Worship Evangelism
By Oliver Price
Sunday, August 17, 2003Worship Evangelism: Finding a New Cultural Language
Sally Morgenthaler
In the late 80s I started out in a ministry leadership role in a geographical area that was 75 percent unchurched baby boomers. My role was simply to transition 30 people from a traditional, liturgical experience of worship -- used 35 years in that denomination -- into one that would be accessible and welcoming to the larger community. At that time in the "progressive, outreach-oriented church," worship was not one of the colors on the evangelistic palette.
From the beginning we held to the value of maintaining confession in worship, and communion celebrated every other week. I sometimes had to work within parameters that I didn't like. Yet working from the criteria, How can we create sacred space for people in our culture? we expanded our experience to include anointing healing, individualized prayer, and meditation.
We found that on the weeks where worship was unapologetically sacramental with a lot of trappings, the most unchurched people were coming. Also Catholics, Episcopalians, Baptists, and those from community churches not only visited, but came back. One of the most important things we got under our belt in my early ministry was that worship is God -- a self-revealing God -- calling for our response.
Using the Language of Post-Modern People
What I have learned is that evangelism is going to be most effective when it coincides with the language people speak. But communication is so much more than words. Most of our culture's information is not with words at all. We are getting it visually and through music.
That's been the case with MTV going on 20 years -- putting visuals and music together. Madison Avenue and Hollywood understand that our experiences drive what we do and who we are. Look at television commercials, too. In some, you don't even know what the product is until the very end. They are selling experience first and foremost.
This is the language of the postmodern person. In order to get substance, feelings have to be accessed. (I don't mean just manipulated.) When we experience a whole range of emotions, we can take in substance much more quickly -- into our whole person. It is not that the postmodern person does not want to think, but he wants to feel as well as think.
Finding New Sounds to Meet Souls
The arts in church give us opportunity to integrate our mind with our emotions. The postmodern worshiper is tired of being held at arm's length -- God as a concept. A 1998 study showed 26 percent of the adult population attends church. I think we are all in trouble -- even those churches that have been majoring on praise and worship the last 15 years. People are bored with the freeze-dried sound of 1985. The worship music industry has been serving the baby boomer primarily.
Some companies are starting to wake up and figure out that we have had a musical revolution out in the culture. It is called "world music." But for the most part, it has not touched the church. My kids, 14 and 18, say "Mom, get off that!" whenever we are driving and tune into a Christian radio station. They can't stand it. It's not only kids who feel that way.
So we have a choice to make. Do what we've always done and use "tradition" -- 5 years old or 50 years old -- as an excuse to remain at arm's length with God. Or we can use the arts of our culture sacramentally. Music in particular is one of the fastest ways to a person's soul. It can be used manipulatively. The difference is that sacramental music contains an element of faith where we are not directing so much as allowing God to meet people through that medium.
Using Art to Embody the Word
I believe art can embody the Word; I don't want to just say, "communicate the gospel." In the evangelical world we have believed that the Word means simply the printed word. It is not. Jesus never said that the printed word is the Way, Truth, and Life. John 1 does not say that. Jesus is the Word, but we have such a hard time with that.
A lot of times we have our blinders on. God is working and we say, "No, God has to work in this way." If we just take our blinders off, look where God is working and go there. There has been such an emphasis on the secret to worship being "out there." There has been a lot of emphasis on the idea that you can get and contain it and franchise it. It is scary for people knowing they can't just go to a conference and get it and bring it home in a test tube.
The day of the model is gone. The day of the formula is gone. But that is our advantage as ministry leaders. We as individuals and God-communities are unique in the history of the world. God is remaking us every single day. We can celebrate our individual and communal uniqueness. We can participate in God's creativity. We can muck about in this mud not knowing what we are doing. But we understand that in God's grace and mercy, He has provided this particular worshipping community as the reflection of his Body.
Our challenge in ministry is going to be balance. It will require all the intentionality that we have. The arts are going to be key in helping people experience the God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We need to know who it is we worship, and then respond with everything that we are.
Sally Morgenthaler, author of Worship Evangelism (Zondervan), is a church consultant on worship evangelism, Creative Design Director at Pathways Church, Denver, Colo., and President of SJM Management Company Inc.
This article is adapted from an interview by Spencer Burke and David Trotter at The Ooze (April 30, 1999), an online magazine for the postmodern church, linking communities through reporting, resources, and relationships.