Worship, Praise, Liturgy – and Eschatological Participation

Much worship today is influenced by our contemporary western, individualistic, and atomised culture. This is so, whether we are discussing contemplative of charismatic spirituality. However while there is a Biblical emphasis on personal devotions, there is also a stress on corporate, gathered worship, as the people of God. 

Surprised by Fidelity

“How can you plan for a new reality when you don’t even have the remotest idea what it would be like?” Suzette Haden Elgin, Native Tongue 

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. 

Moving through the pandemic

The pandemic has proceeded through several phases and cycles. This is bewildering to the everyday pastor, trying to adapt to rapidly-changing medical prognoses and governmental pronouncements. However, much of the religious whining about our new lockdown is merely special pleading, with arguments similar to businesses who want exemptions, because their particular premises haven’t sparked outbreaks. Government though has to take account of where they may occur. But pastors’ dismay is exemplified in the oft-repeated joke, that they never got trained at seminary about how to deal with a pandemic. 

Roofworks

‘Roofworks’, in a church context, usually means repairing leaky roofs. But under conditions of quarantine, it sometimes takes a more creative turn.

Holy Corona Communion, Batman!

I got embroiled in a Twitter brawl by accident, when I happened upon a Tweet, by someone I didn’t know, and responded. He complained he was not able to take Communion, in his home, because there was no authorised person. I asked, why he didn’t do it himself? I shouldn’t have said it. I felt like an internet troll. And the thread eventually involved famous theologian John Milbank no less. A High Anglican, he defended needing a priest to officiate at Communion.

For me, this re-opened debates from when I taught at Spurgeon’s College – could we have sacraments online? Are they not necessarily physical events? I’ve seen, for example, baptisms in a MUD site, where people’s avatars are ‘dunked’ in virtual water. Is this a valid baptism? What about Communion, with virtual bread-and-wine, in “Second Life”? It seems to me, nevertheless, that sacraments do need physical embodiment. As Woody Allen said: “80% of life is turning up”. While I sympathise with those wounded by their church experience, that’s what the incarnation teaches: the essential bodied nature of Christian life.

The Electronic Corona Church

Will current changes in church life be positive or negative? Will our online measures enrich, or distract, us? Are they helpful contextualisations, to a pandemic, which may help us recover important features of ecclesiology? Or, do they betray the essence of church? Moreover, are they permanent, or only temporary adaptations? Will everything go back to ‘business-as-usua’l: what Paul Virilio called ‘’polar inertia”?

The Possbililty of Radical Church Renewal

Many pastors are wrestling pragmatically with questions arising from lockdown, as we focus on maintaining some kind of community, usually conceived conservatively as ‘running services’. The potential theological implications of our decisions are left unexplored; but besides personal or denominational, explicit or formal, articulations of belief or liturgy, lie implicit theologies. 

Perhaps, latent behind our immediate responses, there are resources for a renewal of our faith? Some pastors, wedded to a personalist model of ministry, simply attempt to do it all themselves. But this is also an opportunity to mobilise God’s people, a manifestation of what Ray Stedman long-ago termed “Body Life”: something I’ve believed in since my conversion in the 1970s.

Coronavirus

Last Thursday, the American team who were supposed to lead our evening meeting, had to return home. Their Mission Board recommended this action, as a sensible response to the Coronovirus pandemic, so that they wouldn’t become stranded in the UK, if the travel restrictions were extended.

We were sad, because we were looking forward to their ministry among us. But, as it was then too late to cancel our meeting, we went ahead. I am glad we did. Although, humanly speaking, we did not have a lot of time to prepare, we were able to worship God, led by Rebecca and Allan, where we experienced a powerful anointing of his Holy Spirit. People really entered into the felt presence of the Lord, with many visibly moved.

"Jesus Is My Boyfriend"

I’ve recently got into the music of Samuel Lane, a worship leader from the Vineyard churches, well-known for their tradition of intimate worship music. His songs are beautiful evocations of praise to God, which draw me in, and help refresh my relationship with Christ.

Some appropriate for corporate settings, others suitable as performed songs of personal experience, they have, nevertheless, been very helpful in renewing my faith during recent times of dryness. As expressions of spiritual devotion, they are basically love songs to Jesus; very reminiscent of Matt Redman’s songs, though perhaps more passionately delivered. And I need that energy.