"Getting Your Congregation Involved"
Robert Webber
from ancientfutureworship.com
In the current culture war, one of the battlefronts is the field of communication. How do you get your people involved in worship? This is the nagging question all worship leaders and ministers of music continually ask.I think it would be important to place this in the larger context of his thinking and writing, but my first impression is that God revealed himself to us and communicated himself to us in the form of human language so it seems that this should be primary in our worship of him. Does this mean "information"? I'm not sure if that is what he means or not. I'm not sure I dig what he is saying about information vs. narrative, but I think I like the change from entertainment (as he defines it, not what we usually think) to immersion.
Do you remember the battle over information vs. entertainment (this word “entertainment” gets misused! The word itself means “engagement.” We want people to be engaged, but engaged by the message, not the release of balloons or some other silly gimmick).
Information fits the more 50’s crowd. Give me truth. Any old way. And its usually charts, graphs, printout, long complicated sermons.
Entertainment understood properly often means how truth is packaged. Unfortunately truth gets reduced to sayings – true as they may be – they are often glittering bytes without depth.
We need both. But I suggest first of all changing the language. A change in language often signals a change in direction.
Let’s change information to narrative. The worship of God is not based on information as in a statement of fact (God created), but on narrative (the God who created is busy re-creating His world). Note the shift to how the past speaks to the present and the future. It is dynamic, ongoing, and includes my life then and now, as well as in the future.
Let’s change entertainment to immersion. To be immersed is to be caught up in the present moment. It means more than listening and watching. It means to be moved by the content of what is being sung, said, or enacted. It means to be caught up in the truth.
I’m convinced that narrative and immersion can happen in any church.
(HT: Relevintage)
1 comment:
Zach,
Not having read too much of Mark's stuff it's not fair to be critical. Like you, I can relate to the redefined Entertainment. I'm not sure I agree with the definition given of narrative, but I think there is a place for this. Narrative is a good way of describing the way we grow in our faith - it's an ongoing discovery of God's glory, His plan and purpose for our lives. He wants us to engage with Him and to learn from Him. As we grow, we discover things about God, as He speaks to us through our experience and the experiences of others. Narrative is a way of sharing with each other and learning through an interactive medium, not just static one-way communication.
Great post.
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