I want to begin with these two foundational principles:"Experiencing God in Worship"Sermon Transcript for June 6, 2000
By Rev. Mike BeckScripture Reading: Luke 5:33-39 & I Cor. 9:22
1. The gospel we proclaim is unchanging. Our message is timeless. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
2. The need for worship is ingrained within our very being. Without times of worship, our lives are incomplete. And as we mentioned earlier, the goal of worship is to praise God and to experience His presence among us.
But "how" we worship will constantly be in a state of change. I often hear this phrase, "I like to sing the old hymns." But, I would come back with this question, "How old? The hymns of the 1930's, the hymns of the 18th century, or the hymns of the church in the 14th century?" We, who are Methodist, love to sing Charles Wesley’s great hymns. But do we realize Charles Wesley was criticized severely by the Anglican Church of his day who said, "Your music, Charles, is not acceptable within our sanctuaries." People are always surprised to discover that a great hymn of faith we love to sing, "A Mighty Fortress is our God", the author of that hymn heard it in a German beer garden, the tune. It was the tune to a college fight song. He liked the tune and put the words "A Mighty Fortress is our God" to the tune.
So we have to be very careful when we use terms like "traditional" and "contemporary" in talking about worship. For each of those words can be defined in a wide variety of ways. Acknowledging that, though it is nevertheless reasonably safe to say that traditional worship has been and will continue to be a mainstay within Grace United Methodist Church.
And here’s how I would define "traditional" worship at Grace. Our preference is to sing hymns with pipe organ accompaniment. We like a reasonable degree of liturgy. Things like the Gloria Patrai, responsive readings, the Doxology, or saying each week the Lord’s Prayer. Persons prefer their pastor to wear his or her robe. When I wear my robe at 11:00 o’clock, which is seldom, I will invariably have people say, "Oh, Reverend Mike, we love to see you in a robe." Well, they are persons with a long history of the church who understand what a robe is. But, to part of the people we feel called by God to reach, the only connection they have with a robe is a judge. And that doesn’t usher up real positive feelings. So, I’ll wear my robe most every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. and seldom wear it at 11:00 a.m. And, traditional worship here at Grace, I think, means that central to the worship is the sermon. In fact, if I want to be criticized just let me plan a worship service without a sermon. And people say, "Oh, I enjoy the music but I miss not having a sermon." And a sermon here at Grace is primarily for the purpose of information and explanation.
Now hear me carefully - "read my lips". Traditional worship will continue to be a mainstay within the life of Grace Church. The 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. services remain unchanged. A little bit of background. We tried for a period of about a year to blend elements of traditional and contemporary and have all of our services the same. And here’s what happened. Persons who preferred traditional worship were fearful of losing the way in which they connect with God; and we also became aware we couldn’t take that service far enough in a contemporary vein to reach a new element of people. So after now almost a year of study and dialogue we have developed the current plan which begins next week. Traditional worship at 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Contemporary worship at 11:00 a.m.
Those are not decisions we’ve arrived at on our own. This piece of paper guides us in all our decisions. It contains our Mission Statement, but beneath it are twelve principles that guide our decisions. And I want you to hear these three that relate to this decision.
Principle #2 Worship should be culturally relevant while remaining Biblically sound.
Principle #3 The church exists to minister to the needs of our congregation,--but then there’s a very important conjunction,--and, to reach out to persons who are not yet a part of our fellowship.
Principle #4 We are sensitive to the needs of seekers in all of our activities and decisions. That’s why I made the comments I made about the opening hymn this morning, which, if you are trying to communicate the gospel, is not a seeker-sensitive hymn.
To achieve these objectives, we felt we needed to add a more contemporary service. We’ve had a lot of phone calls in the last year that go like this, first question, "What is the time of your worship services?" To which we reply, "8:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m." But often there would be a second question, "Which of those services is your more contemporary service?" And to this we have to reply, "Well, they’re all the same."
And here I need to say a sincerest thanks that I can make to a group of persons who for years have come to worship here at Grace Church at 11:00 a.m. and who experience God most fully in traditional worship. Those persons are making some sacrifices. They now will need to come for a worship that speaks to them at an earlier hour. And I sincerely say, "Thanks" for their willingness to do that.
Why a different style of worship? That’s an honest question. I want to begin answering that by saying that what we are seeking to do is not unique with us. This is the church page of the Indianapolis Star yesterday.
