Alternative Worship and Inculturation from Keith Watkins

Keith Watkins continues his series here on worship in progressive churches.  As a bonus in this post, he also provides a link to an article he authored on inculturation entitled:  "Each of Us in Our Native Language:  Connecting Classic Worship and Popular Culture."

Anyone interested in making worship relevant to contemporary life should take some time with this article.  In it Dr.Watkins explores the challenge of finding adequate cultural forms for worship.  One source of conflict, he suggests, is "the conflict between modes of worship in heritage churches and the aesthetics and patterns of popular culture."

Heritage churches are another way of saying mainline Protestant Churches.

Dunn and Hurtado

This week I received my much awaited copy of James Dunn's just released work here in the U.S. entitled Did The First Christians Worship Jesus.  At about the same time Larry Hurtado posted a note about his review of Dunn's work now included among his essays.  As you may know, Dunn's work engages the views of Hurtado and that of Richard Bauckham.

It is extremely helpful in sorting out ones own view to see such distinguished scholars looking at the content of scripture, disagreeing on key points of the evidence, but doing so in irenic fashion.

The Faith Matrix - Pareto Goes to Church

Pareto's Law states that 80% of the results you achieve come from 20% of the activities, activities that can be described as "high leverage."  A four-box matrix is often used in analysis and problem solving to apply the law, for example Stephen Covey's Time Management Matrix.

Let's think for a minute about personal spirituality and the local church.  Consider two primary aspects of any faith community:  Critical Thinking (Theology) and Serving Others.  Given those two aspect of faith, what are the high leverage activities (the 20%) that individuals and churches need to engage in to be successful in growing in grace and knowledge?  And what are the more frequent activities with little leverage (the 80%) that limit or make less likely spiritual growth and truly helping others?

Make a list of some of the most frequent activities in your church and then ask:  Are these really high leverage?  And also consider how would you categorize the activities, as Thinking or Serving?

When finished, decide which quadrant you and your church are in.  If other than Quadrant 2, what needs to happen to get your there?

Study Resources - Recommendations From Marcus Borg

If you are interested in book recommendations from Marcus Borg, you are in luck.  A tab on his new website lists a number of study resources with a brief comment from Marcus about each book listed.  While you are there, you might take a look at his article on mysticism and his personal experience of God.

National Geographic - The Dead Sea Scrolls

National Geographic will air Writing the Dead Sea Scrolls on their cable channel this coming Tuesday, July 27.  It features Dr. Robert Cargill that you met here yesterday.  Get an overview, view photos, facts, and a video at the National Geographic site by clicking here.  The video is an interesting teaser; give it a watch.

More from Keith Watkins on Progressive Worship

Keith Watkins continues his posts on worship in progressive churches.  He considers five generalization on alternative worship from Lutheran theologian Thomas Schattauer.  They are:

1. Recovery of historic practice toward a distinctive community witnessing to God’s purpose in the world
2. Use of cultural materials toward a wider embrace of people (be it the unchurched or particular ethnic groups)
3. Attention to the experience of the marginalized toward justice and inclusion of God’s reign
4. Focus on relational community toward social belonging and wholeness
5. Openness to the movement of God’s Spirit toward personal healing, holiness, and hope

Watkins provides a hint for the direction of his series when he says:  Schattauer’s list gives insufficient attention to another impulse that I encounter with increasing urgency in theological literature and in conversations with church people week after week: the need to restate central Christian doctrines in ways that can be affirmed by people who have dismissed older ways of stating Christian beliefs and who are searching for believable ways of describing their faith.

The Official Blog of Dr. Robert R. Cargill

Another blog to bookmark is that of Robert R. Cargill.  Here is a link to his blog bio.  One of Cargill's responsibilities is that of Chief Architect and Designer of the Qumran Visualization Project, a real-time reconstruction of the site of Qumran.  Dr. Cargill's course at UCLA can be found at U-Tunes University.  And here is a sample of his writing from Bible and Interpretation.  The piece's title is:  Forget About Noah's ark; There Was No Worldwide Flood.