porary? Isn’t all worship done in the present, making it contemporary by definition? I’m not sure “blended” is any better. Let’s just agree to call it “worship.” My favorite experiences of wor-
change in theology or style, but in the way they process experiences. For example, millennials prefer
images to text. They appreciate flex- ibility in worship spaces and in tech- nology. They’ve reclaimed the value of experiencing worship with the whole self instead of being satisfied merely with a cognitive understanding of God. They propose that God wants us to be whole in body, mind and spirit, and they want to use that reality in worship. Crazy, right?
Schmit: Not crazy. But it does give people of my generation, or my par- ents’ generation, pause as we try to find ways to accommodate the cul- tural shift you mention. Is there any common ground millennials (if we dare generalize about their tastes and attitudes) find with people of other generations?
Isn’t all worship done in the present,
making it contemporary by definition?
Rimbo: Yes, the cultural preferences are merely the outward trappings for what is being sought in wor- ship. There’s something unchanging beneath that is really what millenni- als are after. They want to be part of a healthy, sacred community. They want to serve their neighbors. They want to be known by God and each other.
Schmit:What parts of our Lutheran worship heritage do you hold onto? What is at the core?
Rimbo: Word and sacrament. All else—hymns, prayers, projectors— are tools to make those happen. And we don’t want to make those
Author bio:
Schmit is the provost of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary/Lenoir- Rhyne University,Columbia, S.C. Rimbo is a student at the seminary and a worship consultant.
tools the object of our worship. Con- gregations often use those things to build walls between “styles” of wor- ship, and that’s when we start dis- tancing ourselves from those who attend traditional services. Worrying about worship style is a red herring. Style is beside the point. We’re past the point where words like “tradi- tional” or “contemporary” are useful in describing our modes of worship. What kind of worship is not contem-
ship are ones where I can be sent out without knowing what style of wor- ship it was. And “style” isn’t the right word either …. You’ve used the word “idiom” before as a better option.
Schmit: I use the term idiom because style suggests something can be “in style” or “my style.” That immedi- ately drives the conversation off the rails. We may employ different idi- oms of music in worship, but we do so within familiar frameworks. My hope would be that worship,
especially within a shared tradition like we have as Lutherans, would always have both a familiar quality and that it be filled with creativity, employing the tremendous spiritual gifts of the artists that God places within our communities of gathering. When we enrich worship, rather than seek to change it to something unfa- miliar, we have the capacity to make worship come alive in fresh ways, even if we use well-known formats. We should seek both constancy and
diversity in worship. It can always be familiar or traditional, yet also filled with newness and innovation. What would you like to leave the
readers with?
Rimbo: How about “be not afraid”? We might be afraid of change, or of losing our Lutheran identity, or organ music, or drums, but as some- one who’s spent a lot of time observ- ing what’s happening in the Lutheran camps and elsewhere, it’s an exciting time to worship together.
April 2015 15
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