Worship In The Emerging Church

Periodically I get a chance to sit in a live studio audience for a CCN broadcast. I’ve seen Doug Fields, George Barna, Larry Osborne, Henry Cloud, etc. The best part is I can bring students and expose them to some of these leaders.

Anyway, I was particularly excited about the recent Worship In The Emerging Church seminar with Dan Kimball (he blogs!) and Sally Morgenthaler. If you’re going to hear two folks talk about this subject it’s hard to pick a better team. You can get the notes in PDF (although there are blanks).

Some thoughts I had:

• As I suspected, college ministry really is a behind-the-scenes driver for a lot of the “emerging church” “postmodern church” stuff. Dan launched the precursor to his current church as a college ministry. All the staff at Curtis’ church (including Curtis) are former college ministers.
• Dan mentioned that he had done a survey and 98% of UC Santa Cruz students were not part of either a church or a campus ministry. Hurry up, Brian & Cecilee!
• Curtis Chang was also there as an audience member. He wrote a book on methodology in apologetics (Engaging Unbelief) which I really like. He also pastors an uber-cool church in nearby San Jose. I asked what he’s been reading lately and he said Mountains Beyond Mountains and that it had really stretched his vision. I’d never heard of the book, which just shows I really do know less than other people think I do.
• The weakest point in the seminar was a foray into the realms of multiple learning styles. I find the concept as it is usually expressed pretty bogus. I’m not sure the church should be taking its lead from America’s education system and the theories that underlie it. Let me rephrase that. I’m sure the church should not be taking its lead from America’s education system. My apologies to all the educational theorists in Chi Alpha who will now regard me as an enemy.
• Resources that were recommended:
  • Ancient-Future Faith by Robert Weber
  • The essay Anti-Excellence. I will very deliberately NOT email this to all the people who gathered with me in Salt Lake City and mocked my stance against excellence as a core value… (Sally mentioned that this and other great resources were also on the Fractals DVD)
  • Worship in the Early Church by Ralph Martin.
  • TheAmericanChurch.org
  • The Millennium Matrix by Rex Miller
  • The Rise of the Creative Class, by Richard Florida (I’ve heard this one recommended by a lot of people).
  • When Church Became Theatre, by Jeanne Kilde (this one sounded exceptionally interesting)
  • Callahan Studios (evidently very cool church architects)
  • Alternative Worship by Johnny Baker (he blogs!)
  • Multi-sensory Prayer by Sue Wallace
  • alternativeworship.org (Dan: “They do some crazy stuff in Europe that I wouldn’t try in Santa Cruz.”)
  • Spaces for Spirit by Nancy Chinn
  • Angel House Media (videos for churches)
• In closing, I’d never seen Dan before this but I’d heard people rip on his hair. I like his hair. It suits his nose. He also plays with his wedding ring a lot, which I do myself.