For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt.
Have you ever been invited over to someone’s house for dinner? It’s a great thing to spend time eating and laughing and checking out someone’s CD collection, maybe you’ll discover they really do like Dolly Parton. But when you go, do you ever ask the question or at least think “Is there anything I should bring?” I mean what kind of person are you if you turn up empty handed?
Who does that kind of thing?
So here’s the thing, is it right to turn up with something, or is it expected? Are you simply obliged, so you just do it – perhaps a bit reluctantly (“oh let’s get that bottle it’s not as expensive as that one, and after all we don’t know them that well anyway”).
If a body of people were to gather, or invited to gather, then what would they bring? This amongst many others is a question I keep returning to.
When we even mention the word ‘church’ it’s probably fair to say that there are a number of different conclusions people will come to – I see church as this thing, you see it as something else. But both of these opinions are based on some sort of experience. Either directly by being involved, or from observing or hearing about someone’s take on the message of Jesus.
When we use the word ‘worship’ in a church what are we getting at?
When using the term ‘worship leader’ what are we actually saying?
Do we come at this from a particular mindset? How have you ended up where you are? To put it another way: What are the voices of influence that led you here? For some it would seem the default place is songs, which of course is very true. But what about different traditions or streams of church? Do they all say the same thing about this activity we call worship?
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