Acting Worship (Pt. 3)

The Traditional and The Contemporary

We’ll start with the Traditional.

Some of us ache for our old beloved hymns, the long-respected creeds and liturgical prayers with their roots deep in our personal memory and the memory of our community. The reliability of well-worn words and melodies and “the way we’ve always done things” are a comfort to us as we travel through this veil of tears. In simple terms, the Traditional values what is time tested. In simpler terms, the Traditional values what is old, though our culture is very unfair to that word.

And the Contemporary?

If you’ve used a word like “relevant” or “authentic” or “spirit-lead” in the last sixth months, you are probably among the Contemporary. The Contemporary often looks over the church’s walls at the “culture” and sees new and useful tools for expressing the fundamental Truth in the Gospel. New kinds of technology or music or language that, when filled with the Truth of the Gospel and lead by the Holy Spirit can remind us of the fresh and ever-new vibrance of what God has done for us. St. Augustine calls this “pillaging the Egyptians ,” in reference to the treasure Israel carried out of Egypt during the exodus . In simple terms, the Contemporary values what is innovative. In still simpler terms, the Contemporary values what is new, though our culture thoughtlessly elevates that word.

At their best, both the Traditional and the Contemporary are good ways of thinking about worship. They both value things that are really, actually good. That is, when they are at their best. When they are at their worst, they fall to being the opposite sides of the same bad coin.

One group says, “Whatever is old is best!” The new music is too loud. The new technology is too distracting. All that casual dress and casual language is disrespectful.

The other group says, “Whatever is new is best!” Those old songs are boring. Those old prayers are stale and rote. All that lofty language is phony.

Once we get to that point, the conversation is dead. We’re just shouting at each other. Or, perhaps more commonly, we aren’t talking to each other at all. In a case of the all-too-apt metaphor, we end up preaching to the choir. We just roll around in our own chronological snobbery.

“Whatever is old is best!”

“Whatever is new is best!”

Still, each one’s dissatisfaction with the other is reasonable. They aren’t crazy or stupid.

The Traditional feels that the new and “relevant” worship songs and practices don’t carry the weight of meaning that a century-and-a-half old hymn has accrued since it was written. Worse, they are going to bring in those “noise makers ” and banish our beloved organ and choir to that attic.

The Contemporary looks at the traditional structures and content and feels like those things have lost their freshness and vibrance. Sure, for one time and place, they were great. After all, everything was new once. Now, however those old things are clichéd and unmoving.

That both the Traditional and the Contemporary are reasonable positions isn’t a contradiction. This isn’t a game of tug-o-war where, in order for one side to win the other has to lose. That they are both reasonable hints to us that the conflict we are experiencing isn’t necessary. That the division can be bridged.

Or better yet, closed.

That Traditional, scripted worship practices have tended towards rote and lifeless performance doesn’t mean they have to be that way forever. The Contemporary, innovative practices don’t have to let go of their ties to tradition or be completely unstructured. Those are assumptions based on the way things look right now, but they lack imagination about how the Traditional and the Contemporary can meet one another at the altar.