The term Rock and Roll can be researched easily, but I will not go into details. The Rock church, endorsed by the WELS Conference of Presidents, supported by SP-in-Waiting Don Patterson, is a conscious effort to be cool by attracting a certain crowd. The effort has failed, even after Rock and Roll blogger Joe Krohn was summarily dismissed as the artist-in-residence. In spite of lavish spending and ludicrous staffing, Rock and Roll gets about 30 in attendance. Too bad Doebler didn't get the $200,000 foundation grant he requested.
crane has left a new comment on your post "Book Plans, God Willing":
I know this is off content, but I am having trouble figuring out how to "post" a new post.
Dr. Jackson, what is the correct Christian view(s) on Contemporary Worship? I had posted earlier that I was looking for a new Church to attend. Should Contemporary Worship be avoided? If you could elaborate I would greatly appreciate this. I want to be sure to use the time that God has given me wisely.
Also - How would I start a new topic here in the future if I have more questions?
---
GJ - I cannot let comments go unmoderated because of obscene and gratuitious remarks. I started a new post for you here. Just send a comment and I will let people offer their wisdom.
Contemporary worship is not new, dating back to the 1960s at least. I experienced many mod services and grew tired of them before graduating from seminary in 1972. Most of the push today is from nostalgic Boomers with expanding waists and shrinking brains. They rush off to Pente-Babtist conferences and come back with plans to have their own rock music.
No surprise - The CORE (WELS in Name Only, but affiliated with St. Peter, Freedom) hired a group of rockers to begin their efforts, apparently not checking the content of their previous recordings. How this spreads the Gospel is beyond me.
---
Drive Conference 2009 - Dance - Session 2! from John on Vimeo.
Readers may wonder what is real, relevant, and relational about this. Drive 09 wanted to create a quality worship experience, so they offered this training film.
---
Thursday, May 07, 2009
The Spontaneous Dance at DRIVE '09
Before one of the sessions at Drive there were people in the audience that were strategically sitting and spontaneously starting dancing. This is how they taught the dance to the staff and volunteers involved. It was awesome.
***
GJ - Perhaps the MLC team will show them how to dance to Miley Cyrus at Drive 2010.
15 comments:
Crane,
Traditional (i.e. liturgical) worship is the best worship for the following basic reasons:
1. It provides continuity with the historic Christian Church. The Western Rite, which is the basis of the traditional Lutheran liturgy, has roots going back to Roman times.
2. It emphasises the saving work that God has done for us by highlighting the means of grace--Word and Sacrament. The liturgy revolves around the Scripture readings, an exposition of Scripture (sermon), and the Lord's Supper. Hymns (traditional ones at least) are excellent teachers of correct doctrine. Our acts of praise and thanksgiving come out of loving response for what God has done for us.
3. The liturgy provides beauty, variety (through the use of the propers and perhaps various liturgical seetings, and good order. You will know what to expect the minute you walk in the door in a liturgical church.
4. On the other hand, contemporary worship is rooted in what WE do. It does not trust Word and Sacrament, but rather trusts style, entertainment, and gimmicks. It is not orderly and has no connection with the historic church. It is also based on false Reformed doctrine. This is dangerous, because "as we worship, so shall we believe; and as we believe, so shall we worship."
That is about the best short summary I can give. I'll rely on Dr. Jackson to correct or add to anything I've said.
Hard to offer suggestions without a geographic basis, but here are some suggestions for solid, traditional WELS churches:
In the Milwaukee area; St. John Wauwatosa; Christ the Lord Brookfield, Grace Waukesha, David's Star Jackson, Star of Bethlehem New Berlin, St. John Franklin.
In the Fox Valley area: St. Luke Little Chute, Immanuel Oshkosh, St. Paul Appleton, Riverview Appleton.
Places to avoid. This, sadly, could be a long list (if you want traditional that is). The worst offenders are marked with a $: $t. Marcus Milwaukee, Trinity Waukesha, St. Matthew Appleton, $t. Mark DePere, $t. Peter Appleton / Freedom, $$$CORE$$$ Appleton, $t. Andrew Middleton / Waunakee.
There are many more in both categories. These are simply the examples that came to mind first and that I have some experience with.
"Before one of the sessions at Drive there were people in the audience that were strategically sitting and spontaneously starting dancing. This is how they taught the dance to the staff and volunteers involved. It was awesome."
How ridiculous!
Crane,
You will never know exactly what kind of contemporary worship you are going to run into. Some can and is very worthwhile, others can be painful.
If your search is based within the WELS/ELS, check to see that their worship still uses a liturgy. Things can, of course, be changed within that liturgy, but look for the main parts - Confession and Absolution, Word (the lessons and a sermon/devotion, number doesn't matter, nor truly does the length), a Creed, and possibly the Sacrament (depends on the church, depends on the Sunday for many of them).
