Today we discussed what is necessary for worship to be authentic
in relation to Luther's
Seven Marks of the church and adiaphora. I am
one for whom worship is really important, but I also believe that there are
many ways in which worship can be authentic. I have had many conversations with
people about traditional vs. contemporary, church building vs. another local,
but this conversation becomes even more complex as we enter into the media
world, especially with digital and social media. We joked today if only the
questions were about traditional and contemporary. If only!
As we talked I had several questions I will
continue to ponder. The one I would love to hear your thoughts on is what is
important for you in worship? What makes worship authentic for you personally?
Now, the Seven Marks of the church are
important and I would say critical, but there are also those things that we
categorize as adiaphora but are still of importance. I think those adiaphora things
are some of what make us feel like worship is authentic or not even when it may
meet all the Seven Marks. However, I think this gets interesting when we start
to think about the community and the space that is created that is allowing for
prayer, public praise, and thanksgiving to God. This is a mark of the church
but I think some of the adiaphora things help it happen at times. For instance,
we would say most of the time the church building and sanctuary are adiaphora,
but how does that maybe influence the community in worship when we look at
these two worship spaces below? Now I am not saying one is right or wrong. I
think both can allow authentic worship to happen but does the set-up make a
difference when we extend out to social media like Skype, FaceTime, LiveStreaming (Ustream), etc.
Parker
Palmer in To
Know As We Are Known: Education As A Spiritual Journey talks about
the physical arrangement of the classroom, is our worship space different. He
talks about how the set-up can invite relations to form with each other and
have an element of hospitality or this can be absent. I think this is true of
our worship spaces virtual or physical. I also think the physical set-up could
be the same in two different places and relay two different messages based on
the community.
For instance, I think you could Skype the same person into two different churches that were physically set up the same and that person could say one was authentic and the other was not. They could report that it was because one they knew the community there even though they were on the screen. They could say both were not because it is important to be physically present in the community. I have to wonder what is "public", what is the role of the community, and does physical presence matter.
If only it was the question of traditional vs. contemporary...
