Changing the Face of Worship
How exciting it is to look from behind my drums and see thousands of people expressing themselves to God in vibrant and passionate ways - it’s the best seat in the house! The dying, ordinary, neutral Church that I read about, and see portrayed in the media, doesn’t seem to match with what I see before me week after week. All over the world Christians are expressing themselves to God in fresh new ways. Are they caught up in rock concert hysteria’ or is God right in the centre of the ‘emerging culture?’
Something which is strikingly obvious from the Bible is how important ‘culture’ was to Jesus. He related to people and spoke to them in a language that they could understand. Stories of fish and farming, although alien to most of us, showed that he was 100% aware of the culture around him. People understood his illustrations of God through his culturally relevant stories and behavious. When people come into Church today I want them to feel that what is going on is relevant to them; that the language we use and the songs that we sing are ‘culturally relevant’ to them and that they are accepted; that is’s a place they actually want to be in!
In the Bible, we’re called to be worshippers in spirit and in truth. It’s my opinion that the people I’m seeing week after week, and continually at places like ‘Easter People’, aren’t simply at a rock gig but have naturally found their own voice and expression. THey’re singing songs with words they normally use, in a musical setting they are comfortable with, and are genuinely connecting with God. After coming face to face with this life-changing, amazing God, it’s the natural overflow of love to Him.
However, it’s really important that in amongst our new found worship culture we don’t discard people who worship God using different was like hymns, as they are equally vital part of the body of Christ. To them, worshipping Him through hymns is just as culturally relevant as any other. Our God is the Awesome Creator God who made us and knows what we are feeling anyway! Let’s all be real, and worship Him passionately, love people passionately and serve passionately in the culture we are in.
My prayer for all the vibrant worshippers I see, myself included, is that our daily lifestyles are as consistent and pleasing to God as our singing.
-Dez Minto-
Article taken from Emerging Culture Magazine Summer ‘06