key carrier of pictures of true worship and someone noted that it needs to be selected carefully to teach and invite themes of “all are welcome.”

We were all particularly drawn to pastor Stan Mast’s observation that it is passion, not style that draws teens. The youngest member of our discussion group wondered if there are too many non-negotiables in a worship service which can make things feel a bit tight, predictable and un-passionate; what happens in the pew for the congregation is really important in order for passion to flow, for our emotions and our will to be drawn in; perhaps we need to learn from youth -who are, thankfully, less able to turn off passions- to loosen up a bit on structures, experimenting with different kinds of liturgies (though it was noted that for seniors, there is great comfort and security in a worship pattern that is deeply known: again, there is great need for worshippers to be informed, intelligent worshippers. Generally speaking, if something is explained well it will be received well.)

This opened up a whole conversation about use of the body in worship. It was interesting to note that though Mast describes “prostrate” as a fundamental physical posture for worship, nowhere is such embodied worship recommended nor could any of us think of a time we’d been encouraged to lie down let alone kneel in worship. How can a faith that centers on the incarnation of God into humanity remain so unembodied, we wondered. (One member recalled as a youth being told that dancing was not appropriate in worship since we can “dance in our hearts.”) Obviously still lots of misunderstanding and fear relating to our bodies.

We did note, though, that any worship actions that get us out of the pew, such as candle-lighting, receiving ashes in Lent, serving each other communion etc. are always very positively received and could be, with proper preparation, greatly expanded upon to allow more personal and active involvement of all worshippers. Someone mentioned the image of the congregation as a choir, with all voices called to participate in some way.

Overall, we very much enjoyed the conversations which the book opened up for us and even in our critiques are thankful for the insights presented. We did find that the book emphasizes the generations quite often in the context of biological families which is maybe not expansive enough in considering the creative ways the generations can be together. One of the great insights of the New Testament is the use of that most intimate of words, family, to refer not to biological ties but spiritual ties. We also felt that though the book’s theme is all generations, its emphasis is really on youth. Someone wondered if we’re so scared of youth leaving that we’ll do anything to keep them and then neglect true attention to the spiritual maturing of other generations?

Howard Vanderwell asks at the end of the book, is it a dream, this kind of inter-generational worship? We felt yes, perhaps it is only a dream, since in our respective settings, we’ve also desired many of the ideas presented in the book but have found them hard to implement. (We spent some time discussing the space between pulpit and pew, how it can inadvertently contribute to the “infantilizing” of congregations). But we also felt , no, it’s not a dream. We have seen these things happen, even if more by accident than intention, and discussions like these have ripple effects that can truly transform.

Always our group comes back to wondering about the deeper basis of being together in worship: what vision calls and sustains us? Authentic, maturing intentional interaction between people is always our great need and we conclude that of all the actions of worship, participating in communion, eating together, remains one of our most important symbolic yet deeply practical expressions of our shared life. It needs to happen more often with more variety and depth and beauty (and bigger pieces of breadJ ) because “by his Spirit, God has already betrothed us to himself until the day when our bodies are redeemed and we have faces that show us to be brothers and sisters of each other and of Jesus himself. So, even in hard, cold and confusing days, we do not lose heart.” (from Ecstasy and Intimacy: where the Holy Spirit meets the human spirit by Edith Humphrey)

Tags: bgsurreywilma, Book Groups 2009, intergenerational