Some friends are kindly discussing this series, see here, here and here. I’m prompted to write this postscript to head off a potential misunderstanding.

Worship has fruits. These are not the uses of worship – if we aim for the fruits then we are no longer worshipping rightly – but if we get the worship right then we can reasonably expect the God of all grace to equip us for ministry.

In heaven – or after the resurrection – then all that we do will be worship, for God will be with us eternally. In the meantime, worship allows us to touch heaven and enables us to carry out the work of the kingdom.

It is a little bit like a musician taking time to tune their instrument in order to then play sweet music; worship tunes us in to the correct pitch. Of course, that analogy breaks down a little – pursuing it would mean that all that happens in heaven is the tuning of instruments, a little like the cacophony that precedes the symphony.

Yet whilst we are here in this sinful world, right worship, which relates us to God and sets us right with God, is the spiritual medicine which heals us and enables us to share that healing with the wider world.

So right worship is the prerequisite for right mission, for right proclamation, for right witness. Where the worship is confused and confusing all these other elements of Christian life are diminished and inhibited.

This is why the stewardship of worship is an essentially pastoral task – it undergirds all other pastoral work – and why it is properly the prime concern of the priest. If we get the worship wrong then everything else we do is diminished; if we get the worship right then everything else we do is enhanced.

So yes: let us be concerned with all the other things that Christians are called to do – with mission, with evangelism, with political engagement and care for the poor, with provocative lives that challenge the powers and call people to repentance. But if we are going to do that in accordance with God‘s will and not with our own… let us take our worship with ultimate seriousness, and love God with ALL our hearts, minds, souls and strength. God must come first, and if we seek His kingdom then all these other things will be given us as well.

OK, having cleared my throat, here are some further specific thoughts about the Sunday morning service at Greenbelt this year.

– structure – I thought the structure was pretty good. I can’t recall if it began with an invocation of Christ but, on paper, there was a good balance of word and sacrament, the hymns were appropriate to the theme and on the whole it was pretty solid. The service didn’t fall down because of the structure, although there was room to quibble about some bits (eg no Lord’s Prayer);
– the Word – this was the first serious problem with the service, in that the Scriptures were not read out in English. Sure, if you had a Bible with you (or if you had a good memory for Scripture) then you could tell what was going on, if not, you were alienated from what is (probably) the single most important element of Christian worship. Also, the ‘sermons’ were read out (and people had the text in the service sheets), this too was a mistake, although not so serious;
– the music – this was diabolical. The hymns chosen were good-to-excellent (new words to old and familiar tunes) but the implementation was a disaster and the best example conceivable of how not to enable worship. In the environment of Greenbelt on a Sunday morning – when there were some 15,000 people gathered together in a field – then the onus is on those preparing the worship to ensure that some sense of solidarity is generated amongst the diverse people present. This is most readily achieved by singing in unison – so, a familiar hymn which all could join in with easily. Sadly, the way in which the music was played (technical people can describe the details) achieved nothing but alienation amongst most of the people gathered together (certainly all the people around me; it may have been different in other areas). There was a strong sense of wanting to join in and sing, but being prevented from doing so, and this compounded the error of not having the Scriptures read out in English. In sum – there were some people doing things on stage but it didn’t have much integration with what the people were able to join in with;
– the politics – I’m probably more pro-Israel than the average Greenbelt attender, so the pro-Palestine theme was a bit jarring for me, but even taking that into account I felt that it was too specific and one-sided to work well as the theme for this service. The principal occasion for fostering unity amongst the people gathered was probably not the best time to pursue a politically divisive issue (the same could probably be said about criticising Tesco). It raises the question of what the worship was for…;
– the sacrament – this was the best bit of the official service. I thought that the ‘elbow bump of peace’ was creative (although, in the context of a lot of people alienated from the worship, laughing and bemused, it didn’t increase a sense of transcendence!) and the use of oil for anointing was excellent and moving, and I was fairly happy that this had replaced communion (which left people the option of a supplementary communion amongst themselves at the end, which we did). Also, the giving out of an olive seed at the end was a good, incarnational idea.

So, on the whole, some good ideas at the planning stage, which were only partly successful in implementation, but as a service of worship the music in particular killed it nearly stone dead. What makes it most bizarre is that the ‘Beer and Hymns’ is an excellent demonstration of what might be possible. The service could have been mind-blowingly wonderful. It wasn’t, and that is a shame.

For the record, given the comments made at the Greenbelt site, I am not a conservative evangelical (!!) and I have no idea who Tim Hughes is.

Previous posts in this series:
Intro
What makes worship distinctively Christian
Participation and Performance
Worship is Useless

(An extra one prior to one about Greenbelt, in response to comments)

Sam’s first rule of worship: worship is useless, and as soon as worship is used for something else, it ceases to be worship.

In other words, worship must be centred upon God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. As soon as we say ‘let’s do worship this way, in order to achieve X’ (where X is anything other than ‘worship God more effectively’) then we are no longer loving God with all that we have. We have allowed another priority to intrude, we have slipped our moorings and begun to drift with the tides.

