As artists, we are constantly searching to creatively express ourselves - and as Christian artists, this translates to a personal expression of worship.  The issues arise when our personal expression clashes with someone else's.

When planning worship for the local church, the "personality" of that local body must be taken into consideration before making blanket statements about the appropriateness of the corporate worship expression.  I would never force my personal expression of worship on anyone else, but neither would I willingly serve a congregation (and squelch my own creative bent) who's thoughts on worship expression were vastly different from mine - that would simply set us all up for, shall we say, a less than harmonious leader-congregation relationship? LOL 

I'm looking forward to reading others' thoughts on this subject!

Blessings,

\o/ Kim

kimaliczi.blogspot.com 

Kim.

This is a gracious response. Possibly the congregants at Willow did respond to the Message-- as offered through acrobatics. The visitors did not; but then, again, the language was foreign to them.

katie 

I guess I'd need to know more about exaclty how the acrobats were being used... ;-)

As an artist and longtime Christ-follower, I tend to find the worship in all sorts of things... perhaps too easily. I remember a willow arts conference I attended which featured a National Geographic photographer. He was not a believer, but as he took us through some of his amazing images of God's creation, I believe many of us entered into worship.

I agree with Kim that we need to be sensitive to where our congregants are while challenging them to move beyond that place. If you are ever VERY excited about some creative element in your gathering, run it by a couple non-creative types and see how they repsond. Chances are, they won't be nearly as excited as you, but as long as they seem to get it, you should be groovy.

I really appreciated Perry Noble's insights; I agree that the Holy Spirit is not limited to working on Sunday morning. Furthermore, I feel that the more prepared you are as a team, the easier it can be to follow the Spirit's leading during the service.

I like to call us "artist-shepherds"
We walk in front of the flock but don't leave them in the dust

shalom,
Krystofer James VanSlyke
Devotional Arts Pastor
Genesis in Phoenix

covarts.org

Krystofer.

Thanks for the levity in your lead. I had the same thought. "What in world were these acrobats doing to prompt such critique?"

Regarding your confession. I suppose there are worse faults one might have-- than being too-easily led into worship. :)  Carry on.

Katie

The question isn't really about whether the event was good or bad. Let us stipulate that it is good - a high quality performance conceived and executed with skill and evoking a powerful emotional response to a glorious story. Nor is it about whether it was evangelistic. If the LORD God Almighty can raise up sons of Abraham from the stones, he can bring lost ones into His kingdom through lycra-clad acrobats telling a story. 

The question is...is it worship?

Now, there is worship that we each engage in individually. At any time, we may see a tree, a sunset, a baby, or hear bird or a word well spoken and it may turn us toward Christ with a murmered prayer or a quiet time of adoration. This is all well and good, but when the Body of Christ gathers together to worship the Risen Christ, something more is to take place. It demands of us something quite different than a group of individual love affairs wtih Jesus occuring around the room. 

This is because you are not the Bride of Christ. Nor am I. WE together are His bride, and when we come to meet Him together, there is something more at work. The worshipping community is not about simply hearing or seeing. Watching TV is NOT worshipping together. Some of us may enter into a seperate individual little private moment with Jesus, but that is not the CHURCH worshipping.  

Spectacle is wonderful in theater, in cinema and in all manner of performing art. Spectacle is not bad. But it is inherently different from the worship of God's people in community. In worship, we are not only to watch God, we are to participate in His work, to ask for it, to hear it, to respond to it, to receive it. 

So if Willow wants to hold a Christmas Show, more power to 'em. If they want to use it to bring the lost to Jesus, all right. But...just don't think that it is the same thing as God's people meeting together to worship Him as His people. The best you can hope for is a double date with about 4000 others. 

Thanks for raising the big question: Is the described gathering a worship event? And thanks for offering your thoughtful observations about such events and worship.

I ask that question all the time. What is worship? What are the distinctives of the worship gathering? On my mind lately: Was the gathering we call The Sermon on the Mount (and other Jesus-led gatherings) a worship event? Or was it something else-- with worship being what happened in the temple, not what Jesus facilitated on the hillsides, seasides, roadsides and in homes.

I'm curious about this. Did Jesus change the way we gather for worship? Could we consider his approach (to being-with the gathered) a model (of sorts. I can't think of a better term)? And again, are we talking about apples and oranges? Is Christian worship different in-kind from a gathering like those that Jesus inspired and presided over?

Katie Martinez