The Worship Minefield

There are all sorts of minefields you think you need to overcome when you first start going to Church. Like where to sit. Everyone has their usual spot, and woe betide the unknowing newcomer who pinches it, right? And, what if I don’t wear the right clothes and people think I look scruffy? My fiancé was mortified on one occasion when he forgot himself while going up to receive Communion. He was first out of the pew and rather than stepping back and waiting for the rest of us to file out and walk up ahead of him he just stalked off up the aisle, eager for his bread and wine. When I pointed this out to him later he spent all of the after-service tea and coffee time apologising to everyone else in our pew!

I managed to best this little faux-pas however, when, on a visit to Salisbury Cathedral for a Sunday service I, not being aware of the protocol, took myself off for Communion before the Steward instructed me to and managed to cause a bit of a hole in the line-up. So, if you’re going to make a mistake, go big and do it at a Cathedral.

The thing I’ve started to grasp though, and admittedly it’s probably taken me longer than it should have, is that people don’t care. 

read the rest here. Essential reading for any church (don't think to yourself that because you don't have Anglican formalities, you don't have traditions and in-house language, its just different to ours). This person, thankfully had her fiance to navigate her through the oddities. 

How many others just find it weird and don't bother coming back, because there are so many house rules they feel like an outsider, rather than a welcomed son or daughter?

Are people 'welcome' or welcome?

'Everyone welcome!' proclaims the poster outside the church. Is this a statement of fact, or a piece of marketing? It all depends on what happens when they turn up:

We all have people drifting into our churches from time to time. If they receive the right sort of welcome and feel they found a place where they can belong, a valuable start has been made. Here then is a 30 second checklist:

Outside: If the noticeboard is out of date and the grounds overgrown then the building is giving the impression of death and no-one will want to go near …

Inside: Solid wooden doors, long paths, dark porches, doors which don’t tell you whether to push or pull, poor signage and lack of disabled access are all things that seem small to us but which can put huge barriers in the way of a visitor. Remember, visitors will be embarrassed, nervous and unsure of themselves.

Welcome: The single most important factor in the first 30 seconds is the person you meet first on getting through the door … someone who smiles, is genuinely pleased to see people, and will enquire after the names of newcomers and show them to a seat is one of the most vital parts of a church.

Atmosphere: Walking into a buzz of conversation can seem friendly to those on the inside, but for a new person it can be intimidating because they feel that everyone has friends except them! The best atmosphere is one of prayer with music playing gently in the background so that the silence is compelling rather than embarrassing.

simple, but crucial. How welcoming is your church this Christmas?

update: just failed badly on the 30 second test at last nights service, what's the point in blogging this stuff if I then ignore it?

Quote of the day

"I think we are at risk of worship becoming a genre of music, a routine or a mundane activity as opposed to being a heart cry, an overflow of love, a response to the revelation of an almighty God."

Joe Hardy puts into words something that's been bugging me for ages

Why Would Anybody Want to Go To Church?

Janet Henderson asked a number of folk who came to a special hospice service before Christmas why they'd come, and why they might think of joining in a worship activity. I thought it was worth reblogging the answers in full, and Jan's comment on them:

To take a bit of space out of my hectic schedule.
To participate in something that takes you beyond yourself.
To be able to share your concerns with people who will understand.
To be challenged about the things I know I avoid or get lazy about.
To learn about Christianity - to ask some of the really deep questions I have.
To be with people who are searching for God or love or something.
For a bit of peace.
To be close to our loved ones.
I think it's helpful to hear stories that make you think.
To find some strength to carry on.
As a resource for inner light and peace.
To help me find ways of explaining things to my children.
If I felt the other people wanted to get to know me I might go.
I'd hope to discover the wisdom I need to tackle things that are going on in my life.
I'd like to know more about how you can pray and what happens when you do.
I'd like to be able to go just for a bit - if you could come and go like we did here.
I need to see forgiveness - I need it for myself but I need to see it in other people's attitudes too.

If that's what some regular non-worshippers would come to church for, what shape would worship need to take, how would it look and what attitudes and behaviours would need to be in evidence? What language would be accessible?