Barnes United Methodist Church, which we have entered in to a covenant relationship with, traditional worship - 8:15 a.m., contemporary worship - 10:45 a.m. Zionsville United Methodist--people worship there on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. - that’s a contemporary service. You can worship there on Sunday at 8:15 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Those are traditional services. You can worship there at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning - that’s contemporary. Or you can come to their Youth Contemporary Service Sunday evening at 7:00 p.m. You’ve got a lot of options. Southport United Methodist--Dad was up there for a Missions Conference recently. Contemporary service at 8:30 a.m. He said, "Boy, I couldn’t connect with that service at all. But the place was packed with young people and you could sense the energy present within that sanctuary." Traditional worship at 11:00 a.m. Turning to the Presbyterian churches. Up the road here, Southport Presbyterian - 8:00 a.m. traditional and informal, 9:30 a.m. traditional, 11:00 a.m. contemporary. Here’s the one I really like, First Meridian Heights Presbyterian Church, celebrate God’s love with rock at 9:30 a.m. or with Bach classical service at 10:45 a.m.
All we are doing is trying to be sensitive to the culture of our day. In simplistic terms the culture could be defined with these terms. We live in a post-modern culture. Science alone hasn’t been able to answer all the people’s questions. There is a hunger for spirituality. But we live in an age in which many people don’t want an "explanation" of God, they want an "experience" of God. We live in a post-Christian era like we’ve never lived in before. You can not assume that even people sitting in the pews know who Abraham or Moses were. We also live in a post-literate era. Now hear me carefully. Post-literate meaning that many people gain most of their information about the world in ways other than the printed page. I won’t ask for a show of hands, but it would be interesting how few hands would be raised. How many of you have read a book within the last two months? Today, we hear people say, not "I read", but "I saw". In fact as I was watching the weather last night, can you imagine watching the weather on TV and only have the weather person describe the weather audibly without the sunshine and the rain pictures and the weather maps? We live in a multi-sensory age. And we might want our world to be different than it is, but we must deal, not with the world we would like to have, but with the world that is.
Let’s start through our scripture for today. And as I was looking at this parable of the wine skins a new insight came to me. Jesus’ parable in no way teaches that the old wine is bad. In fact Jesus acknowledges that persons who have drunk from the richness of the old wine, won’t want the new! But the parable also teaches that there will be an ongoing need for "new wine"; and you got big problems, if you try to put new wine into old wine skins. The Apostle Paul in the past history we have read this, who was steeped in his Jewish traditions, nevertheless says he is willing to "become all things to all men". Why? "So that he might win some." So what we are doing, friends, is solidly Biblical. The message of God’s love has always been communicated in the context of the culture of the day.
There will be three basic areas of difference in the services. The first will be in the way of music. We’ll sing the choruses periodically at 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. but predominately we will use hymns and our hymnal. And at 11:00 a.m. we will sing hymns periodically but will predominately sing choruses and the hymn books remain in the racks and the words will be up there.
Complimenting the sermon--the sermon will be the same in all three services. But at 11:00 a.m. the sermon will be enhanced with other forms of communication--a mini-drama, a lay witness, a video clip from a movie that helps to drive home the point of the message. The basic area of difference will be the use of the projection screen and the addition of visual imagery. Please hear me carefully, not for the purpose of entertainment, but for enhanced communication. Remember we said we live in a post-literate age which doesn’t primarily learn by "I read" or "I heard", but learned by "I saw". In fact writers on the church today are saying this, "The video screen in churches today is perhaps the new stained-glass window of our day". Now think through that. When stained-glass windows were originally put in churches they were not primarily for beauty. Those people who attended those churches couldn’t read. So what were the purpose of the stained-glass window? There were the pictures that told the story of God’s love being known in Jesus Christ.
To persons who experience God best through traditional worship, that’s probably the majority of you, hear me carefully, things I just mentioned are often a distraction. So, for that reason, they will be used very sparingly at 8:30 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. There will be a projection screen behind that screen. It goes up this week. Most of the time at 9:30 a.m. you’ll never see it. It will be covered just as it is covered today. For those persons who experience God best in traditional ways, that becomes a distraction. But to other persons, those changes open up powerful opportunities for communicating the good news of Jesus Christ. So our approach is not "either-or", it is "both-and" for the purpose that persons can come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Hear these comments in closing. These different styles of worship will not be defined by age. As we visited other churches with contemporary services, we were amazed at the number of senior adults that were present. We will have younger adults who experience God best in traditional worship and will come at 8:30 a.m. or 9:30 a.m.
Secondly, neither form is "superior" or "correct" or "more important" than the other. The goal is to help persons connect with God so that their lives can be transformed by Jesus Christ. What we are seeking to do holds firmly and solidly to a rich and wonderful tradition. But it also opens wonderful new doors of opportunity to reach unchurched persons around us.
Would you pray with me. "Oh Lord, we do stand at a crossroads. We may look back years from now and see that you met this step of faith in powerful and exciting ways for our church. Give us, oh Lord, the burden for the persons who have not yet come to know Christ. Increase our faith, Lord, for this is a big step that we are taking. Help us, Lord, to deal with our fears for they are real. And help all of us, Lord, whether we experience you best in traditional or new ways, to pray for our church and for its leaders as we undertake this expansion of our ministry. Hear our prayer, oh Lord, in Christ’s name. Amen."
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