Thread by @gpackiam

This is a quick THREAD for people who think “modern worship” or “American evangelicalism” or megachurches are all show and entertainment to “attract” shallow consumer Christians:

1. A few big churches grab headlines for head-scratching gimmicky approaches to Sunday mornings. But don’t be fooled. Never universalize from the particular; particularize from the universal.

2. Modern worship has two root systems: one that grew out of evangelistic impulses and whose MO is “do what it takes to reach the world”; the other grew out of Pentecostal-Charismatic convictions that God inhabits the praises of His people.

3. Churches with modern worship geared toward encountering God— Hillsong, Bethel, Elevation, etc— are not driven by entertainment but PRESENCE. They see themselves as employing the arts w excellence in the same spirit as the artisans in the OT. And the glory fills the temple.

4. Cathedrals & choirs are not any less culturally entrenched than rock music and LED screens. It’s just a culture that is older, but that doesn’t make it more sacred. There are no culturally neautral forms, no “sound of heaven” or “spiritual music”; it is always incarnated.

5. The work of discerning the formative impact of a particular inculturation of worship is difficult and nuances. No generalizations— like “modern worship” or “megachurches” or “attractional services”— will do. Deal with particularities not generalities. (See point # 1)

Footnote: For help reflecting on this, don’t just read biblical theologies of worship, or about historical worship practices, or even the philosophical stuff about the formational power of worship. Read sociologists who do congregational studies & inter-disciplinary theology.

And...at the risk of getting ahead of things...but in the effort to end this thread for now...here are two excerpts from the draft of my 2020 academic book (@ivpacademic) distilling my work on eschatology#
/hope as it is expressed & experienced in worship songs & services:

On this, see @jl_ruth’s work, “Lovin’ on Jesus” and his forthcoming longer history.