I currently am a missionary pastor of an evangelical church in the Caribbean that is independent of the denomination in which I am ordained. It's a long story that I hope to tell if I ever learn how to get this blog going.
The extremely short version is that I fled the Episcopal Church 20 years ago to go into missions and later to plant or help rebuild churches. Now I'm heading back toward the Anglican Church.
Worship is one of the key reasons for returning. Too much of what passes for worship in the evangelical church has been reduced to either an evangelistic crusade or a semi-spiritual lecture series.
I only recently put my finger on it as I realized the more I encouraged people to participate in worship, the less they did so. In general, the modern evangelical movement has encouraged less participation in worship while at the same time promoting the priesthood of all believers.
On its face, this makes everyone a worship leader, yet passively looking to one person to feed them. When they are not fed according to their wishes they assert their status as priests devolving authority to themselves.
I'm convinced that when people meet God in worship He always touches them in ways that are not just intellectual. He touches their bodies and not just their brains. Worship involves body, mind and soul.
Hopefully as I get this blog under control (I've been at this for a whole two days now), I'll have more to say. That and I have to get two separate messages done for Sunday.
Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully we'll have a chance to chat some more on this and other topics.
2 comments:
Of what sort of church are you the pastor? What do you think about worship?
Anne,
I currently am a missionary pastor of an evangelical church in the Caribbean that is independent of the denomination in which I am ordained. It's a long story that I hope to tell if I ever learn how to get this blog going.
The extremely short version is that I fled the Episcopal Church 20 years ago to go into missions and later to plant or help rebuild churches. Now I'm heading back toward the Anglican Church.
Worship is one of the key reasons for returning. Too much of what passes for worship in the evangelical church has been reduced to either an evangelistic crusade or a semi-spiritual lecture series.
I only recently put my finger on it as I realized the more I encouraged people to participate in worship, the less they did so. In general, the modern evangelical movement has encouraged less participation in worship while at the same time promoting the priesthood of all believers.
On its face, this makes everyone a worship leader, yet passively looking to one person to feed them. When they are not fed according to their wishes they assert their status as priests devolving authority to themselves.
I'm convinced that when people meet God in worship He always touches them in ways that are not just intellectual. He touches their bodies and not just their brains. Worship involves body, mind and soul.
Hopefully as I get this blog under control (I've been at this for a whole two days now), I'll have more to say. That and I have to get two separate messages done for Sunday.
Thanks for stopping by. Hopefully we'll have a chance to chat some more on this and other topics.
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