A few thoughts from Bob Rognlien (Experiential Worship: Encountering God with Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength):
All Christians have a view of corporate worship that is shaped by personality, experience, and historical emphases. Our presuppositions about the way worship “should be” are largely the results of how we have experienced God in the past. The beauty of this is that God works uniquely in the life of every person on the planet -we each have our own story with God! And in the broader sense, each worship tradition has its own story, its own function in the history of Christianity. However, the tragedy of these presuppositions is that they lead us to institutionalize and systematize that particular aspect of the worship experience. We determine that this is the way worship is “supposed to be,” and we ignore or reject other approaches. Even if this is not openly expressed, we all have our quiet bias and subtle pride that not only devalues other traditions but also keeps us from experiencing the full power of holistic biblical worship.
6 Responses to “Experiential Worship”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:54 am
There is no doubt that we all have our personal preferences when it comes to the worship that occurs on Sundays when the church family is together. The danger is when I imposed my personal preferences on the corporate worship of the church or, which probably occurs more often, I allow my attitude and my worship to be affected by what does or doesn’t occur in worship with respect to my preferences.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
after making such a statement ( i won’t say it is obvious ) my next question is how do we find worship that is both experienced personally and shared in the collective? which leads me to (and holds hands with)—how are the decisions made in a family collective?
May 12th, 2008 at 2:20 pm
I agree with Cecil … he should never impose his personal preference on me!
May 12th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
That quote intrigued me so much that I immediately went to Amazon.com to place my order, but I thought I would ask first if you would recommend the book.
What say you, Dr. W? A worthy read?
May 12th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
My first reaction to the comment was of agreement. My second reaction, as Leslie brought to our attention, was if I’m the one that gets to choose.
Peggy, give me a few days and I will let you know.
May 13th, 2008 at 6:08 am
At our church only a few (most of the time me) gets to decide what we “do” in worship. However, I don’t control the thought processes of others. They do that for themselves. I’m constantly trying to think about all of the people in the chairs and trying to see how I can help them go before God’s throne in worship to encourage a greater relationship with Him. I must confess though that my personality is many times shaping worship and my “new to me” views on worship sneak in constantly. This is a tough thing to do and most people in the pews don’t know how hard it is.