What is Church?
November 9, 2011
Worship?
Drama Special?
Video via
Song Special?
Video via
Pictures and Video Via
Men’s Conference Promo?
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There is an argument that can/is made for these sort of Sunday mornings–Paul said, “I have become all things to all people.” “We’re speaking to people in culturally relevant terms!”–but I wonder…
What is church? Is it slick worship? Is it dramas and specials? Is it theme weeks with well and not-so-well produced songs and skits?
What is church? Does the Bible–which apparently, this whole shebang is supposed to be based on–have anything to say about ‘church’. Is spending a lot of money and resources on the above appropriate?
I leave my thoughts to myself–for once!–leave me yours in the comments.
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Church is a community, not a performance.
I can’t give an opinion since all my mental faculties are currently trying in vain to deal with the fact that there was a giant shark at the men’s conference stage. Why did they have a giant shark on the men’s conference stage? No, really.
At least they didn’t have a giant Milton Bradley Game of Life set, Strawberry Shortcake tap-dancing, and a Mime doing whatever Mimes do while a “preacher” in a bad lobster fursuit ranted “Come Together” by the Beatles in the style of William Shatner’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.
“HE SAY! ONE! AND ONE! AND ONE! MAKE THREE!!!
HOLD YOU IN HIS ARMS! AND YOU CAN FEEL HIS — DISEASE!!!
COME TOGETHER!!! RIGHT NOW!!! OVER ME!!!”
I am NOT making that up. The official video was up here on Scotteriology a year or two ago.
HUG,you reeally need to start your own blog. i scour the internet in search of your comments
Church seems to be a place where you leave your brain outside the door.
Nah, that’s Capitol Hill.
Please excuse me, I have to go seek forgiveness for hoping Ed Young’s Gulfstream crashes.
When I watch those sorts of promos – especially the last video – it’s interesting to what extent they basically consist of of a reveling in some kind of theology of glory.
Sure it’s stirring when a whole bunch of men sing hymns – thousands of deep voices and all that – but is it particularly spiritual?
In Fox News America it’s a propaganda exercise
“What is Church?”
All I know for sure is ALL these video clips are PAINFUL.
well, I’m an Episcopalian, so to me sacraments and liturgy are critical. I believe that to be so because they lead us into a liminal state – the here and the Holy come close together. The problem IMHO with all that showmanship stuff is that it is performance art (questionable re: ‘art’), and thus it’s all about the show, not God. The purpose of liturgy is to take ‘me’ out of the center and put God in there…
I’ve noticed that Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and mainline Protestant churches aren’t usually the ones that do stuff like this; it’s a phenomenon of the far-right-associated fundamentalist-type churches as a general rule. The fact that these churches pull stunts like this to claim ‘cultural relevance’ in spite of some of the medieval/anti-intellectual dogmas they espouse is, in my view, disconcertingly ironic. But perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising. It’s easier to get someone to believe what you tell him when he’s in a feverishly emotional state than when he isn’t (case in point: the crazy worship video). Who knows? Maybe stuff like this is actually necessary to generate a megachurch-size following.
“Cultural Relevance”?
Nothing gets Old-Fashioned faster than Over-Relevance.
Except Pretentious Over-Relevance.
It’s easier to get someone to believe what you tell him when he’s in a feverishly emotional state than when he isn’t (case in point: the crazy worship video).
Invoking Godwin’s Law, but a certain A. Hitler was a master at working an audience this exact way. Foreign witnesses described the Nuremberg Rallies as “Giant Revival Meetings”.
And other than Godwin’s Law, it DOES beg the question and illustrate the danger of such “crazy worship”. Just where and when do highly-emotional Worship Videos shade into Nuremberg Rallies, where the REAL object of worship becomes the Worship/Event Leader ranting from the pulpit and/or whatever Cosmic-level Agenda he’s pushing?
That is a horrible guitar solo in the first clip.