Deep church continues to fascinate me as a counter-balance to both emergent and extremes of christian practice. Ian Stackhouse contributed a good essay which has made me think about conversations over the last week about the relationship between experience, personal biography, the traditions and beliefs of the historical church and the Bible.
Stackhouse writes provocatively... once you detach from the notion of mediation through the Word and the sacraments, for the sake of freedom in the Spirit, you end up with something akin to Gnosticism. In essence our religion ends up being more to do with personal light than about divine revelation. ... as a pastor I know that many of my congregation arrive on a Sunday in various states of disrepair, and to serve up, week after week, a diet of unreflective, unmediated, ahistorical worship is not only uncaring, it is also un-Christian.
Yes this is polemical and provocative but he is, I believe, right. I have seen people lead worship as if they were performing in a local bar or coffeehouse; friendly warm and chatty. Yes I have said that the musicianship should be at this level but worship is a ministry, a spiritual activity which should point to and eventually address God. I have been present where leaders share their life anxieties and share their experience of God, but what is delivered is very I-centred message to the people rather than an us-oriented to God time.
As someone wrestling right in the centre of the postmodern debate, the human-divine relationship is very important but it is all about God-centred human experience rather than me. A key question is Do structures, whatever they are, serve God or people? Where is the transcendent experience or relationship?
Furthermore is spontaneous and free more spiritual than prepared and intentional structure? Of course not, if God is the focus and not human needs and desires. Why then do people behave as if spontaneous was better. Furthermore I am befuddled by people's language. I often listen for words like " I will", "I want", or "I need" when the focus ought to be God. Traditionally the leader in public worship is there in two roles, prophet and priest, to speak God's words to the people and to speak to God for the people. How is the person out front to avoid merely their own words?
My thoughts are that the Bible as inspired by and illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and preserved over history is a prerequisite to good worship, perhaps I should say authentic worship! The Bible should inform and shape what happens within the framework of serious intentional reflection. The loss of the Bible from its central role, the Lord's prayer and creedal statements of faith have moved things further into personal light and perhaps a form of gnosticism. And Oh yes gnosticism is bad because it leads to exclusivism and elitism.
Say to those who prophesy out of their own imagination: 'Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! Ezekiel 13:2-3
