Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Navigating Worship Wars

I was in a service Sunday morning that left a smile on my face.  It was a service of mostly older people with a size in the low 100s.  It started with some choruses on a PowerPoint and one player on a synthesizer with piano-ish sound.  The pastor led.

Then there was prayer.

After prayer we entered phase two.  A new song leader came forward to lead hymns and a new cadre of musicians--a new pianist and now an organist.

I know this is old stuff for most of you.  You've been through this years ago and made adjustments of this sort.  I just smiled, though.  I pictured the conflicts that led up to this common sense compromise: making sure everyone gets to play at some point, making sure everyone gets to lead at some point, satisfying those who don't like "contemporary" music (in this case, choruses ;-) while trying to hold on to some (relatively) younger people.

I thought it was brilliant.  Everyone bent a little bit, everyone can live with the solution.  I'm sure you have stories!

1 comment:

FrGregACCA said...

A common joke in Roman Catholic and Anglican circles:

Q: What's the difference between a liturgist and a terrorist?

A: You can negotiate with a terrorist.