Janet's challenge is to look for the reasons people want to come, rather than the reasons that they don't come. And then to work out how we connect with this. 

I spoke to someone this morning who came to one of our garden centre Christingles in December, and loved it. "This is what church should be like". I think she had a mistaken impression of what church actually is like, (at least, what ours is like), but it was a significant comment. It's maybe no coincidence that it's one of my favourite services of the year too, and that we were there because the garden centre invited us. 

The church isn't there to give the people what they want, because a lot of people want page 3, the restoration of the death penalty and a cut in international aid. But we have got to recognise that as culture changes, our forms of worship, meeting and community need to change as well. 

Taking too long to tell people what they already know

A chilly day at the list rites of an Ashes summer yesterday, the car said 9.5 degrees as we drove away from Southampton. Bit of a disappointment, though the Australians were very good.

The biggest cheer of the day was reserved for a sign. Crickets 'decision review system', like almost everything else in sport these days, has a sponsor. So whilst the crowd are waiting for a decision, Natwest flash up their subliminal advertising on the big screen, until 'Out' or 'Not Out' appears. One decision yesterday was reviewed, overturned by the umpire almost immediately, and the players were all ready to resume but the big screen was still ticking through it's pre-programmed message. It then went into a countdown, intended to raise the sense of drama (#fail), and then seemed to get stuck, and went round the loop a couple of times before flashing up Not Out, to a loud and ironic cheer.

Natwest probably lost a few customers in the process.

If you take a long time to tell people what they already know, when they'd rather be getting on with something else, it doesn't tend to go down very well. Which makes me wonder how many Natwest moments we have. Sticking to a pre-programmed liturgy, regardless of context, can be deadly. Stop me if you catch me doing it.

Minion Praise

brilliant.

I Vow To Thee My Country: Idolatry Set to a Good Tune

I vow to thee, my Saviour, all earthly things above,

Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love;

The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,

That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;

The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,

The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

That would have been a good hymn, reflecting Romans 12:1 "therefore I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship."

But change one word and it becomes something else entirely

"I vow to thee my country...."

Now the song offers to a country, a human institution, what should be offered to God alone: utter devotion,  unquestioning service, the offering of 'the dearest and the best'. It rates the nation as 'above all earthly things'. There's a technical term for this: idolatry. The sentiment wouldn't be out of place in North Korea. 

The second verse, rarely sung, is a barely disguised bit of army recruitment propaganda:

I heard my country calling, away across the sea,

Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to me.

Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her head,

And round her feet are lying the dying and the dead.

I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her guns,

I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.

And the final verse paints a thin gloss of spirituality over the whole thing, so thin it can't even bring itself to mention crude terms like 'heaven' or 'eternal life'. :

And there's another country, I've heard of long ago,

Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know;

We may not count her armies, we may not see her King;

Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering;

And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,

And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace.

'Heard of long ago' - a vague suggestion that the author hasn't been in contact with the Christian faith since their infancy? The rest of the 'hymn' would certainly suggest it. Heaven is the stuff of childrens stories, which is 'dear to them that love her' (contrast the absolute demands of v1)  offering the vague promise of a place of 'gentleness and peace', the rewards of faith annexed to nationalist propaganda. 

I can understand why, 100 years ago, the song and its lyrics might have had some resonance, in particular with the horrific events of the first world war. But it's still very hard to see why it's treated as a Christian hymn, or why it's sung in places like St. Pauls Cathedral. It makes Jerusalem look mainstream orthodox.

Having said all that, this morning I conducted a funeral which concluded with 'Bat out of Hell' by Meatloaf, so anything purist I have to say about music and lyrics has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

"The church has forgotten how to dance"

had a preview of some of these at Spring Harvest last week, good to see Martin Smith back doing what he does so well.

New Year Prayers - 1 The Methodist Covenant Prayer

I am no longer my own but yours.

Put me to what you will,

rank me with whom you will;

put me to doing, put me to suffering;

let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,

exalted for you or brought low for you.

Let me be full, let me be empty,

let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and wholeheartedly yield all things

 to your pleasure and disposal.

And now, glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

you are mine and I am yours.

So be it.

