This week I reached a bit of a milestone. The appearance of a column entitled “Rescuing Worship” marks my first work published in a nation-wide publication – in this case, “Christian Week”. I will be doing a series of these posts throughout 2010 under the column heading “Worship Matters” (apologies to Bob Kauflin).
Here are the first few paragraphs. You can read the rest at the home page for my Worship Matters column here.
Rescuing Worship
Let’s reclaim “worship” as much more than a concert
By Michael Krahn | ChristianWeek Columnist
If you walk into almost any evangelical church and inquire about “worship,” you can expect to be directed to someone who leads music. “No, no,” you might say, “I’m looking for the people responsible for planning corporate worship at this church.” But it’s a lost cause.
In most churches, the battle is already over: music equals worship; worship equals music. The capacity to differentiate between the two is functionally non-existent. The “worship leader” is the person who leads the group of musicians we call the “worship team.” When these people are on the stage we’re worshipping; when they’re not we’re doing something else. Simple, right?
You may hear comments like, “After the worship, we’ll hear a sermon.” But if the sermon only begins after worship has left the building, we may as well head home before it starts.
This odd hegemony of music—not as one aspect of worship, but as worship itself—is a fairly recent construct. I believe it is a destructive trend in the modern church. What gave the music the right to demand so much?
Read the rest here.
