Worship

As I was sitting in worship on Sunday, a thought occured to me. Well, several thoughts occured to me... I thought about worship and what makes it spiritual for people. Two weeks ago (I guess it's almost three at this point) we had a different kind of worship service here at Lord of Life. The band responsible for the once a month worship service for our mid school youth "took over" and executed the worship services that Sunday. In addition to the music being more 'contemporary', there was a drama in place of the sermon. We still did the offering and communion, but things looked and felt very different. We asked for feedback from the congregation and received it from many - some liked it and some didn't. Some wanted to see it every Sunday, some said, "Let me know the next time you do this so I can stay home that day." A lot of people were somewhere in between.

With all this 'contemporary' v. 'traditional' stuff going on as far as worship is concerned, I began to think about what we grow up with and what emotions we associate with certain types of music, worship styles, prayers, etc....

I personally like the liturgy. I like the organ. I like the LBW services. I like the extra touch the brass adds on Easter or other festival services. I like all that.

Now, I also like more contemporary stuff, more melodic stuff. I don't like too much praise music because I want more depth, but some praise music is good. I could do worship with a band - complete with guitars and drums and the like. I like both.

For my age, I think I'm a bit odd for liking some of the more traditional stuff. But I also think about why I like that. I also think a bit about Pavlov's dogs (you know... when food was brought out after a bell was sounded for some time eventually the dogs started to salavate simply when the bell was sounded because they had been conditioned that the sound of the bell meant food was on its way). I think for me (and for many of us out there), we feel something spiritual when we worship with the traditional liturgy. We've been conditioned that we felt something special, something spiritual, when that music was played. Thus, every time we worship, we want that feeling back, we expect it to return if we hear LBW setting one or whatever it was that was played at that time. We're a lot like Pavlov's dogs I think.

But maybe for some of us that particular liturgy evokes feelings of hate and disgust. Hatred for our parents making us sit through that service or having to listen to the really boring sermon that day. Bad memories and therefore bad feelings associated with worship.

I have to wonder if that's why there are such divisions between people (particularly of different generations) when it comes to the type of music used in worship (or even the format). If this is the case, if we are just like Pavlov's dogs, then is there a way of 'reconditioning' people so that there is a spiritual experience with a new type of worship experience? Is there a way of bridging the gap? Of making something that wasn't appealing before now something that wouldn't be missed now? Does any of this make any sense to anyone other than me?

I don't know - this is apparently what I thought about on Sunday (and have a few times since then). Are we conditioned at an early age to like a particular style of worship? Is how we are raised of significance to our adult experience of worship? What do we do with this now?

All something to chew on....

Kate