Philosophy/Approach
Here is some of what I have come to know and believe about worship:
Worship is a “dialogue with infinity.” Worship should be ability the most powerful issues of our lives, should teach us how to live and how to die. A powerful worship experience is exactly that paradoxical intersection between human effort and beyond as the Rev. David Bumbaugh’s words capture. The human effort, it seems to me, is about the discernment to choose that which is “of worth” and to be open to allowed the unplanned and miraculous.
Worship is a co-creation. At its best, worship is the place where the individual truths of our lives come in contact with the truth which exceeds our individual human capacity to control. And in honor of this, we must recognize the co-creating aspect of worship through the use of multiple voices, and many forms of expression including drama and music. And I also value creating authentic times when people can express what is at their deepest heart.
Worship anchors community. Though community is an over-used word, at its roots it refers to a group that holds something in common. Worship is one of the languages of religious community. Those conducting worship, whether lay leaders or ministers, have immense power to influence this focus. As Virginia Knowles puts it, “If the worship experience is fruitful, we will have no choice, but to act within the world under the under the innovating insight of the creative event.”