And the covenant made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

comment: this prayer should come with a health warning. If you pray it and mean it, then be prepared for God to take you seriously. If you pray it and don't mean it, why? Better not to pray it at all, even if it's things you'd like to be able to pray sincerely.

In that respect it's a bit like a lot of hymnody - Christians will easily lie if you set the words to a tune: 'All to Jesus I surrender' (really?) etc. We've begun used to saying and singing words as aspiration rather than declaration, hoping that by saying them often enough we'll eventually mean them. The opposite happens - we become so used to our lips writing cheques that our lifestyles don't cash that the words themselves become worthless. 

So, careful with this one. And (see the post before this one) only pray it if you're praying it with a community, this is virtually impossible to follow through on if you're going solo. 

Wow

Some simply staggering beauty on show at the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2012, and a lovely slideshow on the BBC site to go with it.

Hymn Sudoku

Just came across the very excellent Cake or Death cartoon site

I have got to try this.....

in the meantime, we have a local drumming circle coming to tomorrows Cafe Service at the local community. It's a bit of an experiment, but after going to one of their workshops last year, there were so many spiritual images and verses whizzing through my head it seemed like a natural way to help people worship and express themselves. If I don't blog about it after Sunday, you'll know it bombed.....

For the Cross

General Synod: What You Might Have Missed

In between deciding nothing in particular about women bishops, and spannering the Weddings Project, there were some good initiatives announced at General Synod this week:

Worship Workshop, a new website for schools and children to use to create their own liturgy. Also worth a look for harvesting the links - some good ones under the 'engaging resource' section. Press release here.

How2Help is a new community action website, arising from a motion to Synod in 2010, which seeks to catalyse and resource local churches in serving their communities, and spreading ideas about what works, and how to do it.

from the press release:
The Church of England has a wealth of experience and skill in serving local communities, built up over decades of Christian witness and action for stronger bonds between people and for supporting the lonely and vulnerable. People can now go into the website, starting with the question or issue that motivates them, and find answers, ideas and examples. They can learn from the mistakes of others and discover what approaches work best

and finally, I hadn't realised the Queen was ill. The Synod opened with the National Anthem and prayers for HM The Queen and for members of the Synod who were unwell.  

U2 as Worship Leaders?

In anticipation of the launch of the U2 Studies Journal (I kid you not), try this article, on how U2 'lead worship' at their live gigs. Whether you think they actually do or not, it's still a good piece on what's involved in leading worship in the first place....

...well, that is if you think 'worship' means 'concert style event with audience participation'. There is so much more to it than that. But that's another post.....

ChurchCheck: Hire your own Mystery Worshipper

Christian Research are offering some quality control to churches who'd like to be welcoming but suspect they may not be....

Christian Research in partnership with Retail Maxim is now giving churches the opportunity to see themselves through the eyes of a newcomer. ChurchCheck is designed to evaluate and assist the improvement of churches through a professional worship assessment service.

ChurchCheck evaluators are trained to assess factors such as the state of the notice board , warmth of welcome and length of the sermon through to the after service conversation and evidence of fair trade.

All ChurchCheck Visitors are fully trained in assessing church services, based in all regions and will visit churches of any denomination.

To arrange a ChurchCheck for your church or if you want any further information, click the following link

http://www.christian-research.org/ongoing-projects/church-check.html
 
Or you could do what one vicar did (I think this really happened, rather than being an urban myth), which is pay a few folks at the local pub £10 each to come along to church one morning, then chat about it over a pint afterwards. My question here is: will a Christian visitor pick up everything that needs to be picked up?
 
Or save yourself some cash, and see if the original Mystery Worshipper has been already. The entry for St. Pauls Cathedral earlier this year makes interesting reading.

Hymn Books v Data Projectors

In the early days of this blog, Dave Walkers cartoons were always a great source when I didn't have anything particular to say, or wanted to spread the joy. If you pay Dave a bit of cash (which will please him no end) you can even use his cartoons for sermons, newsletters etc - one or two of his Christmas cartoons have made great covers for our church publicity leaflets.

