Wednesday, October 17, 2007

we wooooorship you looooord!

Besides being extremely impressed at my sister's blog which every Ugandan (remotely patriotic and slightly cynical) should read... http://ugandaninsomniac.wordpress.com/, I find myself asking questions about the work I do and the mundane sameness from week to week.

I'm a musician (at least I think I am) and my primary responsibility is to make sure that the worship experience of a large (1500) group of people is relatively meaningful and well put-together. Every week, 5 songs into the set, after the announcements and offering have rudely interrupted my flow and I am desperately attempting to bring everybody in the auditorium onto the same page in worship, somebody walks on stage and takes over my well-planned worship set and leads in a time of "spontaneous" worship in which I am given orders about what songs to sing and obediently play the piano as a backdrop to this time of spontaneous worship

It always starts with the individual stretching out his hands (stereotypical worship posture), asking the congregation to do the same and a phrase that I have come to loathe - not because of what it says, but because of the irritating fact that I KNOW it is coming...

"we woooooorship you looooord" - F#..... D..... for those of you that get it

I work in a worship community that likes to think of themselves as cutting edge, spirit filled, fresh, and charismatic and yet week after week, I find myself in a community that would rather be dull, stale and predictable; the above mentioned weekly episode being a prime example

Why?

If the general sentiment is that things are OK where they are, what in the world am I doing trying to create unique, different, and meaningful worship experiences? Why does my job exist here?
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Because I am consumed with matters pertaining my faith, I find that I am also prone to looking at all the initiatives that I am involved in through a critical and sometimes negative lens.

In 2 weeks, I shall lead a worship and prayer event in the nations capital - an event that is supposed to bring together christians from all across the region for the sole purpose of worshipping and praying in unity and then watching what God does.

This year we have placed special emphasis on a service project as a way to tangibly show that we are not gathering together in unity just for the sake of it... we want to make this unity count.

I love the idea that we need to put hands and feet to all the talk that we do about loving our city and wanting to have a tangible impact in it... but the emphasis on this service project has birthed in my mind a nagging question about the whole initiative. The worship and prayer initiative was started with the sole purpose of bringing together people from all denominations and persuasions under the unifying banner of worship and prayer in the promise that is found in scripture; if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray... seek my face and turn from their wicked ways... then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

Doesn't it seem a little wierd that the main focus of the event this year is not the worship and prayer, but the service project?

Does it mean that we have lost the childlike, naiive faith that praying about something can actually change it?

Isnt it extremely telling that in a society that emphasizes "results" a ministry whose results are going to be a long time in coming and relatively unmeasurable by conventional means would resort to a "simpler" way out?

What is most interesting is that there is no board of directors looking over our shoulders and asking why there have been no results since we started. I wonder if the enormity of the task of the ministry, coupled with the fact that it is a long-term initiative just dawned on my fellow leaders. The truth of the matter is that a worship and prayer initiative that sees any real results is going to take more than the 7 years that this ministry has been in existence. The truth of the matter is that "results" have already been seen - one of them being that annually, over 2000 christians gather in a city that is decidedly post-christian to worship and pray together in unity. The truth of the matter is that pastors all across the NCR (Except for fringe groups and denominations) will tell you that there is a growing sense of unity not only within denominations such as the fellowship baptist and the pentecostal assemblies, but even across denominations. The truth of the matter is that the process of turning the tide against culture and popular opinion is a long, hard road that the church here has to walk and subtly moving the focus from worship and prayer to doing service projects is an indication that the original ideal that the ministry had is too high a bar to scale... When you start to put yourself into the playing field of service projects, you realize that the field is crowded with giants making more of an impact than you, a fledgling ministry ever could... which is why it did not start out that way.

I contend that our real area of influence... the area - the playing field - in which we are supposed to see results is a spiritual one first. One that allows us to then see results in the physical... but the spiritual battle for turf in our city has not yet been won... and this battle has to be won before the hearts of people will be turned to God. Local churches across the city are SERIOUSLY reaching out to their neighborhoods in small and large service projects, but while they come to our events, eat our hot dogs, drink our pop and play on our bouncy castles, they still mock us, ridicule us, and call us hypocrites.

A worship and prayer initiative should take into account that the change starts INSIDE the church first before it flows out or else our dysfunction is put on display for all to see and our outreach events are mocked and despised. This is why the scripture talks about "my people" because the transformation has to be inward. If the change happens inside the church in such a powerful way that it cannot be contained and subsequently spills out in evangelism, service projects and outreach events, then it has happened naturally. However, if the change has not happened internally and churches are still fighting over geographical turf and disgruntled people are migrating from one church to another, even though we may engineer a giant service project, the impact that it is supposed to have in the hearts and minds of the people we hope to bring into the kingdom of God will be lost because the world can still see our dysfunction and the transformation we hope to see will not happen.

Oh well...

perhaps the next post will be more coherent.

Out

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