ten years of blogs

according to bob blogs began 10 years ago! i'm sure this will be contested soon and i have no idea if it's true. but i thought i'd say happy tenth anniversary anyway to blogs. for my part my first blog post was on april 18, 2002  so i have been blogging for 5 years and 8 months. that kind of shocked me that i have been blogging that long. the reason i started blogging was because i had met andrew jones and he was enthusing about it and told me i should start one. looking at those early posts is quite amusing and my third entry describes what i was thinking when i started the worship tricks series that have proved popular. this is what i had to say.

one of the things i want to do via this blog is to share with the world [or at least with those few people in the world who are a) reading the blog and b)interested] what i'll call worship tricks. now i've written that term i think it may not be brilliant but it will do for now. one of the things i love about alternative worship is the way groups use the stuff of life and popular culture as the building blocks for worship rather than using churchy language and stuff that no-one outside the subculture really relates to. i've expanded more on this in an essay - see the links to articles i've written at the side. these tricks might just be called ideas, but i like tricks better because often there's some sort of dynamic thing that happens when ideas are used in worship that makes them worthy of a better name than idea. i'm going to number these tricks and see where it leads. so if you have some tricks let me know. some people think they are on to a trick when they are using multi media, but there's an overdose of naff powerpoints with sunsets and predictible words. i'm after stuff that's either got an edge, is cool, is a good building block, is beautifully crafted or simply works. it may be as simple as using a particular tune or image in worship to reframe it or it may be a ritual or it may be a link to a piece of liturgy or a flash animation online. we'll see. anyway trick no 1 will be in the next post....

i think i particular noticed this because the january issue of youthwork magazine has an article on creative worship that without naming me slams my blog and worship tricks as being trivial and a sell out to consumer culture!!!! i haven't got the article in front of me so can't quote directly but i have clearly rattled the author's cage. ho hum...

Comments

[Rhys]

Trivial and a sell out to consumer culture !!!! wot?

- funnily enough I came across your blog and blogging generally thanks to Youthwork magazine. They recommended yours and Maggi Dawn's blog and a couple of others I seem to remember. I've been reading both ever since
ps your link to the magazine seems faulty - and all that I can find is December's details - never mind I sense an email campaign to start the minute they post anything.

[Mark]

LOL... and their Ready prepared Meeting Guides aren't? Mind you I would say 2 things... a- Youthwork magazine doesn't seem to have moved on much since I first bought it back in the early 90's and b- a bit cowardly of the writer not to have the courage of his/her convictions, if they are going to be critical at least be open and honest and name names!

[Nancy]

Jonny, whatever you do, please keep rattling the cages!

[jonny]

don't have a go at youthwork magazine at least not over me. and i have no problem at all them publishing an article critiquing me or what i do - that's fine. i'm all for free speech and being provoked and disagreed with. and how to live in consumer culture is a challenge that is pretty hard to work out. i'm sure i haven't got it right by any means. but it would have been a better informed article if the writer of it had actually contacted me to ask my opinion and then had named me rather than writing cryptically about a blog that has worship tricks! it's not great journalism. what's slightly weird is that i have met the author in the US a couple of times and he seemed nice enough. so i'm not sure why he wouldn't have made contact. anyway it's no big deal at all...
the link is correct - youthwork seem a bit slow to put the latest magazine online and they don't put articles online anyway as they want you to buy it! so you won't be able to read it anyway.

[Jeff Moulton]

Jonny - the url has an extra backslash in it. See, right after the "www." there is an extra slash. http://www./youthwork.co.uk/magazine/

The question I have is do I want to get a subscription to it here in the US to read the article.... It isn't something I expect that they carry at my local Borders.

[jonny]

i wouldn't have thought you'd want a subscription just for that. but if you are interested in uk youth ministry it's the main publication here and it's from the evangelical stable, though that is softer edged than evangelical in the US. anyway a friend matt kindly e-mailed me the quote. i had forgotten it also has a go at the labyrinth tin which we also produced!!! the article is by dave wright from south carolina and here's the quote...

"The real question on my mind was this. Are we catering to consumerism? Do we need to appeal to the pop interest of teens in order to reach them or enable them to worship God? If we are in fact catering to consumerism, how long will it be before our product is no longer relevant to the market? Will we need to keep adjusting our tactics in order to keep pace with the youth culture? Many of those who lead alternative services around the globe visit an Internet ‘blog’ featuring a catalogue of ‘Worship Tricks’, fresh ideas for creative worship experiences. The very term ‘Worship Tricks’ seems rather crass as if we need clever techniques to stay ahead of the curve. All of that might imply that what we are marketing is in fact experiences of worship. This can be seen in America quite blatantly as one youth ministry resource organisation sells a labyrinth kit in a paint tin, ready to be set up and used to bring the experience to our youth groups. In a consumerist society are we wise to cater to the culture and emphasise the experiential aspect of worship?"

[Carole]

In a way he seems to be answering his own questions. The fact that many people who lead alt worship services use the worship tricks indicates that a static approach doesn't work for many. Anyone who has any dealings with young people knows that they are up against an overstimulated culture and that in order to communicate effectively you have to buy into that, if only temporarily. Just maybe, the experience comes first, the relationship follows. Is this a million miles away from the ecstatic experiences of the great mystics, down through the ages? But hopefully it leads onto something deeper. There is something in the writer's tone which expresses his own defeat on this one. By the way, I think the Labyrinth is great, but it's not exactly new, just a new twist on an old idea, revamped for a new generation.

[DP]

Knowing both people involved a little. I can say that culturally there are gaps. US christian expressions are different because they are in a different context which seems obvious. I think DWs location in the US south does have something to do with this in part in looking for something more counter-cultural than what might be normative. Language is also another issue that we can all get misunderstood. Also there is a lot going on in the US(anglican church) at the moment and this is a little of it also. The US is not used to the language of 'compromise'.
Anyway, DW expresses an opinion and I have no problem with JB. Each bring value to the whole.

[Ali Campbell]

Long time since I commented - but had to on this. DW is just plain wrong. I am all up for debate, and, at times, have felt alt worship stuff can be a bit pretentious - BUT, to question the common sense and integrity of those involved in leading different types of worship events and services is going beyond a fair minded critique. DW is also implying throughout the article that youth workers don't contextualize or set the scene for stuff they use, whether labyrinth or something else . . . who just opens a box and uses something as it is? Everything needs adapting for the group concerned. Self Control, which Dave also mentions, is not about the emotions . . . it's about having a robust attitude towards our sinful desires - our emotions are not (in and of themselves sinful), I'm getting emotional as I write . . . !