Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Connection?


"At the heart of Contemporary worship is a longing to connect with God."
(pg.109)

What is this connection? If it's a relationship with God that Horness desires for his people, then he need look no further than teaching scripture. A connection with God does not lie in the style we use to bring our congregation to worship. Pragmatism and experiential focus in worship will not encourage a strong relationship with God because these are always changing. The worshiper will not know God because they won't know who the Bible says he is, they will only know who their experiences say he is. Horness makes the comment that "Hymn lyrics, while full of rich poetry and deep theology, focused wonderfully on who God is but often failed to give worshipers an opportunity to express to God how they felt about those things." So should we abandon deep theology and learning of who God is because we can't express how we feel about it? Our God is unchanging. Our feelings, however, are the complete opposite. Why should we then depend on our feelings and experiences to inform us of who God is when that could change by the minute. It is dangerous to neglect the teaching of the Bible and turn to pragmatic and experiential forms of worship so that our congregation can "connect with God" because it encourages the worshiper to rely on their feelings to inform them of who God is rather than on the Bible.
Maybe I am taking Horness's ideas a little to the extreme, but his explanation was overflowing with pragmatism and the experiential and I couldn't ignore it. Thoughts?

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