Many of you know that I will be presenting the following workshop at the Always Reforming: Emergence in the Presbyterian Church Conference in a week (it’s not too late to register).
Presbymergent Polity 101: Worship, Sacraments and (Dis)Order
Many view the Book of Order as a rigid, rule-focused guide for saying more about what one “can’t” do in PC(USA) worship, than what one might be able to do. However, in this workshop we’ll look at some key sections of the Book of Order that promise more freedom and openness than one might think, and we’ll talk about some issues relating to “emergent” expressions of worship in both traditional and non-traditional congregations. While this is not meant to be a “How to…”-workshop, we will spend some time looking at examples of how some PC(USA) congregations might use emerging worship/alternative worship in their worship services.
In the workshop, I’d love to give some examples of ways in which current Presbyterian/Presbymergent churches (both traditional and more progressive in their liturgy-styles) have incorporated emergent expressions of worship into their gatherings. If you have done something that you’d like shared, please let me know in the comments.
I’d also love to know what some of your struggles have been, questions you have, or if there are any seemingly insurmountable obstacles you’ve run across. Feel free to leave all of these in the comments – or if you would prefer, you can email me with your thoughts and perspectives.
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Our worship has used secular music with sacred-type (or human struggle, to illustrate the Bible passage) references and imagery. Our Bible text was discussed in groups around tables and illustrated with photos as well as songs and other forms of art. We’ve used many forms of art and interactive theology, stations for the individual and/or for the whole group or a table (small group). Participants are encouraged to be creative at various kinds of stations. Lighting a candle with prayers has been warmly welcomed by participants.
The main obstacle was the powers that be in the presbytery squashed us, with many colleagues protesting that we were not Reformed because our songs were not sacred and because we met in a tavern. Where were the faith elements? Are people actually worshiping? They understand you don’t need pews, but not that you don’t need sacred songs to be focusing on honoring God. In short, they didn’t get it and didn’t invite me to their meetings to explain and address questions.
A practical solution to this might be changing the Book of Order’s definition of “church” and re-teaching churches what is already in the BOO about “committees.” We’ve missed a big part of the former and have neglected or forgotten the latter. See my blog for much more verbosity on the subject.
Adam,
Thanks for the invitation. Here are some thoughts…
As you are aware, The Living Room is a new emergent church in downtown Atlanta. We are one of two new “fellowships” (not NCD’s) that have been created in partnership with the Emerging Church Committee, a sub-committee of the New Church Development Commission of our presbytery. I think this is something “positive” to share – that a presbytery in our denomination has made a commitment to creating and supporting new emerging ministries.
About our worship: I am calling our “style” as akin to a “jam-session”. Like a jam-session, our “sermon” is an unscripted, improvised, and creative conversation on a particular part of a biblical story. What does this look like? My “partner in crime” in this ministry is Bobby Williamson, a PhD candidate in Hebrew Scripture at Emory University. He starts our biblical jam-session by “teaching” us about the context of the passage – basically offering our community access to knowledge from the academy. Next, I offer a story that lifts up a theme from the passage that connects our story with that particular biblical story. After that, my role is that of a “moderator” – instead of thinking that I am the “preacher”, those assembled are the “preachers”. My role is still active, this is not simply a casual conversation. But what I do is to lift up the salient points made by others to “hit home” what we are hearing in the passage.
So, this is what The Living Room is up to with our understanding of worship. Conversations about Sacraments will be occurring in our community as we become “public”. Hope this helps – follow up questions are welcomed. I’ll be interested in hearing how it goes!
Tom
Hi Adam,
I wish I had some great suggestions for you, but we’re still struggling in our very traditional context to build an updated alternative. It’s coming along slowly, and the main things that differentiate it from our traditional worship services are (of course) the music, much more interactive time in prayers and sermons, emphasis on lay involvement in leading worship, and a “come as you are” atmosphere. I’d love to get into more creative elements in worship, like this past week when we worked our way around the room to 6 different prayer stations that represented the church in 6 different countries. Instead of praying for our loved ones and friends this week, we focused on the church around the world.
To a larger question of order, I’d agree with what appears to be part of your premise above that the worship section of the book of order allows much greater freedom than our churches typically exercise. I reached the point where I thought if I heard someone talk about our “decency and order” one more time I’d scream. And after I dug a little deeper into 1 Corinthians, I concluded that we largely miss the point when we talk about presbyterian decency and order, whether it’s about worship order or Robert’s rules. If you’re interested, you can read the short study at
http://lifeinthekeyofk.blogspot.com/.
Blessings to you and the presbymergents at the gathering-
David
Hrm. I’m thinking that perhaps it would be fun to include a “What is worship?” installment in your “What is” series…
Love this discussion and wish I could be at your workshop. (I’m doing something similar at Montreat next May.)
Our evening worship service is a work in progress and worship is not the same from week to week, and we are open to trying most anything. It feels very house-church.