BabyBlueCafe – "How Blended Worship Builds Community"

Posted on September 16, 2008 by Rick

BabyBlueCafe is a thoughtful blog by an Anglican who lives in northern Virginia(?). She is on my short list when it comes to intelligent commentary on religious happenings particularly within Anglicanism.

From BabyBlue’s fine and thoughtful post:

So instead of catering worship services toward a particular style (and their enthusiasts), at Truro we aimed at excellence in worship that drew from all the styles – from the magnificent organ compositions of Bach, to the transcendent hymns of Charles Wesley, to the mission-minded songs by the Newsboys or Casting Crowns – it went on and on.

The first key was finding the finest scripturally-based compositions and offer them in worship with excellence, not as a performance, but as worship.

The second key was to discern how to blend it all together in one service. That took discernment and wisdom and the ability to risk.

Read the whole thing here. You do not need to register.

University Baptist Church used to have two worship “services” (even the term is problematic). Contemporary and traditional. Also known as the first and second service.

Several years ago compelling arguments were made (which I supported completely) that the first service (which had low attendance) be suspended and that the only worship service on Sunday morning become blended. Some contemporary. Some traditional. And in amounts that varied from week to week. Groovy.

About one(?) year ago – again for very good reasons things do change you know – University Baptist Church changed its approach to worship on Sunday morning again. A first traditional worship gathering. (Notice the terminology.) And a second emerging worship gathering. Not contemporary partly because what we call “contemporary worship” is already dated.

I support(ed) this change strongly even though it has made it more difficult for Church of the Nations to join with University Baptist Church. For practical and emotional reasons I miss the single worship gathering (when everyone in University Baptist Church got to see who Church of the Nations is and what we do – and vice versa).

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  • hkayr

    Sadly, blended only works well when all forms are supported and embraced. This requires all to have hearts open to the varied movements of the spirit. Unfortunately, pharaoh, the Episcopal Bishop,and some at UBC share certain character traits. Equally unfortunate is the reality that our God is apparently content to allow the people to suffer under the oppression of those hardened hearts for inexplicably long periods.

    Perhaps, emerging is a better terminology than contemporary because the latter refers to a particular style of worship, whereas, the former may knowingly or unknowingly reference the birth of a new community. One can only hope that God does not harden hearts once again and crush this fragile new creation.

  • http://www.livethetrinity.net Rick

    Ah my most excellent brother – very fine points all.

    I like and agree at least in part with your note about “emerging = new community”. There are however several “principles” commonly associated with emerging worship that come close to defining a style. (Such as more use of creative arts, getting away from up-front-performance, and so on.). This does not obviate your point because those principles as applied by the new community can take one in vastly different directions (styles). One community might end up with something like the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church. Another might end up with something like what Mikel does with Kairos.

    The unfortunate reality of divine inaction…

    There have been attempts to explain in part – at least with regard to the Exodus narrative. (God works with{in} the realities of the created world – including social and political situations. Yahweh did not finally show up and do something openly until the political situation had changed and certain players in the drama were available.) Why Jesus at that particular time and place?

    But how much comfort is this to the people who suffer(ed) in other situations? Like oh New Orleans or Baton Rouge or Galveston or Houston? (North Korea or Iraq or the Sudan or…)

    I could be wrong but I believe the Psalms of lament may help us form a response (that may or may not be an explanation). The Psalms of Lament hold in tension at least two stances before God:

    1) Wth?!?! Help us out here! Where are you? When are you going to do something? Remember all those things you have done in the past – like Creation and Exodus and Return from Exile. If you can pull that off then rescuing me/my family/my nation should be easy right?

    2) But I still trust you.

  • hkayr

    Right indeed. Emerging is in danger of referencing just another style. This is why i suggest that the vision of new community may be completely unintentional. I know for me it has never been so much about style as access. It seems to me that within the church there has been a recurrence of this move to make worship/church more accessible throughout history.

    This would seem to be at the crux of Jesus’ ministry. Arguably, the protestant reformation. Even the early settlers here were characterized as seeking religious liberty.

    I once wondered that we had so many denominational strains and that it seemed poor stewardship of resources. Perhaps in the material realm this is true, but could it be that in the spiritual realm these are the signposts of the visionaries that declared, “you will not confine my God to your little box.”

    On the other topic I will probably do best to defer to a more private forum. One reaches a point where if you have no need to credit nor blame the creator, what exactly is the need. Alas perhaps, I already have said too much.

    Always engaging good sir. Thanks.