Worship as Counter-culture

worship as

COUNTER-CULTURE

I stepped into another world—another culture—where my attention was captured by vaulted ceilings filled with beautifully painted biblical scenes creating an atmosphere of mystery and awe, where silence was valued and encouraged, where ancient beauty and art were celebrated, and where prayer was invited.

BY NANCY NETHERCOTT

Walking through the noisy streets of New York, I noticed people talking loudly on the phone or with headphones on listening to music, some loud enough for me to join in on what they were hearing. I felt accosted by the noise overload from the sound of traffic and construction, and by the visual overload of advertising. Needing a break from the sounds and sights of distracted life, I ducked into a church whose doors were open and invited me in with a sign that read: “Enter freely; enter quietly.” I stepped into another world—another culture—where my attention was captured by vaulted ceilings filled with beautifully painted biblical scenes creating an atmosphere of mystery and awe, where silence was valued and encouraged, where ancient beauty and art were celebrated, and where prayer was invited.

As I sat quietly in one of the pews, I felt my heart crying, “Oh, give me something different from the world out of which I have come! My heart yearns for a different world and a God who is so much bigger than me and my problems.” I needed the mystery, transcendence, and hope that this peaceful “countercultural” environment offered me.

CREATING A DIFFERENT WORLD illustration above relating to my day in New York City highlights two examples that compete for our love and attention:

We tell people that Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are the trap of busyness and an addiction to noise. These forms weary and I will give you rest,” but then we have a fast-paced of brokenness may seem harmless or trivial, yet need to be service with no time for silence, meditation, prayer, healing, considered as we contemplate ways to incorporate stillness and etc. It is no different from the world out of which people walked silence into corporate worship. My church begins each service as they came into our doors. How are they hearing that text? or prayer time with silence, inviting us to become present with How can we attend to the heart-longings of those who come the God who is always present with us. Stilling our hearts and seeking rest for their weary souls? Are we offering people more of minds and being present to one thing or person is actually very the same, or something from a different world…a world centered on counter-cultural! God's heartbeat? What does it mean for us to be counter-cultural? Walter Brueggemann, in The Bible and Postmodern Imagination, gives us a glimpse of the mystery of what happens in BEARING WITNESS TO THE WORLD biblical counter-cultural As we listen to the worship when he writes, pain due to oppres“The action of meeting sion, systemic racism, begins—music, word, and social injustice, we prayer, theater. At its center, the minister We tell people that Jesus says, need to encourage those who are contemplating reads...these very old words, remote, archaic, something of a threat, “Come to me all you who are weary and I will give you rest,” how worship should go against the surrounding culture. Many churches something of yearning. In the listening, one hears but then we have a fast-paced are grappling with these issues in a new another world proposed. It is an odd world of service with no time for silence, and intentional way. The call is to choose to ‘no male or female,’ of condemned harlots and meditation, prayer, healing, etc. create worship spaces and events where welcomed women, of sheep and goats judged.... It is no different from the world all are welcomed to “enter freely,” where If one listens long and hard, what emerges is a different world.” 1 out of which people walked as they came into our doors. uncomfortable issues are named and talked about, and where the immanence and tranF I N D I N G S T I L L N E S S scendence of God is palpable, so that we can

Another way to see become the Church that worship as counter-cultural is the call for our worship plantransform(s) people and cultural patterns by “acting justly, ning and practices to not be informed by a secular, worldly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God, the Prince and materialistic mindset, or even a religious one which runs of Peace" (Isa 9:6; Mic 6:8). 3 We are called to live out Romans counter to Christianity or the Gospel. Yes, we need to keep 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed our ear to the ground, ask sensitive questions, and listen well, by the renewing of your mind...” A few of us from my small but Scripture must guide our thinking about worship as we group are engaging in a webinar on racial injustice and then use wisdom and discernment. Listening to the voice of Jesus and meeting on Zoom to grapple with what we are learning. This following Him should actually make us a nuisance, a wrench in the is a small but necessary forward step towards hearing the cries wheel of the surrounding culture, not an echo or mirror. that can give us insight into how to create safe space in worship

