A Matter of Taste?

Article by Frank Burch Brown

The cover of the August 1996 Atlantic Monthly announced a Christian cultural revolution: “Giant full-service churches are winning millions of customers with [their] pop-culture packaging. They may also be building an important new form of community.” Author Charles Trueheart described what he calls the “Next Church”: No spires. No crosses. No robes. No clerical collars. …

A Tale of Two Sundays: Liturgical Reform Gone Astray

Article by Frederick J. Parrella

Recently I was invited to preach in a middle-class United Methodist church in the San Francisco area. Our ecumenical era permits such invitations to Catholic theologians, whether lay or clerical. During the service, I was struck by the profound differences between the liturgies of Methodists and Catholics, and not simply because Catholics are high church …

Altar or Table

Article by Richard Lischer

He was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; And what that Word did make it, I do believe and take it.   The simplicity of this anonymous 16th century poem (included in The Christian Calendar [Merriam, 1975], p. 76) belies the centuries of theological warfare over the divine-human composition …

Back to the Future: Fourth-Century Style Reaches Bay Area Seekers

Article by Trudy Bush

A half hour before the Sunday morning service begins, St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco already displays the holy chaos that characterizes its worship. In the domed entrance hall a choir is practicing motets. In the rectangular “synagogue” area, where worshipers’ chairs face each other across a long raised platform, the liturgist …

Caught in the Act: Praise and Renewal in the Church

Article by Leander E. Keck

Renewing any institution requires revitalizing its core, its reason for being. Unless this core is refocused and funded afresh, renewal becomes a matter of strategy for survival. Accordingly, the churches’ renewal becomes possible only when their religious vitality is energized again by a basic reform of their worship of God. Worship enacts and proclaims a construal of Reality and …

Church Vesture as Art

Article by Erwin M. Soukup

Whether it be the garish uniforms of 18th-century European soldiers or the drab, sometimes threadbare dress of medieval monks, clothing and uniforms have always served as signs of identity. Even today, the serviceable khaki of a Boy Scout marks an individual as belonging to that organization, just as the dress of a policeman or bus …

Contemplative Worship

Article by Diana Butler Bass

For some people, Memphis, Tennessee, conjures visions of southern religion: folks hootin’ and hollerin’ about God, eternal damnation and hell; sweating preachers thundering on about sex, drinking and Democrats. Southern religion is all heat and fire, the blinding light of Jesus converting sinners to saints in a flash. This is what more reasonable Christians used …

Courage to Respond

Article by Samuel Wells

If the creed is the point in the liturgy where the congregation learns to reason theologically, it is also the place where Christians learn the virtue of courage. Over and over again in the Gospels, when people are challenged to declare whether they believe, the issue is not whether they have enough knowledge or understanding, …

Handshake Ritual

Article by Martin B. Copenhaver

Worship is over and I am standing in the door way shaking hands. In front of me is a couple I do not recall seeing before. I say, "Good morning! I’m Martin Copenhaver." By my manner and my tone of voice you might think that I am greeting long-lost friends, rather than introducing myself to …

I Smell the Cup

Article by John Howard Spahr

On the very rare occasions when I, a Presbyterian pastor, find myself in the pew as guest at another church’s communion service, I do a most inhospitable thing: I smell the cup. With an elegant circular gesture, I pass the cup beneath my nostrils to "test the bouquet." Actually, I am not checking to see …

Making the Invisible Visible: Russian Icons of the Golden Age

Article by Laurel Gasque

The Slavic principality of Kievan Rus — in what is now Soviet territory — was converted to Christianity a thousand years ago, and the celebration of that anniversary has aroused interest around the world. Quite understandably, most of that interest has focused on how the Soviet government will respond to the recognition of the Russian …

Our Apostasy in Worship

Article by James F. White

 “Apostasy” is a strong word. I do not use it lightly. But it is, I think, not too strong a term to characterize worship in many Protestant churches in this country. In worship both conservatives and liberals tend to reshape Scripture in their own images, and both consistently humanize the sacraments. One finds little difference …

PowerPointless

Article by Debra Dean Murphy

Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. –Edward Tufte   In recent years PowerPoint has become a dominant force in worshiping communities across the theological and liturgical spectrum. In churches smitten with the Microsoft wonder, its power to affect the sensibilities of worshipers and thus to shape congregational identity is almost never discussed. A tacit assumption is …

Reading Scripture Aloud

Article by Richard F. Ward

DISCIPLESHIP RESOURCE MATERIALS FOR GROWTH IN CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE P.O. Box 189 Nashville, TN 37202 Phone (615) 340-7284 [Please note: this document was scanned by computer for the Fourth Fosdick Convocation on Preaching and Worship, The Riverside Church, New York City, 1997. All apologies for any misspelled words, deleted words or formatting errors that …

Sent Out

Article by Samuel Wells

The last stage of the worship liturgy clothes the congregation in the practices of faith so that its members make the whole world a Eucharist. Making the whole world a Eucharist means bringing all the practices of worship into a regular pattern of discipleship. It means extending God’s invitation to all, bringing all to repentance …

Sing a New Song

Article by John Bell

JOHN L. BELL can’t keep from singing. When the CENTURY staff recently met with him, he even taught us a song. Bell is a member of the Wild Goose Resource Group, based in Scotland, which is devoted to helping congregations discover and create “new forms of relevant and participative worship.” A minister in the Church …

Stopping by the Pit Stop

Article by Gracia Grindal

These days one can feel twinges of guilt about insisting — especially in church, where one’s thoughts are supposed to be on higher things than wanting to throttle the preacher — that the use of language is important. It sounds dangerously elitist and stuffy. But the fight about language which is raging in the churches …

The Bread of Life for the Life of the World

Article by J. Robert Nelson

“Catholics believe that Christ is really present in the Eucharist,” said the Philadelphia TV newscaster, “but Protestants say he is only symbolically present. The half-minute notice on the August 5 evening news thus distorted and dismissed the significance of a unique theological symposium at the International Eucharistic Congress. Some 200 theologians of many denominations demonstrated …

The Practical Life of the Church Musician

Article by Paul Westermeyer

Church musicians are all too typically regarded as those who sustain the church by providing musical services. This view has them responsible for creating fellowship and good feeling in the congregation — dispensing services that keep everybody happy, entertain the troops and give everybody warm fuzzies. This job description creates two intolerable tensions. First, if …

To Animate the Body of Christ: Sarah Bentley Talks About Sacred Dance

Article by Jean Caffey Lyles

Sarah Bentley was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1980 to a ministry of teaching and dance. Having worked in the area of theology, education and dance since 1973, she is now on the teaching staff at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. Her work in congregations, conferences and workshops is part of …

Virtual Worship

Article by Mark U. Edwards, Jr.

“There is no there there,” said Gertrude Stein about Oakland, California. “There is a different there there,” say I, an Oaklandite by birth, about virtuality. “Virtual” presence differs from “real” presence in propinquity — time, place and relationship — as well as vividness and interactivity. The technology of virtual presence simulates “being there”; it holds …

Where Two or More Are Gathered: Exploring Alternative Worship Strategies

Article by Bradley Sowash

Recently, I was asked to lead a workshop on alternative worship for a statewide annual denominational gathering. The following article is a condensation of my remarks at that conference. How would it feel to participate in an extravagantly creative worship experience? Could a service be designed that mixes church tradition with original ideas? Does alternative …