On the topic at hand, it was massively reassuring to get to New Wine and find that the first song on the data projector was shown with the verses in the wrong order. I turned to the person next to me and (nearly) said 'this is just like church last Sunday'. Most of the new songs seem to have been written with 1 verse, 1 chorus and about 3 'bridge' sections which could be sung in pretty much any order you liked, so you can't blame the techies for getting confused.

Experience of New Wine also demonstrates that if the bass and drums are loud enough you can sing them to any tune you like too, because nobody can hear it. Which was great, as many of us didn't know the tune but wanted to sing along.

Praise Him on the Vuvuzuela

Having noted a few days ago that I wasn't aware of any church yet using the vuvuzuela in worship, the Church Times has just reported this:

A South African newspaper, the Mail and Guardian, has reported that the vuvuzela is commonly used in church services in neighbouring Bots­wana. One Botswana church­goer, Jacqueline Chireshe, explained: “The vuvuzela is a biblical instru­ment; it is a trumpet, and God expects us to blow the trumpet in offering praise to him.”

Last year, members of the Nazareth Baptist Church, founded in 1910, unsuccessfully argued that they owned the copyright on the instrument, which was used on an annual pilgrimage to a mountain in KwaZulu-Natal which they consider to be holy.

So there you have it. One persons worship is another persons wasps nest amplified to 140decibels. I imagine if it's 'used in neighbouring Botswana', it can still be heard in services in South Africa. Still waiting for them to go on sale in Tescos.

...Like a Noisy Vuvuzuela, or a Clashing Cymbal...

The South African organisers of the World Cup are getting a bit of pressure to ban the vuvuzuela. I'm not yet aware of any church embracing them as a fresh expression of irritation:

Jordaan (the South African organiser) admitted he was not a huge fan of them himself. "I would prefer singing," he said.
"It's always been a great generator of a wonderful atmosphere in stadiums and I would try to encourage them to sing.
"In the days of the struggle (against apartheid) we were singing, all through our history it's our ability to sing that inspired and drove the emotions."

I'm struck by these comments about singing, and its place in history and culture. Occasionally there's debates here and elsewhere about the place of singing in church, and whether it's off-putting to newcomers, or people who aren't used to singing. Culturally, I'm not really sure where the UK is at. We'll do mass singalongs at football matches and concerts, but singing in smaller gatherings is now pretty unusual. There was a picture of a South African living room on the news a couple of nights ago, complete with dancing, vuvuzuelas, etc., in a gathering of roughly a dozen people. We Brits need lots more than that to get the anonymity we need to lose our inhibitions.

But perhaps if there was a cacophonous din that could only be drowned out by loud corporate singing, we might find our voices again....?

Iworship

I knew there was a use for these things. Ht Garibaldi McFlurry

Rolling Worship

No, not a fresh expression in response to the rising number of overweight people. My old chum Andy Griffiths is launching a novel approach at his church in Chelmsford. The pattern for a Sunday morning has become a series of segments:

■ 9.30am-10am liturgical, usually choir-based worship, usually without a sermon.
■ 10am-10.30am. Coffee
■ 10.30am-11am will be the core. Here there will usually be teaching by sermon, video or a choice of different modules of teaching to allow for different learning styles, from a lecture
or a discussion to “messy church” opportunities to make things. The core will always be accessible for new and non-regular worshippers, who may feel unfamiliar with traditional worship. Once a month Communion will be celebrated in the core. Andy says: “The core is our
chance to get together as one church family.”
■ More coffee from 11am-11.30am leads to:
■ Band-based worship from 11.30am-12 noon. Andy adds: “The feel will be contemporary, the liturgy will be minimal, the welcome will be warm.”
■ Children will be catered for in a variety of ways right through a Sunday morning.

Full details here (click on the June 2010 issue - at time of writing the current one - and go to page 3). People can come when they want and go when they like. Looks like its the result of a serious consultation with the whole church, and is an interesting way of trying to be 'all together in one place' whilst catering for a variety of musical tastes, learning styles, and stages of faith.

I like the church tagline 'to live ordinary lives, gloriously'. I also like the quantities of coffee! Following some of the discussion about men in church a few days ago, I also note that you can be in this church for a 1 1/2 hr block on Sunday and not have to sing.