The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St Stephen’s University, Essentials Green Online Worship Values Course with Dan Wilt

I believe that intimacy and integrity should be core values in our worship but in this post I will focus on intimacy because that is the one that raises questions for me.

Brian Doerksen, when asking whether the whole talk about intimacy in worship is a fad, writes this “Without reverence, we will not experience real intimacy in worship¹”.

How does reverence fit in with the whole concept of intimacy as we have heard of it, especially since, as Dan Wilt reminds us, intimacy speaks often of “vulnerability, self disclosure, healing, freedom…²”, all things that sound a bit disquieting to me but very close to what we can humanly experience when we have deep relationships in our families or our friendships?

This is where the question “Who is the God we worship?³” discussed by Dr. Don Williams and Brenton Brown, is an indication of an answer. It has all to do with the object of our worship: God as he reveals himself, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In other words, he is a mystery that we keep exploring and discovering, albeit in small ways.

The reason behind all my questioning is this nagging feeling (that I love) that intimacy with God implies things like nakedness, a revealing not only of my heart but of all of me, a total abandon. One of my leaders says “it does not necessarily look pretty”. There is this calling of Jesus to “lose oneself”, throw caution to the wind, a generosity in the way I am supposed to give myself over to God, in response to his generosity in giving himself over to us. I often feel I do not understand the measure of God’s love hence God’s call to worship him.

That degree of intimacy leads to unity with God, to having God dwell in us and to living in him: we are his temple⁵, He is our home.  We learn to care for what matters to God, it becomes important to us. So that implies death to our priorities and resurrection to God’s priorities, as Andy Park⁶ explained it so well.

The third thing I find disturbing about intimacy is the extent to which God changes you and changes the kind of people you love, enlarges your circle of friendships and affections and also the way you love. That is a real life disturber because intimacy with God often reveals how far we are from love as God means it.

1. Brian Doerksen, Intimacy in Worship, Inside Worship, p. 12-13
2. Dan Wilt, Essentials values in worship leadership: the values of intimacy and integrity, Essentials Green online course text, p.7-9
3. Dr Don Williams and Brenton Brown, Who is the God we worship?, Inside Worship, p. 4-5
4. Ibid (2)
5. 1 Corinthians 6:9, NIV
6. Andy Park, The Most Important, iTunes U Video, St Stephen’s University

Hope is a tricky concept to grasp and yet it is right there in the list, that Paul gives us, of everlasting things (1).  It is therefore interesting to see how hope is embedded in those symbolic actions that are/were part of the Church’s life.

If I focus on hope, it is not to neglect faith or love, but just because I find hope hard to sustain in the face of everyday life. Especially the kind of hope we are called to have : God became human and has lived our lives, he has washed our sins away, there is an eternity to be spent with Him, He is with us always, He is generously giving himself to us everyday and for ever(2), He is victorious… the list of all the things that we are called to hope for is very long and it is hard to figure them out.

Baptism and eucharist break through the realm of the understandable and bring us into God’s kingdom. They are powerful reminder of God realities, of the existence of a Godzone (3) in our world. Because Jesus paid for all our sins, I can actually pray for my city, my province, my country with hope. Because he is coming back, I can face whatever trouble arise and know that this is not the end of the story.

(1) 1 Cor. 13:13

(2) Robert Webber, Ancient-Future Time : Forming Spirituality through the Christian year. Grand Rapids : BakerBook, 2004, p.59

(3) Michael Riddell, Godzone, a traveller’s guide, 1992.

The Institute of Contemporary Worship and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

One interesting, though unexpected, impact of that course in worship history and this week’s focus on public prayer and scripture reading has been to make me realize that we, people, communities, church of the 21st century, are not alone. We stand in the middle of a crowd of worshippers, that come from places as far as prehistory and that will extend to who knows where (1) .

The fact that early church viewed all ministries as the “ministry of Jesus” (2) revealed to me how narrowminded my vision of ministry is. If the church is the body of Christ and is exercising the ministry of Christ, no wonder then that we have such a diversity of ministries all around the world. Instead of focusing on my community  (which I will still be praying for though), I can see that the whole church accross territorial and denominational borders is showing Christ.

I can rejoice in the fact that the Catholic church is showing so much compassion and the Charismatic churches so much of God’s power.  I can be thrilled by the numerous miracles African churches are witnessing and by the amazing faithfulness of the Chinese church.  I can leap for joy at the intimacy with God displayed in the Vineyard churches and be awed by the majesty of God revealed in the Anglican church.  Of course, we are all flawed, but as a whole, we are reflecting the glory of Jesus.

Public prayer and scripture reading remind me how much all voices should be heard and listened (3) to because the harmony they create speaks of our beloved God.

(1) Dan Wilt, Week 2 : History of worship (video 1)

(2) Ibid

(3) James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship. Nashville : Abingdon Press, 2000, p. 115.

The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St.  Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt.

The way today’s churches are organizing their time and space is born from the same concern that all churches in history share : how to honor God and tell his story of salvation.  Amazingly, in spite of the varied expressions of time and space organization, there is this “constant desire”, as James F. White (1) expresses it, to lead Christ-centered lives, as individuals and as communities.

This unity of purpose, that transcends cultural, socioeconomic, ethnic impact (2) on how the church worships is a witness in itself of the greatness of God. The time spent on defining how best to use time as a language of worship, by ordering a day, a week, a year and a lifetime around the marking events of Jesus’ life and their meaning for the communities of believers and the world at large (3), is in itself worship.

And what about the time believers have set apart to build spaces for the glory of God, whether it be buildings or their own lives or communities? One story that illustrates how space, time  meet to tell the gospel story to the world is that of the Sagrada Familia church in Spain.  Antonio Gaudi, an architect, started its construction in 1882, knowing fully well that he would not be able to finish it and that was part of his legacy. When it is finished, hopefully for 2026, its three facades will be called : Nativity, Passion and Glory.

(1) James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship. Nashville : Abingdon Press, 2000

(2) Dan Wilt, Worship : yesterday, today and forever, IW All, p.173-174

(3) Robert Webber, A Christian year primer, IW All, p. 245-246

thanks for your incoming input.