Thursday, February 7, 2008
Jamming for Jesus?
In I think the first Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling talks about the Hogwarts school song what is notable about the song is not the bizarre words, but the way the song is sung. Dumbledore starts the song and each person then sets off to singing it at their own pace, with their own tune. In their usual flippant and attention grabbing manner, the Weasley twins chose a funeral dirge, and so finish much after everyone else. Recently I have been trying to figure out how to capture the spirit of the Hogwarts song and make it work in worship. In particular I am thinking about the ability to allow for individuality and diversity. I am currently puzzling over the idea of the jam session, where people simply gather to make music that is spontaneous, authentic and lacking the polish of a performance but instead capturing the spirit and energy of the musicians. I want to have a worship service that is not meant to be judged on its technical merits, but instead to be judged on how it speaks to and from the souls of those who are gathered there. Relatively spontaneous and individual modes of worship work when you have outgoing, unabashedly outspoken people like the Weasley twins, but are not helpful for people as a whole. How do we help people to find their own voice in worship? How do make room for those who are still just wanting to hear what others have to say? It seems like a lot of the challenge I am facing, though I hope I am wrong, is that when it comes to worship, we as pastors have spent years, if not centuries performing for people rather than inviting other to jam with us. Our good intentions have served only to infantilize our members and teach them to watch and not to act. Maybe I am painting with too broad a brush, but I know that I for one have been guilty of this. The challenge for me now is to figure out how to give that voice back to the people and to affirm the role that each person has in the act of worship
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