Posts tagged “Contemptible Worship

Rethinking categories for the worship wars

Posted on November 11th, 2011

I’m on vacation, and catching up on my Instapaper queue. Hence, my discovery of a 2009 piece at Gottesdienst Online by Fr. Heath Curtis titled “Frivolous, Disorderly, and Indecorous.” I like his redefinition of “traditional” worship advocacy as the Reverent Worship Movement. The real issue, he articulates well, is not a matter of styles or preferences, but that contemporary worship is offensive, both to broken sinners but especially to a holy God. And that, of course, is why the Contemporary folks think the Gottesdienst Crowd to be worse than a bunch of young fogey sourpusses. It’s not just that we are square: we are narrow minded and tryannical, desirous to force all people to go along with our style when acquiescing to a different…

Sloppy Wet Kiss [updated]

Posted on March 25th, 2011

Reason #4,892 to put the microphone down and stop embarrassing yourself: “How He Loves” is apparently one of the most popular “worship” songs making the rounds in the churches theatres of the modern congregation community authentic community. It features a line about God’s love being like a “sloppy wet kiss.” After reading Bryan Allain’s “Kissing Metaphors in Christian Worship,” I wondered if the whole thing wasn’t an Onionish spoof. But the Google (and the YouTube, if you’re really a glutton for punishment) indicates that such a travesty indeed exists. Here’s the juicy bit (sorry, couldn’t resist): If grace is an ocean we’re all sinking So heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss And my heart burns violently inside of my chest I don’t…

Why is “Praise and Worship” music so uninteresting? Because it HAS to be.

Posted on August 21st, 2010

If “Praise and Worship” music was even mildly interesting musically or lyrically, would I have a different attitude about non-liturgical worship? I doubt it; but it would make it harder, I suppose. Here’s a great bit from a certain John Jeremiah Sullivan (source unknown; I found it here), writing about a “Christian music festival,” on how “Christian-rock” has “excellence-proofed itself”: These were not Christian bands, you see; these were Christian-rock bands. The key to digging this scene lies in that one-syllable distinction. Christian rock is a genre that exists to edify and make money off of evangelical Christians. It’s message music for listeners who know the message cold, and, what’s more, it operates under a perceived responsibility—one the artists embrace—to “reach people.” As such,…

Versus populum or ad orientam? Sasse on “St. Zwingli” and “liturgical arts and crafts”

Posted on October 22nd, 2009

Fr. Charles McClean gave me a copy of these excerpts from a letter of Hermann Sasse to Peter Brunner. I am not certain if he translated this or not, and will update this post when I find out. The best part is the second paragraph, so stick with it! “What concerns me and to speak frankly has saddened me is your proposal for a new form of the altar and a way of celebrating the Sacrament which would conform to this proposal. What has earlier been proposed in this connection I have taken with as little seriousness as the comical ideas and proposals which were made forty years ago in the Liturgical Movement, when the Benedictines demanded the restoration of the ancient Christian mensa…

The Good Friday Fart

Posted on April 13th, 2009

Warning: This post contains material inappropriate for pietists, liturgical experimenters, Missouri Synod clergypeople, Higher Things bloggers, people who attended my last Bible class, my mother, and pretty much everyone else. Don’t read this. It’s blasphemous, poorly researched, and is going to upset anyone not named “Dave Juhl.” Maybe even him.