At Old Worship New, we’ve come to the realization that you may not know who the writers actually are. The little blurbs in the “About Us” page don’t do much justice (mostly because I wrote them about each of us!) and now each writer will write about himself and his biases.
I grew up Lutheran in a church that was part of a predecessor to the ELCA. I started singing in the choir in Kindergarten and never stopped. I loved church because of music and I loved music because of church. I was really active in the youth program and loved the attention I received from the elderly members when I would sing or do anything else.
I had a great music minister at this church. As a kid, I learned about the Bible through the songs we sang and most of the Liturgy was present in worship. Moreover, we were actually taught what we were singing.
Even with this background, during my first church job it became evident that I didn’t know as much about worship as the pastor would like. She suggested that I go to Luther where I learned more and started to develop a sense of what worship is and what it’s supposed to be.
Worship and the way we worship has been passed down through the generations. There is very little in the Bible about how to worship, most of what we Christians started with came from Judaism. From there, Liturgy has developed and evolved into what it is today. Each generation, each priest, pastor, lay person, scribe, elder, and worshiper has helped to shape what I say and sing in worship from the Kyrie to the “Go in Peace.”
I believe that worship is about God, not about the worshippers, but it involves us. Liturgy is the work of the people, and as Travis so succinctly put in a post, Liturgy is a dance between Christ and his bride, the Church. Each generation, I believe, perfects the steps. Some dances come naturally, but most people are not that talented, so we need to practice the dance, and so we practice week after week this dance of Liturgy.
Currently, worship is being used as the whipping post for a lot of what is going on in the world. We hear stories of people running from the church and it’s all worship’s fault. People want something that’s about themselves. It’s tough to reconcile that with what worship should really be about, God. To continue Travis’ metaphor, dancing is about your relationship with the other partner, teaming up and creating something beautiful and so is Liturgy and worship. This relationship is carried throughout the dance with all the other dancers, like a Renaissance group dance. We, the worshipping body of Christ, all get to dance together, moving in tandem, dancing with Christ.
I truly believe that when we get out of the way, let God in, worship is the ultimate expression of love and relationship. This does not mean that we should just leave it up to chance and “let the Holy Spirit” plan worship. The Holy Spirit works in many ways, but can also work in planning, not just in sporadic, sudden moments. If we prayerfully plan our worship, the Holy Spirit is in the preparation.
There you have it, this is a little window into me and my philosophy. It is most certainly not exhaustive, but I hope this helps you when you are reading my posts and comments.
What do you think about my biases? Are they in sync with yours?
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