You are here: Home > News >United Church News >Exposing the myths surrounding ‘contemporary’ worship
Watch for an event coming this spring designed to help your church’s worship team get started with digital age worship!
Links
> Join the Contemporary Worship Discussion Forum
> Evangelism and Renewal page on exciting worship
> What do I need to do PowerPoint in my church?
Recommended reading:> Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship.
> Digital Storytellers: The Art of Communicating the Gospel in Worship.
As I See It
Exposing the myths surrounding ‘contemporary’ worship
November, 2002
By Tiffany Vail
During the last few years while serving on the Massachusetts Conference staff, I have taken part in a lot of conversations about contemporary worship (discussions even on what a better name for it would be). I’ve heard a lot of ideas. I’ve heard of new types of worship that have worked, and those that have not.
But most of all, I’ve heard a lot of myths.
I feel comfortable calling them myths after having spent three days immersed in workshops, seminars and discussions about contemporary worship – or, as they were calling it where I was, “digital age worship.”
I met a lot of people who are doing a new kind of worship – and doing it well. And I felt the need to come home and engage in a little myth busting.
MYTH 1: We don’t need to offer a new kind of worship in our church.
Don’t we? As Christians, isn’t it our obligation to try to share the Good News with everyone we can? Isn’t that what being a disciple of Christ is about?
How many people between the ages of 18 and 35 attend worship regularly at your church? For most Conference churches, the answer is: not many. It’s not surprising. We are not speaking the right language.Most of us grew up in a literate culture. We grew up learning from books, getting our news from newspapers. Today’s culture – a digital culture – no longer relies on the printed word. Learning may come from audiotapes, videos or interactive online tutorials. News comes from the television or the Internet. So it’s not surprising that people immersed in this digital culture have a hard time coming to church and listening to Scripture readings.
To reach the people of this digital culture, we need to use the same media as the rest of the world.
MYTH 2: Contemporary worship isn’t “real worship” – it’s worship lite, or its just entertainment.
Or
Contemporary worship means abandoning our traditional liturgy.
Many people fear that conducting contemporary worship means dumbing down. Unfortunately, that has sometimes been the case. But it doesn’t have to be. Good contemporary worship is offering the same messages, teaching the same lessons, and offering the same joyful praise to God as do our “traditional” services. It is just doing it in a language that new generations can better understand and more fully enjoy.The liturgy for a contemporary worship service may not be typed out on a bulletin, but it can be the same, containing the same elements. A film clip may serve as a call to worship. Video, with music and narration, may be used to dramatically present the Scripture. A skit may be used to illustrate a parable or a metaphor. But the Scripture does not change. It is the same old story that we love to tell – we’re just using new tools to tell it.
MYTH 3: A screen in an historic sanctuary is inappropriate.
Why? Even our most historic sanctuaries have changed with the times. We have hung crosses where our Puritan forebears would never have allowed such icons. We have installed organs and their beautiful pipes – even though our earliest forebears felt that music was inappropriate in church. We installed electric lights to help us see; microphones and speakers to help us hear. We hung joyful banners created by our youth. Why should a screen cause so much resistance?A screen in worship can open up so many avenues. It’s not just a new, hip way to show announcements or Scripture lessons. Song lyrics displayed on a screen cause people to look up and sing out, not down into their hymnals. And, perhaps most importantly of all, a screen enables us to bring new art into our sanctuaries. Beautiful graphics and powerful images that illustrate a parable can truly be worth a thousand words. And unlike stained glass or sculpture, they can be changed to reflect each week’s lesson.
Trying new kinds of worship isn’t easy. There is no one-size-fits-all model that will work at every church. But maybe getting past the myths, the misconceptions, is a good place to start.
Tiffany Vail is the Associate for Communication & Communication Technology. She is enrolled in a Digital Culture Ministry certificate program co-sponsored by Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology and Lumicon Digital Productions.