This quote is from a 1984 feminist scifi novel. I’ve noted before that planning has been difficult this year, because we’ve had to adapt to constant changes. Preparing for 2021, we must again be tactically nimble, while remaining faithful to our strategic goals; combining plans and purpose, flexibility with fidelity. Gabriel Marcel, the Christian existentialist philosopher, developed his notion of “creative fidelity”, in response to his experiences during the French resistance in World War Two. Such fidelity demands supple openness, alongside stubborn determination.
I have been surprised to discover I’m now leading a ‘Cell Church’. Instead of the four Lifegroups we had in January, we now have twelve, all online. This has been a priority during the lockdowns, when we couldn’t meet together physically. Some of this increase is because of a desire for connection, social as well as spiritual, against the ‘distancing’ we’ve experienced due to Covid health measures. But for some, it also represents a spiritual awakening. Many are now able to attend; where they couldn’t previously, because they are single parents or shift workers, for example. Some have joined our church, via invitations to Lifegroup. Plus leaders have emerged, people I’d never suspected of possessing leadership abilities.
I’ve tried in all churches I’ve served in, to set up Cell Groups, because it is important for discipleship and evangelism, as well as healthy congregational body-life. But it’s taken the virus, and the technology, to make it happen. No doubt, some will cease attending, once society opens up. But surely some will continue with these small groups, which they now testify has been responsible for their spiritual renewal. It may be wondered whether discussing the nuts-and-bolts of church organisation counts as real ‘theology’. But yes, it’s an articulation of a Radical Church ecclesiology.
Singing likewise. I’ve been impressed by the willingness of people to attend physical church; encountering God’s presence, even when we aren’t allowed to sing. Singing is the ‘liturgy’ of the Free Churches, without any written formularies. As such, it’s always changing, as new songs are written. Naturally, some of this represents commercialisation, through the Contemporary Christian Music scene, a faith-based form of ‘pop culture’. But some is ‘owned’ by the congregations, becoming a form of genuine ‘popular spirituality’. Not just ‘production’ by the industry, but also ‘selection’, for use by local congregations.
Criticisms of this style specify its theological shallowness and social irrelevance. But there are also positive aspects. Cornel West, for example, comments that the Black Church in the US, even when it is politically ‘quietist’, nevertheless supplies psychic resources to cope existentially with life in a racist society. Even our emotional, simplistic, repetitive, and marketed, choruses feed us with a sense of the immanent God present with us; intertwined with the feeling of transcendence, inculcated through those very guitars, thrashing and played loud, excoriated by our theological-ecclesiological elite.
NOTE:
I wrote above about 'selection' as referring to the creative role of the local congregation, in using a (commercially-produced) worship song, and making it their 'own'. Perhaps a better concept would be 'reception', which might follow on temporally from an initial 'selection' of the piece for performance/singing in corporate worship. 'Reception' as a category has been elaborated in the Roman Catholic Church, since Vatican II, to refer to the human adoption of fresh revelation, or doctrine, or ecclesial developments. It could be extrapolated to decribe the way in which, from among the myriad new songs written, published, and recorded, each year, only a few make it into the regular worship repertoire of actual congregations. This may be mediated through selection by worship leaders and musicians, but where these are also ordinary members of the local body, then they may be expected to represent the interests, tastes, and preferences of the particlar church - especially where singers and musicians are also song-writers, and their creations spring from the contextual life of that faith community.
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