Beyond an Order of Worship Facilitating Spiritual Atmosphere

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Beyond an Order of WorshipFacilitating
Spiritual Atmosphere

• Sources George Barna, Kennon Callahan seminars
• John.chandler_at_vbmb.org

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Barna Survey of 1800 Christian Households

• www.Barna.org surveys regular (2x /month)
  attenders of Christian worship
• When did you last experience the presence of God
  in worship?

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When I Last Experienced Gods Presence in
Worship

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Conclusions

• 32 who regularly attend claim to have never
  experienced Gods presence in church
• 48 have not in the last year
• Note the younger the person, the less likely
• Millions regularly attend U.S. worship events,
  but relatively few worship

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Reasons for Poor Worship Cultural

• Burger King spirituality
• Have it your way
• Egocentric, need-meeting expectations imported
• Consumer thinking of worship as something God
  does for us

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Reasons for Poor Worship Congregational

• Worldliness
• Goal of pleasing people, not God
• Educational
• Goals of learning about God rather than
  connecting with God
• Information transformation

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Reasons for Poor Worship Character

• Wrong criteria
• Professionalism
• Peppiness
• Willards A-B-Cs
• Right criteria
• Awe, reverence, humility, gratitude
• Intimacy with God

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Reasons for Poor Worship Order

• Premodern chaos
• You look like an incompetent, thoughtless idiot
• Modern order
• You look like a cheesy manipulator of unspoken
  will
• Postmodern chaordic
• You look prepared but not scripted

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Chaordic Spirit and Form

• I was in the spirit on the Lords day
• Revelation 110
• Animating Spirit
• Ritual-shaping Form

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Spiritual-Ritual

• Will attend to non-cognitive, character-related
  spiritual dynamics within and around the worship
  event
• Will think steadily about formal characteristics
  of physical, temporal, and interpersonal
  environment

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An alternate image Worship Hardware and
Software

• If the building (hardware) is uncomfortable
• If the time of service is wrong
• then the spiritual atmosphere will be poor

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But

• By attending to hardware and software dynamics,
  leaders can facilitate an effective, chaordic
  spiritual atmosphere

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Software Issues in Worship Atmosphere

• 1. Preaching
• 2. Music
• 3. Personhood
• 4. Environmental

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1. Spiritual Preaching

• 1. Preach to prepare people to grow spiritually
• Are your goals informational, congregational,
  ___?
• 2. Consider tone
• Ought/must/should
• People remember twice as much on how one preaches
  vs. content of what one preaches

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Spiritual Preaching Missionaries recognize
cultural limitations!

• Average comprehension level of U.S. adult
• 7th grade
• Average linguistic complexity of U.S. evangelical
  sermon
• 12th grade

• Average U.S. boomer/buster attention span
• 6-10 minutes
• Average U.S. evangelical sermon
• 32 minutes

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2. Spiritual Music

• Beyond style
• sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
  (Col.3)
• Beyond the cognitive
• Music offers access to emotive realms key to
  spiritual worship and personal transformation

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Spiritual Music

• Away from presentational and toward the
  participatory
• Recognizing cultural limitations re music
  education
• Away from the yo-yo of the order of service
• 20 minute minimum?

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3. Personhood

• Issues of the character of the worship leaders
• Philosophy of ministry
• The funeral leader?
• Follow me?

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Effective Worship Leaders

• Personally engage in worship
• Coach folk to come along in the vacuum

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Characteristics of The Great Worship Leader

• Inscrutably sold out to Christ
• Fruitful character (Galatians 522f)
• a student of the Bible

• Devoted to prayer
• a skilled musician
• not world-class
• music is a means to the end
• submissive to church leaders

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Characteristics of The Great Worship Leader

• An intense worshipper
• willing to follow the Holy Spirits leading
• Spirit/Form
• Perceived by others as authentic and genuine

• Sensitive to the worship climate
• still growing spiritually in significant ways
• willing to assess

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4. Environmental

• 5 Keys
• Prayer
• Length of service
• Flow
• Intentional contrasts
• Climate details

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Environmental Prayer

• Intercessory prayer
• for worship attenders
• before and during service
• for those who may not get there
• the empty chair
• for the event and leaders

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Environmental Length of Service

• Culturally determined
• Long enough to have people connect deeply with
  God, cut off when it wanes
• Preaching 32 vs. 6-10

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Environmental Flow

• Often more simple than sophisticated
• major moves vs. choppy parade
• Think blocks of time
• The incessant announcements
• Swoosh?

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Environmental Intentional Contrasts

• Beyond hyper-modern cognitive gymnastics
• Heart/head
• joy/contrition
• security/awe
• intimacy/reverence

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Existing Worship Imbalance
Preaching
Music

• Simple Complex
• Stirring Profound
• Inspiring Thoughtful
• Emotional Intellectual

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Existing Worship Imbalance
Music
Preaching

• Simple Complex
• Stirring Profound
• Inspiring Thoughtful
• Emotional Intellectual

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Worship Balance
Preaching
Music

• Simple Complex
• Stirring Profound
• Inspiring Thoughtful
• Emotional Intellectual

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Environmental Climate Details

• Light
• Sound
• Temperature
• Typos
• Length of time on site
• Time of day
• Local/national news
• The bulletin an excuse not to worship?
• how about handing out on the way out?

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Facilitating spiritual worship means paying
attention to

• 1. Cultural conditions that obstruct worship
• 2. Critical thinking about spiritand form
• 3. Praying planning about software issues of
  preaching, music, personhood, environment

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What is the goal?

• Non-offensive ritual?
• Ever-stimulating excitement?
• Consumer need-meeting?
• New information?

• Connection with God
• Expression of love, need, and gratitude
• Personal and corporate transformation
• Congregational mission

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Good worship can make Great Christians!

• People who have worshiped God profoundly tend to
  grow in the most remarkable ways as Christians
• We can help this happen by facilitating spiritual
  worship

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Beyond an Order of WorshipFacilitating
Spiritual Atmosphere

• Dr. John P. Chandler
• Courageous Churches
• Virginia Baptist Mission Board
• John.chandler_at_vbmb.org
• Copy right John P. Chandler, 2002