On Thursday evening, May 14, the Session of Northminster Presbyterian Church gathered to discuss where God may be calling us in terms of our Sunday morning worship. We spent two and a half hours discussing, deliberating, and even learning together.

There’s no question that the style of worship at Northminster has been an ongoing issue. And it has, in my view—as well as in the opinion of many of you—had some negative effects on this congregation. The most unfortunate effect of having two differntly styled services has been the “us” and “them” attitude that we seem to have developed toward one another. Those who prefer contemporary worship think of those in the second service as the “those heritage people,” and those who prefer traditional worship think of those in the first service as “those contemporary people.”

It’s my belief that in order for us to truly be the people that God is calling us to be, we have to eliminate all labels of “us” and “them,” and “heritage” and “contemporary.” I believe that we need to come together for, not only our common good as the body of Christ, but also for the good of those in our surrounding community. We can’t be a blessing to those outside the church if we’re not united inside the church. We can’t be outwardly focused if we’re not inwardly strong.

We need to be inwardly strong.

For this reason, Session made two decisions on Thursday night. The first decision was to go back to having one service at 9:30 a.m. for the summer, beginning June 1, 2008. We need to be unified as a church, and bringing us together to worship is a step toward bringing about greater unity. However, no decision was made as to the style of worship that this service should be. In fact, I believe that we all generally agreed that we need to eliminate the labels of “heritage” and “contemporary.” We simply need to worship together.

The second decision was to create a “Worship Imagination Team” consisting of people who have in the past attended the Heritage service and people who have attended the Contemporary service. This team will be chaired by the pastor. The purpose of this team is simply to be creative with forms of worship, orders of worship, styles of worship, etc., etc. They are to experiment with aspects of worship that may be considered more traditional and aspects of worship that may be considered more contemporary. Over time, we may, as a body, find a style of worship and an order of worship that authentically fits who we are. Or we may find that we actually enjoy being creative with different forms and orders of worship.

I don’t know where this will lead. No one does. The important thing here is to continue to be open to the leading of God’s Spirit.

I want to close this article with two quotes from our Presbyterian Book of Order (believe it or not!):

The church is…free to be innovative in seeking appropriate language for worship. While respecting time-honored forms and set orders, the church may reshape them to respond freely to the leading of God’s Spirit in every age. (W.1.2005)

The Church has always experienced a tension between form and freedom in worship. In the history of the Church, some have offered established forms for ordering worship in accordance with God’s Word. Others, in the effort to be faithful to the Word, have resisted imposing any fixed forms upon the worshiping community. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) acknowledges that all forms of worship are provisional and subject to reformation. In ordering the worship the church is to seek openness to the creativity of the Holy Spirit, who guides the church toward worship which is orderly yet spontaneous, consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future. (W-3.1002)

May God help us to focus on him in this time of transition. And may we, as a church, be “consistent with God’s Word and open to the newness of God’s future.”

–Pastor Markus Watson