worship wars, being the change you wish to see
by Jeni
A response to Nina's excellent and well-written post.
I've been thinking a lot about the worship life at the seminary. Attendance at chapel continues to dwindle as the year progresses and, as Nina mentioned, innovation and creativity is nowhere to be found. No where? Certainly there is some days where the default rubrics are dropped for a new worship experience, but we are often lifted out of our well-tended grooves and patterns only to enter back into them the next day. What to do?
With a little over a month to go, and really, that's all the time we have left together, I want to plug chapel. Chapel attendance, chapel creativity, chapel innovation, chapel planning.
If you think about it, our academic careers often shape our ministries; not only what we learn about the bible, theology and leadership. but also how we handle ourselves in, with and under those things. The patterns we create for ourselves with worship, exercise and social gathering often are patterns we will keep once we are planted in a community, church or yet another academic environment.
I would argue that there is ample space for creativity and innovation within the walls of our chapel. There is permission to do things differently! I loved Thursday's worship with Efrem Smith (if you didn't hear it, listen to it!); I highly enjoy when The Fleshpots play their sweet melodious tunes; I'm happy when the piano is played and other instruments brought in and drum circles are formed. Our MSM students are quite gifted and could play a variety of instruments.
I'd still like to see hip-hop in worship before I leave. That would be rad. What are your ideas? What feeds you or would feed you in chapel? If you had your druthers (and I think you do), what would you bring to the community?
Be the change. Every Monday and Wednesday from 1:30-3 or so, Pastor John Mann and Kris Rongstad invite the community to plan worship. It's an opportunity to be creative and innovative, as well as a constructive way to bring change to what we experience presently. Bring your ideas! And if you're feeling shy, bring a friend! They meet upstairs in the OCC!
If meeting isn't your thing, brainstorm with me via this blog! You can do it anonymously or in big bold letters!
I've been thinking a lot about the worship life at the seminary. Attendance at chapel continues to dwindle as the year progresses and, as Nina mentioned, innovation and creativity is nowhere to be found. No where? Certainly there is some days where the default rubrics are dropped for a new worship experience, but we are often lifted out of our well-tended grooves and patterns only to enter back into them the next day. What to do?
With a little over a month to go, and really, that's all the time we have left together, I want to plug chapel. Chapel attendance, chapel creativity, chapel innovation, chapel planning.
If you think about it, our academic careers often shape our ministries; not only what we learn about the bible, theology and leadership. but also how we handle ourselves in, with and under those things. The patterns we create for ourselves with worship, exercise and social gathering often are patterns we will keep once we are planted in a community, church or yet another academic environment.
I would argue that there is ample space for creativity and innovation within the walls of our chapel. There is permission to do things differently! I loved Thursday's worship with Efrem Smith (if you didn't hear it, listen to it!); I highly enjoy when The Fleshpots play their sweet melodious tunes; I'm happy when the piano is played and other instruments brought in and drum circles are formed. Our MSM students are quite gifted and could play a variety of instruments.
I'd still like to see hip-hop in worship before I leave. That would be rad. What are your ideas? What feeds you or would feed you in chapel? If you had your druthers (and I think you do), what would you bring to the community?
Be the change. Every Monday and Wednesday from 1:30-3 or so, Pastor John Mann and Kris Rongstad invite the community to plan worship. It's an opportunity to be creative and innovative, as well as a constructive way to bring change to what we experience presently. Bring your ideas! And if you're feeling shy, bring a friend! They meet upstairs in the OCC!
If meeting isn't your thing, brainstorm with me via this blog! You can do it anonymously or in big bold letters!
posted by Jeni at 7:10 PM
1 Comments:
Jeni (and Nina) - Thanks for your articulate reflections. I remember my senior year at Luther (your first, J), the conversation about chapel really seemed to get opened up after the infamous service Dr. Fryer led right before Thanksgiving.
The debate then (and, it sounds, now) seemed to center on the purpose of chapel - is it a worship lab? A chance to try out a wide variety of worship styles and experiences? Or is it the community's sacred gathering time? (now that I write that, I don't know why no one thought to ask why it couldn't be BOTH. . .although the implication to it being the community's sacred gathering time was that it should be more consistent and traditional in format).
Back in those days, I remember thinking (and seem to recall others also saying) that maybe the Wednesday communion service should be the more consistently, more traditionally structured, and the other days of the week are more of a lab and more open to experimentation. Certainly, much of the time it's a lot easier to experiment and innovate with your peers and for your peers than in the parish.
If you ask me, seminary's the time to test stuff out, to weed out the bad ideas and develop the good ones, so you can go into a parish with a natural "we've never done it that way before" reflex confidant that the creative ideas you're bringing will work. If you've never tested them and you're worried they are going to flop, you're less apt to try them when your salary is on the line.
Just my two cents. Happy Holy Week.
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