What to do with worship?

Is Christians worship supposed to be entertaining or thought provoking?  In worship, are your experiences limited to sitting in a darkened auditorium watching a smoke enhanced spotlighted preacher?

 

Or, are you surrounded by a throng of jumping enthusiasts who could just as well be at a rock concert?  Who taught you what worship is suppose to look like and how you are supposed to act in order to fit in? 

 

 

Since I - like so many who are 50 and over - was initially raised in a mainline tradition church, I learned that first of all, worship was boring and basically irrelevant to my limited experience in the world.  The general lesson was this: worship was a place to be quiet, be still, behave or be exposed! 

Modeling this out very well was the pastor, who always looked like he had either just eaten liver, or was having gastric cramping.  With smiles limited to greetings at the door, we were left with little but an hour of stoic resignation. 

Now having worshiped in a variety of churches and denominations with a wide range of
worshiping styles, it raises questions.  Some of these worshiping communities look a bit scary to someone raised in the 50’s.  Maybe it’s the juice at the fellowship time – is it spiked or what? 


Back in the late 90’s we sang a song in the “emerging” contemporary worship movement call “Undignified.”  It was based on the II Samuel 6:22 passage where King David -- so overjoyed that the Ark containing the covenantal laws was finally coming into a proper house -- danced “naked” through the streets of Jerusalem.  When he was confronted about this "indignity" he said, (v 22) “if you think this is something (my indecent dancing) just wait, I’ll become even more undignified than this!”

What are we meant to experience and express in Christian worship?  Are we to be the more serious stoic-worshipers of Almighty God; or are we to raise our arms and dance in the aisle because the Spirit of Christ is upon us and we just can’t contain ourselves.  Should we all don loin cloths and taunt those who would criticize by saying, “You haven’t seen nothing yet, we can become way more undignified that this!” 

 

If you want the rest of the “loin cloth” story (a real one) we will continue our series this Sunday “Where did  we learn that?  Misguided lessons we’ve learned about the Christian faith.”