The order of service is adiaphora, of course. Some churches decide to create their own liturgy based on the historical liturgy of the church. Some churches find that their members are more comfortable with 'contemporary' instruments: guitar, piano, etc. Others prefer the 'contemporary' instrument of Luther's time - the organ. Deciding if you like the instrumentation of the service is entirely a matter of personal opinion, so long as that instrumentation is well done.
Of course, proper presentation and application of Law and Gospel is essential as well.
Another thing that is labeled as contemporary is the use of a projector screen during worship. The church might find that its members and guests prefer to use a screen as opposed to a bulletin, or it may be conserving its resources by not printing a bulletin altogether.
This was wandering post. In the end, look for Law and Gospel. Look for the Means of Grace in Word and Sacrament. Finally, look at yourself and your family. If you are comfortable with how a church worships and can concentrate on 'the one thing needful', then you have found a home.
Mr. Crane, I would highly recommend reading Mr. Finkelsteins mini essays on Liturgy and Worship that can be found on this page http://freddyfinkelstein.blogspot.com/search/label/Lutheran%20Worship
I have found him to be Scriptural and Confessional and very capable of pointing out the dangers of contemporary or blended worship. The fact that he is also eloquent and concise is an added benefit. He also shows the immense benefits of the historic Lutheran liturgy.
In my opinion Contemporary worship in the Lutheran churches was borrowed from decision theology found in Methodist, Pentecostal and Baptist churches. At it's core it denies the efficacy of the Word alone and seeks to manipulate by human means the people's hearts and minds. The move away from Divine Service to Worship Service shows the inclination to focus on what man does for God and not what God does for man through Word and Sacrament. For those leading the Church away from Christ and His doctrine this change in focus is required in order to turn the fruit of the Gospel, good works by man, into law and the Law into the gospel. UOJ provides their authorization to do this because in that false doctrine every unbeliever is already forgiven - they just need to get him to believe it. Since everyone is forgiven the Law is obsolete and the focus is on manipulating emotions and feelings.
For Crane:
That which is so-called Contemporary Worship is self-defining as self-limiting. The claim to be contemporary is limited to a very brief period in time and a very small sampling of mindsets. It is limited to a false perception of “now” and of “felt needs.”
The Historic Liturgy, which is not merely a particular order of service, but is actually the unchanging theology of the Church of all time set into practice, is truly contemporary for all of mankind, reaching back to Adam and Eve and reaching forward to the second coming of Christ. It is truly ecumenical, in that it comprehends and continues the doctrine and practice, the confession and profession, of the holy catholic Church.
The promotion of the so-called Contemporary Worship of the “praise and worship” mentality is backwards in its focus. It begins with what sinners desire and imagine that they need. It is very physical and fleshly in nature.
The Historic Liturgy, on the other hand, begins with the declarations of the Lord wherein He reveals Himself and His blessed Gospel for the salvation of sinners so as to regenerate them as saints in God’s kingdom and keep them in His grace, mercy, and peace, all their days and even everlastingly. It is spiritual, as the Lord Jesus defines true worship in John 4:23-24. This is what is maintained in the Historic Liturgy. It holds to the understanding that spirit and truth cannot be in any way separated in true worship of the Lord.
The so-called contemporizers do not concern themselves with such mundane things as pure doctrine and practice. They imagine such things to be of secondary importance, if at all. They imagine that to be spiritual means to be excited in one’s spirit. This is the opposite of the Scriptural declarations that a broken and contrite spirit are what the Lord seeks.
There is much more to be addressed in this matter, but this should serve as a good start.
Does this leave any question in your mind regarding whether or not the so-called contemporary worship should be avoided?
I guess I am a bit confused. Please be patient with me. I have attended a number of different Churches to see if I "fit in". I then thought that I shouldn’t fit in but rather be where He thinks I should be. I want to be sure that I follow what the Holy Spirit has started in me in a God Fearing manner.
I have to admit that the music of contemporary worship did move me. Can I accept this as a tool used by the Holy Spirit? I am not a very learned man so I am sure that some Doctrine escapes me.
GJ - Thanks for clearing up how to post. I think your site will be a great tool in my endevor.
If any of you decide to move to the SCD, which is "off the map", I could be of some assistance. North TX and OK provide some excellent traditional churches. I know one confessional pastor who has publically admonished the Church and Money Changers. He is currently reading a book by that Dr. Jackson fellow. It is something about Catholic, Lutheran, and Protestant. I wonder how he has time to read beacause he spends time visiting members and leading Bibe classes. However, I am not a member of the said church. Now as for Austin, you have Pro-Jeske Patterson von Exponential, not to mention ex-SP Gurgel and a failed Rock-N-Roll church.
I hope Crane is blessed with a confessional church home. Sadly, others will walk into those devil's tents. OH, and since the Rock-N-Roll was dumped, I want my portion of the LWMS offerings refunded. Does God give refunds?
In Christ
from WELS church lady
One of the bigger problems with contemporary worship is that emotion and the eliciting of emotion are the number one priority. This all goes back to Charles Gradison Finney (a 19th Century lunatic) who believed that faith could be engendered in people, not by God's Word, but by the manipulation of the emotions.