Anne Zaki, an Egyptian pastor and theologian, reminds for everyone and aid in our imperative personal transformation. us that “every culture contains some sinful, broken, dehumanJill Ford, Arts Lecturer at All Nations Christian College izing elements that are contradictory to the gospel and present (UK), encourages us to be attentive to the voices of the culture us with ‘rival secular liturgies that compete for our love.’” 2 The around us because the true essence of the Church is people,

living in transformed community—a community that is a counter-cultural vision of humanity—and because “it runs against the natural tendencies of humans to assemble only with like-minded persons.” 4 There is an evocative invitation in Ford’s words, “The mission of the Church points to the future reality that all people are included in [the invitation to] God’s

Your church, and my church, bears witness to the world. What kind of witness do we bear?

kingdom, and it already embodies that counter-cultural vision by demonstrating that God calls all people, nations, and races into a transformational relationship with Him. In light of this, there is a need for the church to consciously and constantly re-contextualize itself and its worship forms to bear witness to the world as a counter-cultural fellowship.” 5

Your church, and my church, bears witness to the world. What kind of witness do we bear? Do we offer hope to people that life can be different from what they are experiencing? Who is welcomed and included in our worship communities? What kind of atmosphere do we value and cultivate? What are our priorities? We need to seek God’s wisdom and spend time paying attention to the culture around us in order to discern what it means to be “in the world, but not a part of it” (see INSET). Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy on us as we navigate how to be God’s counter-cultural witness in our world. Lord, enable us to listen—to the Holy Spirit and to others.

4 Jill R. Ford, “Worship as Counter-Cultural” extract from a chapter in her doctoral thesis for The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies,

Jacksonville, FL: Sept 2020. Ford quotes Timothée Joset, “The Church as a Counter-Cultural Eschatological Fellowship. What is the Church and

Why Does it Matter?” European Journal of Theology 25:1 (2016), 64-72. 5 Ibid.

B Y N A N C Y N E T H E R C O T T , D.W.S

CHAPLAIN, THE ROBERT E. WEBBER INSTITUTE FOR WORSHIP STUDIES

Nancy Nethercott was a missionary in Japan for 28 years and currently travels training leaders in foundations of biblical worship and spiritual formation globally. Nancy's doctorate is from The Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies (IWS), where she serves as Chaplain.

NAIROBI Statement on Worship & Culture

How does worship relate to culture? How is worship in culture, but not of it? The Lutheran World Federation's Study Team on Worship Culture met in Nairobi in January of 1996 and produced the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture. The statement presents four central principles—succinct but subtle, clear but challenging—of the relationship between worship and culture:

ONE. WORSHIP IS TRANSCULTURAL. Worship has certain dynamics that are beyond culture.

All worship should have some universal elements (prayer, baptism). Often difficult to discern core things from cultural things.

TWO. WORSHIP IS CONTEXTUAL. Worship reflects local patterns of speech, dress, and other cultural characteristics.

In-Culturated: must be somewhat contextualized and relevant to local culture.

THREE. WORSHIP IS COUNTER-CULTURAL. Worship resists the idolatries of a given culture.

Must be somewhat challenging to local culture.

FOUR. WORSHIP IS CROSS-CULTURAL. Worship reflects the fact that the body of Christ transcends time and space.

Must be connected to church in all times and places. Beware cultural arrogance.

We have found that the most meaningful worship—and the wisest worshiping community—does not just choose one of these four as its defining principle, but instead is invigorated by the truth of all four.

Note how this statement nuances the model of being "in but not of" culture, and calls us to a more sophisticated understanding of worship's relationship to culture.

We encourage worshipers and worship leaders to reflect on it as they consider the context and challenges of their culture, and answer God's call to worship within it and minister to it.

The complete text of the Nairobi Statement is posted on the website of the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship

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