It’s a little sad how we turn words into villains. Some
aspect of a word seems to be “against us,” so we become needless enemies of the
whole of the word. In church circles,
one of those words is “contemporary.”
con·tem·po·rar·y [kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee] adjective
1. of same time: existing at or
dating from the same time period as something or somebody else.
2. existing: in existence now.
3. modern in style.
4. of the same age: of the same or
approximately the same age as somebody else.
Lots of church-going people hear it as a threat to tradition
and even to theology. I think it is the third definition above that causes the
uneasiness: modern in style. The reality
is, when you take the whole of the word, it is really a great descriptive word
from which we can’t easily escape. And it is a word that describes us! Like it
or not, we are (as every preceding generation has been) “contemporary”
people. There aren’t a plethora of
options; we are contemporary, or we are dead!
1.
We all exist here, right now, at the same period
of time as one another, so we are Contemporary Worshippers!
2.
Even if some would prefer to go back in time and
others forward, the reality is we exist in the NOW, so we are Contemporary
Worshippers!
3.
We drive ourselves to worship, wear clothes of
our modern current existence, email one another, talk on our cell phones, use
our computers and tablets, and make donations at kiosks in the lobby because
the vast majority of us don’t write checks and certainly don’t carry much cash.
4.
In our worship, we speak in a modern style, we
like air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter, and we use sound
systems and lighting so, regardless of the “worship element,” we are
Contemporary Worshippers!
5.
We are all of the same age range as some other
persons in our worship. We are
Contemporary Worshippers!
Because we are contemporary people, we are contemporary
worshippers:
·
Whether we are singing a brand new praise song
or a hymn from the 1640’s
·
Whether we are reading a parable of Jesus or
dramatically acting out a story
·
Whether we are accompanied in our singing by
organ or sitar or banjo
·
Whether we are responsively reading scripture or
a quote from today’s newspaper
·
Whether we are placing an envelope in the
offering plate or giving on our cell phone
·
Whether we are seeing a pastoral scene or a
movie clip on the big screen
·
Whether we are engaging with those gathered or
taking a moment for God and us alone
IF we have come to worship God, then that is what we are
doing, and corporately we are CONTEMPORARY WORSHIPPERS!
We can’t not
be. We can do worship re-enactments like
those who re-enact the Civil War, and we can pretend to be in heaven
surrounding the throne of God and act out what we believe that worship might be
like some day. But for us to worship, we
only have the opportunity to be contemporary worshippers. Adam and Eve were contemporary worshippers,
Abraham, Daniel, Jesus, the Disciples, the Reformers—EVERYONE who has
worshipped had only one option—to be a Contemporary Worshipper, there aren’t
other options!
Now, as a Contemporary Worshipper, I might sometimes really
connect if the music is a certain style, and even within a genre, a certain
song might really move me into connection with God. This same song might have no positive effect
on the person seated next to me. The
reading of a text might move my seatmate to tears, and I might just not get
it. As a Contemporary Worshipper I am
not mandated to use any and every most contemporary expression, nor am I locked
into using only what has been used before.
I seek to connect with God, and all the accouterments of a
worship service are there to assist me in my connecting with God and giving him
praise, adoration, worship. Just as I
appreciate people allowing me to sing and pray and worship in English, and I should
allow others to worship in the language most meaningful to them, so with the
elements of worship, music styles, use of the arts—just think of them as
different languages that enable people to connect with God and worship him.
Hopefully, as a group of contemporary worshippers who are
seeking God and who value one another, we will continually seek a wide variety
of styles in worship. Of course, the greatest determiner of whether our
contemporary corporate worship service will be a meaningful experience for each
of us and for the God we worship is how contemporary our private worship was
throughout the week in preparation for our corporate experience. May we be
contemporary worshippers who worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth.
Andy McDonald
