God-With-Us...practically speaking

There has been much great conversation lately around crafting worship responses that are honest, beautiful, and far more connected with the experience of God to be found in the day-to-day holy. This is a big paradigm shift for us culturally. Perhaps the biggest challenge inside of this new framework is that our old systems and practices don't work in the quite the same way. It may suddenly feel like an awkward fit to just grab hold of whatever is the newest and most "sophisticated" trend rotating through the worship circles. It may start to feel curiously uncomfortable to measure our climactic moments at the end of the worship time by those same insider-cultural standards.

This is all much easier to talk and theorize about than to put into practice. Not to mention, don't we all think we're crafting honest and soul-kissed worship? And yet, how many of us still operate inside the old structures, the limiting definitions? Truthfully, there's an appealing safety to stay inside the "contemporary" paradigm. Man, I get that. What I find myself wrestling with as a worship leader could be summed up in this fascinating quote by Don Marquis: "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you." Substitute worship for thinking and I think you've captured the essential struggle of the progressive (and honest) worship leader.

But it's great to sit around and conjecture all day. Easier to talk about earthy worship than to find our own community voice inside that free place. I'm the greatest culprit some days, no doubt. It's also much, much easier to deconstruct the old-new ways than it is to stumble hope-fully into that place that speaks to our God-encounters as an ecclesia. No doubt there is some benefit to this...we need to take the thing apart to realize that creative means "full of soul", not necessarily "has never been done before." We need to do some demolition to uncover the beautiful intention of imago-dei-reflected craftsmanship and cultural offering buried in the foundations of our sometimes glossy and slick cathedrals. We need to throw out the piles of contemporary worship culture language and expectation to re-discover that "authentic" or "organic" doesn't have to mean mediocre or sub-par amateurish nor does "excellent" have to mean presentation driven or pop-culture inspired. But where does this leave us? Is standing on a demolition heap the most powerful and productive place for us as priests and artists?

Of course, part of where that leaves us is in a stage of discovery and recreation. It leaves us in a place of necessary self-confrontation and artistic re-evaluation. It leaves us creating a new and common language. What a rich and exhausting place to be!

We've all figured out, or are figuring out, that there is no "right" answer, no formula, no trendy new worship practices book, no pop culture rip off to give us the map. We can't look to others for what works since we are different people in different parts of the world where God is doing different things. We have discovered that it is time to shed our adolescent copy-cat self as a worshiping body and live inside the new, mature skin of our identities as Gatherings - unique, resplendent, alive.

So, yes it's true that there's no "formula" but there are some resources to share. Here are a few thoughts as we all keep journeying forward:

Spiritual Formation is our intentional or spontaneous experience of God; Worship is the life-infused blessing and affirmation of God-With-Us. Call me a repeat artist...I can't say this enough. We short change ourselves and God when we think that our Sunday gathering is intended for us to experience God. For our worship to be a truly God-centered soul-offering, it starts with our experiences of God throughout the week. This happens intentionally - through spiritual direction, through the Book of Common Prayer, the Hours, the Rosary. It happens intentionally in biblical study, in journaling the psalms, in religious reading, in centering prayer, meditation, painting our prayers. These "disciplines," these ancient rites get us out of our own heads for the sake of encountering God and learning to listen in the deepest parts. Of course, this is not the end; it's really only the beginning. Then we experience God much more freely in the unintentional but still profoundly sacred: listening to Brazilian folk music, standing before a Rothko, truly seeing a friend, or being seen, the hot value meal handed to the homeless man and then staying to hear his story, the perfect red wine, your child's first art project, touch, feel, smell, sight, sound, taste, experience. Where life, truth, soul, beauty (disturbing or pacifying) intersect, God is with us. Without these moments, we come to worship with no signposts or windows. We lose sight of the God we profess to serve, worship, and bless. Our journey begins with experiencing God through intentional and spontaneous spiritual formation.

Bringing our stories into worship is an art form we must refine. In the old practices, this may have taken form as a sharing service or a personal testimony. In the old-new practice, this may have been a video story or an off camera interview. In the advent-new, this will have more artistic overtones. Not just because art is "cool" or creative but because art gives us a common voice. It makes humanity much more human. Think of it as the absolute, perfect collage of experience and story. Narrative, image, song, dance, poetry, video..all these things serve to speak a common language and make our stories much more universal. As we hear stories throughout the week (and as worship leaders we should be avid story-hunters) it subtly shapes our art-offerings into something that tells the story without having to concretely lay down the facts and or give the Lassie-came-home ending. If a sobered addict gets up and recounts their "testimony" it can move a certain demographic to affirm God-With-Us...probably those people that are themselves former addicts, struggling addicts, or have a friend or family member who is an addict. If a sobered addict writes a poetry piece - a beautiful and artistic piece - based on her own personal narrative, suddenly it becomes worship art and sacred offering. Suddenly it becomes accessible to the Church universal because we all can relate to her story somehow - to the darkness and light, to the images and metaphors that will inevitably shape her narrative. And the honesty inherent in good art is refreshing to all of us. This is the new language of story.

Finding the great poets of soul will unconsciously make us better liturgists. Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, Rumi, St. Catherine of Sienna, Robert Frost, Octavio Paz...these are the Fathers and Mothers of our contemporary liturgy, our collective voice. It's truly an impossible task to read these great poets and not feel as if you have been transported to a sacred space. As we renew the ancient, we can start to unearth the deep and mystic rhythm of the spoken word. Liturgy, psalms, words of institution...these things are poetry in the truest sense. In fact, as we continue to be shaped by the God-With-Us, it won't be surprising to hear the voices of these great thinkers making their way into our worship gatherings as liturgy, as prayer, as blessing.

These are three practices. Just that. Practices. They will undoubtedly produce something in you, but what that will be is beautifully unknown and will be utterly unique to you and to your community.

Where is the Advent-new making itself known to you? In this season of birth and rebirth, expectation and disappointment, where is God beckoning and inviting you to experience? Where do you hear the common human voice speaking in the language of the soul and of God-encounters? These are the windows into life that will move us from being song leaders and planners into our truer identity as priests and artists.

May the God who speaks through angels, through children, through donkeys, through trees, speak to you throughout the week. May your soul live in the breathless tension of what-is and what-could-be. Through Jesus Christ.


Jodi Adams is a teacher, author, and visionary for community worship. She serves as a teaching pastor and worship pastor at an urban church.

Passionate about empowering artists and leaders to take their congregations beyond the culture box, Jodi is a contributor to CTI's FaithVisuals.com and GiftedforLeadership.com and speaks regularly on the convergence of cultural issues and worship.

Jodi is currently completing her M.Div. at Denver Seminary and finishing her first book, which is due out next year. She and her jazzy husband, Justin, live in Denver with their three children: Sara, Anna-Michelle, and Leo, along with Karma the Wonder Dog.