Examples:
– Mission and evangelism. Where a service is geared around bringing people to faith through what is expressed and achieved in a service, then worship is compromised. That is not to say that people don’t come to faith through worship – clearly they do. Nor is it to say that we should take no account of how people experience worship when planning services – clearly we must but that is because we must be concerned with what will enable people to worship. There is an ultimate difference between asking ‘what will enable people to worship’ and ‘what will enable people to come to faith’. The former is legitimate (and might achieve the latter); the latter is, in the end, an abandonment of worship. When the Reformers introduced worship in the vernacular, that was something that enabled worship. It probably also enabled a deeper conversion in people, and was missionary and evangelistic, but those were the healthy byproducts, not the main outcome sought.
– performance (especially in music but also in sermons, sometimes also in the intercessions). When the pursuit of excellence in musical performance becomes an end in itself, and has become separated from the spiritual activity of the community as a whole, then worship is compromised. The achievements might be immense, the music might be breathtakingly beautiful or stimulating, but where the spirit isn’t right then worship is no longer present. God is much more honoured by something imperfect but sincere and heartfelt than by something highly polished and accomplished that is oriented away from Him. This is not to say ‘don’t pursue excellence’ – OBVIOUSLY we pursue excellence – but we pursue excellence within the larger framework that in the end all we can offer to God is dross. ‘Only by grace can we enter…’ and all that.
– liturgical correctness and formality. When those involved in all the formal elements of a service have become excessively focussed on doing things ‘correctly’ then worship is compromised. Yes, all things must be done decently and in good order but church is not a military operation and it is most essentially a human endeavour. So insisting on perfect right-angle turns, inhibiting any human contact eg between priest and servers (or between priest and people), insisting that those serving must wear highly polished black shoes (and being scandalised if a young server happens to be wearing trainers) – these all risk missing the point.
– political correctness. I have often worried about whether it was right for me to criticise Tesco in a sermon, not because I don’t think what I said was true but because it didn’t leave much room for people to disagree. Perhaps I am wrong. I do think that it is legitimate for Christians in general, and clergy in particular, to be politically engaged, so long as they are not party-political, eg saying ‘Vote Labour’ or ‘Vote Conservative’ from the pulpit but the danger with becoming too specific with political points is that it overwhelms the worship. What is the difference between a service of worship and a political rally? Allowing God to be God, and acknowledging and praising God for being God – which means accepting things like: we are all sinners, we must not stand in condemnation against other people, we must not think that our actions are the most important actions, which lead to the equal temptations of giving in to despair or an excess of hubris. There is a clear Scriptural mandate to be politically controversial in terms of Christian life and witness; I am not clear how far it is legitimate to be specifically controversial in Christian worship. Preach and sing about God’s bias to the poor, yes, but saying that the tax rate should be raised to 50%? Probably not.

I’m sure there are other ways in which the priority of worship can be distorted, and the power of worship prostituted to human will. Worship is useless, and must remain useless, it is a divine waste of time.

Other posts in this series:
Intro
What makes worship distinctively Christian
Participation and Performance
Greenbelt 09

I think there are two ways in which Christian worship can fail: one is that it fails to approach God properly (so it breaks the first great commandment); the second is that it fails to enable the community to approach God properly (so it breaks the second great commandment).

Worship can be oriented correctly to God, yet not engage the worshipping community – then it is no longer worship but performance. On the other hand, worship can engage the community but not be oriented to God – that is simply self-congratulation.

I believe there is a ‘sweet spot of the Spirit’ where a community is enabled to worship God fully; where excellent worship is offered and where everyone shares in this process. Most of all, I believe that as the community grows and develops, so too does the sweet spot migrate and the community as a whole must change with it. The Spirit blows where it will.

To say that ‘everyone shares’ is not to say that all things are done by all people. There are all sorts of ways in which elements of worship are carried out ‘on behalf of’ the worshipping community as a whole. For example, when one person reads the intercessions, or one person reads the Scriptures, or one person recites the Eucharistic prayer. Such actions do not necessarily fail to engage with the community as a whole. It is the same with music: there are ways in which the sung elements of a service can be undertaken so as to alienate the community or to enable a sharing in what is being offered (this is why the singing of an anthem as such is not problematic). This pursuit of excellence must, however, be tempered by the element of service. The community has to be carried along together.

There must also be an element of transcendence involved – some element of challenge and invitation to spiritual growth. This transcendence can be found throughout the service – in the set prayers of liturgy, in the sermon, in the intercessions, in the sacrament. It can also be found in the music, in general hymnody or in choral pieces (it is particularly important for choral pieces to be beautiful). Where this element of transcendence is absent then there is no worship as such – we are in the realm of football stadiums, rock concerts and Nuremberg rallies. These can be uplifting experiences which unite and solidify a community – but they do not on their own bring that community closer to God.

The aim in worship is excellence, that what is offered up to God is the best that it can be. This is not always easy, and sometimes, with the best of intentions, worship ends up being a more or less glorious failure, which brings me to Greenbelt, the prompt for this series as a whole.

Other posts in this series:
Intro
What makes worship distinctively Christian
Worship is useless
Greenbelt 09

(Via Banksyboy)