On-Mission Mondays: Worthy Worship

Every Monday I post about being “on mission” with Christ. I’ll spend a couple of months asking you to think with me about the principles in Milfred Minatrea’s book, Shaped By God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches . Find previous posts on this subject here.

"As missional congregations encounter God and are shaped by His heart, a natural conversation results in which disciples confess their desire to be useful instruments for His purpose."

That’s why Minatrea says that churches should examine their worship experiences. It’s his “Missional Practice Number Four." He outlines several ingredients to make sure worship stays fresh, and I’ll comment on three of them:

God is the focus of worship. Worship is not provided to entertain those accustomed to attending church, nor is it a "tool" to reach the unchurched: “Although it includes those who are not yet disciples, worship is not intended to reach the unreached, but to allow those who know God to bring Him praise." I completely agree, and wrote about this a few months ago (here), advocating "seeker-sensitive services," as opposed to services that are either "seeker-indifferent" or "seeker-targeted."

Worship is about content, not form. Minatrea correctly points out that simply being "contemporary" in our services does not make a church missional. However, I believe a church can't be missional without being relevant in our services. "Relevance" requires us to focus on what elements of worship helps open people to God in our particular community. In that sense, worship is about form as well as content. A church that ignores this reality can never become missional.

Worship values creativity. Missional churches have a high view of the arts. This is an area we're still developing at Hillcrest:

* First, we are expanding the number of instrumentalists in both styles of services.

* Second, I would like to use more personal testimonies, and we're making plans for that right now.

* Third, while I prefer the use of "real life" stories, in addition we are considering recording dramatic "sketches" in our TV studio that can be inserted as video clips into the service. Recording them ahead of time helps us control certain variables such as time, lighting, sound, and stage space.

* Fourth, we occasionally create images for our projector screens that have visual impact.

* And, fifth, we sometimes use clips from popular films that capture the congregation’s attention.

Beyond these five elements, however, I doubt we’ll introduce some of the things that other creative churches are trying: I just can’t get into interpretive dance, and I would find it too distracting to have artists paint on canvas while I’m preaching, or encouraging members to go to different “stations” during the sermon where they can interpret the message in clay or complete a collaborative drawing. I’m not saying these things shouldn’t be done: more power to the churches using these elements to effect. But it’s just not “me,” and I doubt any of these things would fit the community that we’re building at Hillcrest. Still, Minatrea’s right that worship should value creativity in forms suitable to the worshippers and the guests of the worshippers.