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Buchanan: Try telling that to Mrs. Smith whose very description of what she is doing at 11 a. m. on Sunday is eloquent: "I think I'll go hear Dr. Adams this morning." Or Mr. Jones, who lets you know that the organist played the hymns so loud or so fast that you ruined his morning. Or Ms. Brown, who ruined your morning by calling to say she's going to Willowcreek for services from now on because she doesn't "get anything out of worship" at old First Church, and besides Willowcreek has coffee and bagels with low-fat cream cheese, before and after, and a Tai Chi class on Monday morning! Or, for that matter, while I'm on the subject, try telling Melissa and Kevin that it isn't actually "their wedding," it's the church's wedding, which they want the church to celebrate for them, so it's no more appropriate for them to write their own vows than it would be for you to create your baptismal questions. But I digress. My concern with what is euphemistically called "Contemporary Worship" is not at all with its contemporaneity, but with its narcissism: its shift of the focus of the act of worship from God to the individual worshiper, from praise and adoration of the Almighty to the emotional stimulation of Mr. Jones and Ms. Brown. Marva Dawn, in A Royal "Waste" of Time, writes: "If we sing only narcissistic ditties, we will develop a faith that depends on feelings and that is inward-curved instead of outward-turned"(p. 68). The same criticism should be made of preaching: sermons that focus congregational attention on the preacher are no better than narcissistic praise music, only a whole lot longer. God is the point. Feelings, emotions are not bad, God forbid! It is a matter of heart, as well as mind and spirit. But God, not the emotions or feelings of the congregation, is the point, and a point we need to remember—because one of our basic needs is a longing, a veritable hunger for God. And if somewhere in our own hearts we don't believe that, the whole exercise has little purpose, except our own ego-needs to be listened to and complimented. Douglas John Hall, who wrote powerfully and profoundly about the end of Christendom and, by the way, the beginning of Christianity, says we have four well documented needs:
In the final analysis I'm going to put my money on Hall, and on the great liturgical traditions that are ours, rather than on the narcissism of the moment. |
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