Friday, October 19, 2007

What Are You Getting Out of Church?


According to the author of a book I’m almost finished with, this is actually the WRONG question to ask. In fact, it’s an irrelevant question.

Marva Dawn, in her book Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, not only suggests this is a wrong question to ask, but she also implies that it’s a totally improper question.

Most of us would say that we go to church to worship God. But when asked about the experience, the answer often is, “I didn’t get that much out of it”

Marva Dawn is not surprised by an answer that centers on us. Because in her analysis, worship is not about US; conversely, it’s ONLY about God.

Even though I haven’t quite finished the book yet (I’m going s-l-o-w-l-y to deeply inhale the breadth of content on each page), it is an IMPACT book. I already consider it perhaps the most insightful and theologically sound book I’ve ever read on this topic. I wish it had been written 50 years ago. Many of my faith knots might have been untied sooner.

I can give you a gist of the content, but it’s just one thread in a beautiful, complex tapestry. Being a theologian, Ms Dawn clearly articulates her posits and documents her inferences not only from a theological perspective but also from a sociological one.

She calls to attention that when the Old Testament Hebrews worshipped God, they did so by bringing gifts, or offerings, to Him. They worshipped by being obedient in presenting offerings (often a sacrificial unblemished lamb) according to God’s prescribed wishes. Worship was an expression of submission, respect and duty.

In the New Testament, with sacrifices no longer required, the early church established a form of worship that involved forms of liturgy, music and preaching, virtually ALL of which was focused on the adoration of a Holy God.

Through the centuries things have changed, especially since the Reformation and more specifically in the last 50 years. This is due to multi-faceted reasons that cannot begin to be covered here. However, the point is that today, in our instant-gratification, hi-tech, ego-centric, entertainment-oriented society, we often decide where our church home will be, based on how it makes US feel. Or what it seemingly DOES for US.

This book takes strong, but loving issue with this whole approach. Dawn believes that GOD must be the subject AND the object of our worship. Unfortunately this has totally been lost in many churches today where the stage is the focus and the worshipper is the passive observer rather than a participant in true worship.

Church music has deteriorated to repetitive, watered-down expressions of how we “WILL love God or how we CAN serve God”, with the whole focus on what WE are doing. (I hope to do a post on her critique of "Praise" music in the not-too-distant future.) She laments that great old hymns of the church like “Holy, Holy, Holy, LORD GOD Almighty” (pure adoration rightly directed at GOD) are all but forgotten.

Additionally, she feels that the following conclusion needs some serious scrutiny: "that because we have massive numbers of people attending ‘contemporary’ services or mega-churches, that God must be in it, and therefore it’s a good thing”. It’s probably not so, she believes.

To quote her, “How destructive it is to measure the success of a church by the numbers of people attracted rather than by the depth of faith and outreach nurtured.” And, unfortunately, much of the “large numbers” is coming from other less entertaining bodies with proportionally little coming from true regenerative growth.

This book makes you think. About worship and what it means. About how a worship service ought to be exercized (based on history and tradition). And about what spirituality and spiritual growth really is. And about the place of worship in an “information overload” society.

I’m still reading… and thinking…. and praying… and already sensing a freshness to weekly worship and the sustaining celebration of the sacrament of Holy communion. I’ll report more when I finish the book and have a little time to digest it some more

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