Exploring Contemporary and Alternative Worship
2004 New York, New York
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2004
Eileen D. Crowley (adjunct faculty at Drew University and is involved with worship, theology, and the arts)
Seminar Participants 2004
Seminar members: Charles “Chip” Andrus, Eileen D. Crowley, Todd E. Johnson, S. Peter Kim, Ruth Meyers, Lester Ruth, Clayton “Clay” J. Schmit, Rebecca J. Slough, Karen M. Ward
Visitors: Kevin Anderson, Margaret Brady, Brenda J. Grauer, Ronald A. Rienstra, Carl “Chip” Stam
Seminar Report 2004
Seminar members brought each other up to date on developments in contemporary and alternative worship in their denominations, geographic areas, their own congregations, and their seminary chapel services and music and worship courses. To help members reflect upon this evolving landscape in its historical context since the 1950s, Todd Johnson led the group in an opening discussion of Robb Redman’s The Great Worship Awakening. A later discussion revolved around the taxonomy proposed by Lester Ruth for the classification of Protestant worship in his essay, “A Rose By Any Other Name … “
Updates from the field
Kevin Anderson reported on an ELCA adaptation of the interactive, multi-stational Thomas Mass, an experimental Finnish service “for Doubters and Other Good Christians,” for their 2003 churchwide assembly. Chip Anderson spoke of the variety of worship services (including a version of the Thomas Mass) and workshops offered during the PCUSA’s 2003 Emerging Worship in Congregations and Families. Ron Rienstra noted the evolving use of media in Calvin College worship services. Ruth Meyers indicated progress in her continuing research on emerging worship in Episcopal churches.
Rebecca Slough noted reform efforts within Mennonite worship, the influence of praise and worship services upon their traditional worship, and her efforts to focus seminarians on basic questions of worship related to liturgical actions. Chip Stam described courses he has designed to introduce seminarians at his Baptist seminary to post-modern issues about Christian music and worship in relationship to contemporary culture. He helps students differentiate between “life-style worship” and “worship of the gathered assembly of God in local churches” that is “centered on the glory of God.”
S. Peter Kim presented a summary of trends in emerging Protestant sermon-centered worship in Korea, including a case study of the 10,000-member, two-location Onnuri Church. Every Sunday offering three to four different worship options (in music, flexibility, targeted age groups), the church broadcasts simultaneously into each service setting the senior pastor’s sermon.
Karen Ward, pastor of a one-year-old Lutheran-Episcopal church plant in Seattle, described the alternative worship created by members of her Church of the Apostles in collaboration with area artists. She offered examples: a multi-space installation model of worship in which video, installation, and other artists’ work proclaimed the readings traditional to the Easter vigil; a multimedia labyrinth for a Lenten service; weekly gatherings at their living room that feature an internet bar and tea bar; a mural created by street artists for their All Saints Day worship; the on-going diverse contributions of graphic artists, video DJs, and video artists in creating multisensory worship for young adults in alternative spaces, such as warehouses, former grocery stores, and studio spaces.
Presentations
Margaret Brady offered a “Preliminary Report on the Use of Contemporary Congregational Music in Graduate Sacred Music Programs,” a follow-up to her previous research regarding undergraduate programs. She noted decreasing program and enrollment trends, curriculum changes, concerns for the future, the process of acceptance of new music styles into the music academy, and barriers in the academy and churches to the inclusion of contemporary congregational music written in popular music styles. She raised questions about alternative training programs for worship arts leadership and about how educators of future music ministers, worship leaders, and worship arts leaders should “respond to changes and developments in emerging worship.”
Brenda Grauer, a textile artist who heads one of the largest fabric art studios in the U.S., demonstrated, “A Visual/Experiential Methodology for Theological Reflection and Liturgical Formulation.” The methodology “utilizes the language and attributes of the visual arts” to guide reflection that will lead to the creation of rituals “consistent with communication patterns found in current postmodern culture."