A few weeks ago this short online video was watched by lots of people.
I’ll post it here again to save you searching it up if you haven’t seen it.
The point of the video was that there are discernable patterns of ordered worship even among those who would assert that their worship is spontaneous and informal.
I posted the original video because it was make by those who would probably identify themselves as coming from that background. It is a gently humourous way of pointing out their own foibles.
Bob Kauflin also shares some of that heritage, so his comments on the video are constructive and give insight into his priorities in leading corporate worship. You can read the explanation behind his seven headline points as he answers his own question: The Contemporvant Service – What Can We Learn?
1. It’s a good practice, and even humble, to poke fun at ourselves.
2. Every church has a liturgy.
3. We Christians can be quick to express strong opinions about things we don’t fully understand.
4. Idolatry is alive and well in our church services.
5. We have to work hard to speak with integrity.
6. In our desire to be relevant, we mustn’t forget how “unflashy” Christianity can be.
7. Excellent production, seamless transitions, and well-planned meetings are no substitute for the power of the gospel.
In addition, North Point video, producers of the clip, provided a statement about their intent in creating it and posting it for view. You can read the whole statement here, but, in part, they write:
Well, one week later and over 350,000 hits, this 3-minute video has created quite a stir. If context determines meaning, we can understand some of the questions and confusion surrounding this video. We unintentionally provided no context for it (like we did for all of our Drive videos) and some people have attempted to construe their own meaning for the video. While the conversations have been rich, we now feel responsible to provide some context to help people understand our purpose for the video. “Sunday Morning” was used specifically to employ fun into the conference and set up a message by Andy. The video was meant to be satirical and comical and Andy’s message unpacked the why behind our Sunday morning programming philosophy. That’s all there was to it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for your responses on the various blogs.
Without ego and defensiveness we can all examine our corporate worship to ensure it is biblical and accessible as Kauflin and the North Point church people have.
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