editorial notes

back in 1995, when i was young and foolish (as they might be giants sang, i feel old and foolish now), i submitted this posting to the postmodern christian email list.

characteristics of postmodern worship

I put together this list of things that might characterize postmodern worship:

1. Culturally relevant — rejects cultural barriers that are not part of the gospel, aims to be accessible.
2. Participative — encourages (not forces) people to participate in worship, rather than being passive receivers — also encourages people to participate in creating and running the worship events.
3. Recognition of importance of community — the worship is based in a community, and builds up that community.
4. No 'figurehead' — worship proceeds without a leader, or many people are involved in leading.
5. Wholeness — rejects notion of body/mind/soul split, expects that worship should involve the whole person.
6. Recognizes that both experience and understanding are essential — creates opportunities in worship for both.
7. Eclectic — willing to use all kinds of ideas, music, texts, etc. from a wide range of traditions.
8. Sense of past and present — aware of being part of a long tradition, aware of its history, but combined with an awareness of future, of its destiny.
9. Rejects the notion of a split between 'sacred' and 'secular' — willing to use ideas, forms, materials, etc. from the 'secular' world in worship.
10. Willing to use non-linearity and/or concurrency.
11. Multi-media — willing to use all available media in worship, for communication, and to create atmosphere.
12. Provisional — recognizes that it is not perfect, and will need to change — always experimenting with new ideas.
13. Tolerant — recognizes that other forms of worship are valid.
14. Local — recognizes that worship is tightly related to the worshipping community — each community must find it's own style of worship, rather than following some "cookbook" approach.
15. Anti-independent — determined to remain part of existing churches rather than form new denominations.

These are just my ideas — not very well worked out ones at that. I'd welcome feedback from people involved in new worship if I've missed something, or got something wrong.

There are various "new worship" things going on in the UK. They are all different, but my experience is that they tend to have several of the above characteristics. They're also very difficult to describe!

Postmodern worship as I've characterized it is more about attitudes than specifics — those will be determined by the needs and gifts of your community, and the culture your community lives in.

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