Christian worship is in trouble. Internet resources are promoting innovative ways to ensure exemplary corporate worship. But pick a church, attend Lord’s Day worship, and more than likely you will discover that authentic Christian worship is in real trouble. This is not to say people won’t be meeting at the church down the street into the foreseeable future. They will. But ask what they are doing when they meet and how important authentic Christian worship is to them, and you begin to see the problem. Ask what they plan to be doing in their worship one year, one decade, or one generation from now, and the problem is magnified.
We are worship leaders. How much do we care what the people in our congregations think they are doing in worship? How much do we care how they will be worshiping one year, one decade, or one generation after we are gone? How are we preparing the church we lead today to be a worshiping church in the future? Here are ten of our greatest challenges.
10 Current Challenges to Authentic Christian Worship
Challenge 10: Worship Style
“Something’s not right—let’s do something different.”
Addressed first because of its long-term insignificance is the challenge of worship style. Skirmishes between pew-bound groupies cheering for bands versus choirs are only emblematic of larger and more serious problems. In the vast majority of congregations, style should be the last issue worship leaders address. By the end of this article, worship style may seem a moot point.
- What issues of worship is “style” masking in your congregation?
Challenge 9: Penta-generational Congregations
People are living longer and the world is changing faster than ever before. An average congregation may have five different generations of people representing at least five differing worldviews attempting to worship together. The magnitude of this challenge can be seen in “Through Prism of Tragedy Generations Are Defined” by William Strauss and Neil Howe (Christian Science Monitor, Sept. 23, 2002). Why are we surprised when authentic Christian worship that works for one segment of the congregation alienates another?
- How many generations/worldviews can you identify in your congregation?
Challenge 8: Cultural Expectations
“I thought you were supposed to wear black!”
When secular people notice the church at all, they often have stereotypes. From the dust that flies out of the Bible in the newest Oxy-clean commercial to the enchanted world of Father Tim’s Mitford in Jan Karon’s novels, caricatures of the church permeate the culture (and these are just the friendly ones!). As early as 1995, Douglas Webster wrote, “Cultural forces shape our identity; arts and education for mainline Protestants and the marketplace for evangelicalism. We have become secularized by the culture we are trying to reach with the gospel” (“Evangelizing the Church,” Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World, Timothy Phillips and Dennis Okholm, eds., InterVarsity Press, p. 195).
- What elements in your worship could be seen as a caricature of authentic praise?
