Missiological assumptions?

Born in 1970, I am a post prayer-book Anglican. That is, I grew up in the era when formal liturgies and distinctive clergy dress were become a sign of the moribund and alien past. The outsider (so the argument ran) was alienated by such things, which were at best mysterious and at worst signs of a theology we wanted to repudiate. Formality in and of itself was part of everything that was wrong with the church of the 1960s which so many people had decided to...well, not attend.

When I was a Chaplain at the Cathedral school, following this logic, and with 90% of the kids unchurched, I moved school chapel services out of the Cathedral building itself and into the hall next door. I very rarely wore my collar. The services were informal, the music contemporary and the prayers spontaneous. The Christian students were especially supportive of this, because it was like the churches they went to. Surely the non-Christians would love it too...

But one day, one of the unchurched kids came to me and said 'look, why are you trying so hard to be like our culture? Surely the best thing you have going for you is your difference. The old thing is the thing you do best - that makes sense to me. And I can't stand your contemporary Christian songs'. (well that was the gist of it...)

Here's the thesis I am running, anyhow: The reason we eschewed formality in church services was because that was what WE on the inside wanted (or some of us, anyway) - the missiological reason was in fact only a justification for it.

There were some mistaken, or at least challengeable, assumptions here -

1 - that the outsiders prefered us to look like TV shows, and not like 'church' as they knew it
2 - that familiarity is always good, dissimilarity is always bad
3 - that formality equals insincerity and pomposity (it certainly can do, but not always)
4 - that formality equals impersonal, bumbling and ineffectual
5 - that church meetings/services should be attractional (as opposed to church communities)
6 - that a prayerbook service with a robed clergyman will be understood by an outsider as a sign of Tridentine catholic theology of the priesthood and sacraments

So - what's the evidence?

Hauerwas - oh, it's provocative and its brilliant!

One of my favourite Hauerwas quotes:


'One reason why we Christians argue so much about which hymn to sing, which liturgy to follow, which way to worship is that the commandments teach us to believe that bad liturgy eventually leads to bad ethics. You begin by singing some sappy, sentimental hymn, then you pray some pointless prayer, and the next thing you know you have murdered your best friend.'

Psalm 95 - if you hear his voice today

Cesky Krumlov

This week, I am preaching on Psalm 95. It is a Psalm that haunts me. When I went to St Andrew’s North Oxford as a kid in the 1970s they would chant this Psalm just before we went out to Sunday school. So the words got buried in my head right next to the multiplication tables and the words to Abba songs.

My kids won't have this experience, because we don't do liturgy like that anymore...

But this Psalm also haunts me because it is such a disquieting and uncomfortable Psalm. It starts out as a very normal and upbeat sounding Psalm, a Psalm of praise to God. But half way, it turns into a stern warning. It is like a cute furry animal you pick up and cuddle, that then bites you so that you scream... If you hear God's voice today, you better be ready and responsive. You had better be ready for what comes, receptive to its most angular and critical parts. You had better be soft-hearted...

It was a great choice to have this Psalm in morning prayer, just as the word of God was about to read. Come, let us sing for joy to God the rock of our salvation!... but, if you hear his voice today - and let's not mistake it, you ARE hearing his voice - be ready to receive it. Don't be deaf to it...

Marva Dawn - Is it a lost cause?

Review of Is it a lost cause? - Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children

Youth culture is a mighty powerful force, nourished by advances in communications technology and global industries. As Marva J. Dawn, Lutheran theologian and teacher, points out in her book Is it a lost cause? - Having the Heart of God for the Church’s Children there is a demonic aspect to youth culture that calls for an urgent response from Christians. Her book is a passionate and compassionate plea for Christians to pass on their faith unashamedly to the next generation. Rather than giving in to the culture of instant gratification and over-information, she urges Christian families to stand firm, to reach back into the Scriptures and the best of our Christian heritage to give our young people a sure footing.

Dawn is an idiosyncratic writer (in the best sense of that term) who writes in a personal and appealing way. Her Lutheran background gives her work a refreshingly different “spin” on the issues, and her strong commitment to the truth and authority of the Scriptures is a terrific model. As a person who works with young people, I was stirred by her writing not to give in to the worst excesses of contemporary youth culture – boredom, greed, a flippant attitude to sexuality, and a sense of despair. She encourages Christians not to make corporate worship shallow and trivial in order merely to attract large numbers.

There is plenty of wisdom here, gained through tough personal experience and prolonged Bible study. Perhaps Dawn is more negative towards television and modern entertainment technology than I would be. However, her warnings and encouragements contain a good deal of worthwhile insight.