Pardon my bravado and pardon my coming late to the party if you have already figured this out. But I have finally nailed down the problem with fundamentalism. We just are not able to "feel in the air" when history is being made with live recording sessions of worship. Our live worship recordings are so "feelingless in the air," and we have become marginalized because of this.
Our allegiance to intelligent (and intelligible) worship has sidelined us in the wake of people who worship by feelings and have the discernment to know it when it is history-making. (Didn't Paul mention that spiritual gift in 1 Corinthians? Or was it Romans?) Until we fundamentalists solve this problem, we will continue to show our old-fashioned ignorance and out-of-touchness by arguing about trivial things like whether or not God's word is inspired and inerrant, things like whether Jesus actually died a substitutionary death to remove the wrath of God from us, or things like whether or not genuine salvation brings a change in a person's life. May God forgive us for such narrow-minded pursuits when we could be feeling history in the air.
So if any of you know what the air feels like on these blessed occasions, please let me know. I am so embarrassed that I do not know this already, and confessing my ignorance to the world on my blog is humbling. (Someone pass me Mahaney's book when you are done with it.)
I have searched the Scriptures in vain for the scriptural criteria to determine when the "feeling in the air" is history making and when it's just the steel plant and the petroleum blowing off its waste. So far in my ministry here, it seems mostly the latter. The unfortunate part is that the feeling in the air around here collects on every flat service like heavy snow on a cold January day. The good part is that you can save paper though ... just write your notes in the dust on the desk.
So help me out ... explain to me how exactly I will know this "feeling in the air" when it happens. I can't bear to miss out on it anymore.
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3 comments:
It's when the Spirit applies the words of a song in a way that refocuses our spiritual lens so we see clearly God's glory and therefore our purposes.
The Spirit works Romans 8:16 through spiritual singing at times.
I totally agree with your comments, but is that a "feeling in the air"? And if so, how do we distinguish it from other feelings in the air that aren't "history making" or "spiritual."
Obviously, I used hyperbole here in my post. I have often said that we fundamentalists are bad celebrators and bad meditators in our public worship. So I am not suggesting a "feelingless" worship.
I am questioning the validity of judging something by "feelings in teh air."
Thanks, Wendy. Good to see you around.
It's often difficult to put in words what we experience. Larry, my guess is that you have felt it as well, tho it was probably at a Bible conference where a respected expositor of the Word was about to speak. The anticipation of the crowd can seem like something is in the air. It's just a figure of speech.
Guarding against extremism in worship, whether it be too emotional or too academic is an ongoing tension for all of us, regardless of our upbringing or training.
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