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The Future of Modern Worship
The ever-changing "clothes" of worship.
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I have just had another one of those strange feelings. Another telephone interview has just occurred with an excitable American lady calling from Virginia Beach in Virginia. She asks me where I'm from and with just a little too much mischief for my spiritual reputation I reply "Littlehampton Beach, Littlehampton". She exclaims "is that in England?" and I reply with even more mischief, "that it is the capital of England and the center for world revival". As is usual she hasn't heard the new record (bless her), but thinks it's "awesome anyhow" and believes with a passion that Delirious? hold the keys to the future of modern worship. When I secretly contemplate to myself, there are two things I am sure of. Firstly, that God is worthy to be praised and has always been from the dawn of time to eternity. And secondly, Delirious? is doing nothing new but just hanging on the coat tails of the Kendrick's, Wesley's and further back, Handel himself. Whenever I hear that phrase spoken over us, however kind it is meant, it literally puts the fear of God in me, and remember, we're not talking about any "old god" here, like the god of rock 'n roll-we're talking about God with a capital G "GOD". Not even the G in Stu G's name comes close-believe it or not! I must digress at this point. When people thought that Eric Clapton was God, probably what they really mean was that they felt the presence of the big "G" when he played. This I have come to understand as the greatest mystery and paradox: that God uses people like us, full of contradiction, private sins, little self-belief, and a bit scraggy around the edges (Darlene Zschech exempt of course!) and yet gives us the keys to the "Glory box". The grace for playing music that pleases God, grace that makes God our biggest fan (you know the sweaty one who is always squashed against the crash barrier) cheering us on shouting "come on, come on, I'm worthy to be praised and desperate to change lives! Sing with all you have and walk reverently before your God". This is not a job for the elite; this really is "power to the people". It's the people, you and me, who must humble ourselves and let God play on our heartstrings, and allow us to build small windows so that from time to time we can all peer through and glimpse the beauty of our Creator. So, to the future of modern worship, I immediately digress again. People for centuries have worn clothes but the style and cut has changed and always will change. You get my point, don't you, that we will and always have worshipped God-but the way in which we do so has and always will change because God loves creativity. Of course the challenge in writing a piece like this is that you are forced into talking about the wrapping around the sweet knowing how important it is, but never, never, ever being more important than the Sweet itself. So with that in mind, I will for a moment indulge on some thoughts for the future and how important packaging is in this consumerist society (and yes, that includes every one of us). All of us care about packaging whether we admit to it or not and must understand that God cares about how we present ourselves and our art too. We know that when Solomon built the temple, how eloquently he listed details of decoration ranging from golden emblems to pomegranate carvings. Of course God's priority was the temple, but we see Him taking great delight in decorating it! Yes, God plays on our heartstrings, but let's be diligent and tune our guitars up properly. Yes, God delights in the song of the Lord, but it's not going to bless the people as much if you've got a case of the "wobblies". Let's have common sense too-none of us would call a plumber out to fix our cars, so encourage people to do what they're good at. |             |
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