worship for the perfect the already arrived?

sally morgenthaler has wriitten a brilliant piece on worship in the USA. it sounds like she has been on a painful but profound journey over the last 10 years. it's worth a read of the whole piece but here's a couple of choice quotes. i've met sally a couple of times and she gave a very kind foreword to the US edition of alternative worship.

No sad songs. No angry songs. Songs about desperation, but none about despair. Worship for the perfect. The already arrived. The good-looking, inoffensive, and nice. No wonder the unchurched aren't interested.

For all the money, time, and effort we've spent on cultural relevance—and that includes culturally relevant worship—it seems we came through the last 15 years with a significant net loss in churchgoers, proliferation of megachurches and all.

As I exit the world of corporate worship, I want to offer this hope and prayer. May you, as leader of your congregation, have the courage to leave the "if we build it, they will come" world of the last two decades behind.

Comments

[Mark Grosz]

Hi Jonny,

I was trying to find and read Sally's article but in doing so, I ran across your blog and thought I'd reply. I'm a songwriter and worship leader from Pennsylvania, USA.

I do write songs from out of the sad and desperate places. I consider them a resource for God to pull out when He wants them. I oversee the worship bands that support the healing prayer nights at our church and we do have occasion to use them. When we take a band out for coffeehouses, I definitely pull them out and use them because they are part of the terrain I have hiked through - they are an honest expression of my Christian life and experience. As a writer, the songs I wrote about pain and struggle had a high cost to me. In the right moment, they can encourage and comfort someone else who is walking through a similar place and we can walk that trail together. The hurt I've experienced can become a weapon in the hand of the Lord, to heal the broken.

So is there a place for real, authentic worship? In my experience, it is what people are desiring. We can find a togetherness in the place of real life, not to commiserate but to help each other climb back up. Recently, I met with a friend who lost his wife to cancer. We closed the Friendly's restaurant down and talked for another hour after that. It was just living life together, expressing ourselves to each other, enjoying each other and caring for each other. The place of worship should be the same. In fact, even though there was no music, our meeting was worship to God - an expression of our faith in His ability to work through us and our expression of His Kingdom now.

If you are interested, please listen to Walk Upon the Waters, in the Music section of my website

Blessings,
Mark

website: www.mightyrivermusic.com
blog: mightyrivermusic.wordpress.com