I have provided some thoughts on the matter of music styles at:
http://www.brideofchristelc.com/HTML-Files/General/Music.html
Perhaps this will be of some help.
Anyone interested in reading the lyrics from the "worship" in the above video can read them at
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/stomptheyard/aintnothingwrongwiththat.htm
Of particular note are the following words:
We all gettin' down tonight
I'm tellin' you
Ain't nothin' wrong with that (I'm tellin' you)
Ain't nothin' wrong with that (I'm tellin' you)
Ain't nothin' wrong with that
Ain't nothin' wrong with that.
Shake it Shake it Shake it 8x
I don't know but I've been told
When the music gets down in your soul
It makes you want to loose control
And there
Ain't nothin' wrong with that
"We're all gettin down tonight."
See the usages listed at Ubran Dictionary:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=get%20down
"When the music gets down in your soul It makes you want to loose control."
Quite the opposite of 1 Corinthians 14:40, 9:25; Titus 1:8 & 2:2.
Emotions can be dangerous when they are the center of the service, but emotions are not always bad. Choir music often elicits some emotions for me, and this is a good thing. Choral music is written to be beautiful. Some contemporary songs are the same way, completely doctrinal, written to be beautiful.
Even in the Bible emotions are not abstained from. In 2 Samuel, "David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets."
Emotions are things that enhance worship, like the frosting on a cake. They're not the cake itself.
Contemporary worship can be done right.
I hope the copy and paste pastors soon progress to coloring. Then we can send them coloring books.
Things can, of course, be changed within that liturgy, but look for the main parts - Confession and Absolution, Word (the lessons and a sermon/devotion, number doesn't matter, nor truly does the length), a Creed, and possibly the Sacrament (depends on the church, depends on the Sunday for many of them).
***********
Wow- just that fact that you would have to look for these things speaks volumes. Gone are the days when you could go to any WELS church and expect the same thing at every one of them ~ God's Word and Sacraments, pure doctrine, and a liturgy to assist in the delivery of these things. I miss the old days. All the new and improved ways have only served to bring our synod to the brink of what will surely be split. We must get out the scapel and cut out the cancer that is growing.
Fox Mulder said...
Emotions are things that enhance worship, like the frosting on a cake. They're not the cake itself.
Contemporary worship can be done right.
This is exactly the mindset that is wrong about so-called contemporary worship. First is that worship is something that the worshiper can do rightly by what he chooses to do and how he chooses to do it. Thus so-called contemporary worship is turned into an observance of what the worshiper is doing toward the Lord rather that what the Lord is doing toward the worshiper. The service is transformed from the Divine Service to a service of divination.
From this flows the notion that the service can be “enhanced.” Our emotions detract from the service that God works. Whatever emotions that occur in the service should reflect what God has done, as in what you quoted from 2 Samuel 6. Here David’s actions were actions that reflected how he had been humbled before the Lord. He stripped himself of his royal garments and put on a simple lined ephod, which deferred to the priestly office. David had been shown that his previous attempt at bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem was not done from a humble and contrite spirit. Now, David deferred to the Levites to carry the Ark according to God’s ordained procedures rather than on a cart. David turned from his self appointed actions to those that the Lord had ordained. He wore not the ornamented ephod of the ordained priests, but a simple and humble linen ephod. Moreover, none of this was in the appointed place of worship, the Tabernacle. It was done on the road from one town to another. In the Tabernacle, David stopped his dancing and deferred to the priests who offered the sacrifices that David had provided. In all that David did, it showed humbleness on his part and deference to the ordained ways of the Lord. His self-humbling attitude was so evident that his wife mocked him.
This is not at all what the so-called contemporary worship proponents promote. They promote emotional enhancement through making the service more focused upon the whims of sinners and less dependent (if at all) upon what the Lord has ordained in His house.
The whole point of so-called contemporary worship is to make the worship more like the thinking and ways and lusts of the world. It is an attempt to lessen the starkness of the contrast that the Historic liturgy preserves. It is idolatry cloaked in a facade of emotional hyperbole and falsely labeled as praise.
Cake is a good image for the so-called contemporary worship. Truly this is the way that the Divine Service is treated. If the service is treated as cake, what harm can be in piling on a load of frosting?
However, if the service is embraced as the very life of the Church whereby the substance of forgiveness is the food for giving and maintaining the life of the saints, frosting is realized as inappropriate. Cake and frosting are for after the meal, if at all.
In reflection on this matter the text for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity came to mind. I addressed some of these issues in the sermon from Isaiah 65 entitled “Behold Me! Behold Me!”
If you would like to read or hear it, it is available for downloading at
http://www.brideofchristelc.com/HTML-Files/Sermons/2008-2009/SS-2008-2009.html
When imagining that “contemporary worship can be done right,” remember to ask the question, “Of whom are we being made contemporaries?”
The answer is entirely unacceptable to anyone who takes seriously the words of James 4:4.
Post a Comment