Comments on: The Emergent Movement and Visual Styles in Worship

By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 24 May 2007 04:28:39 +0000

I’ve been reading “Emerging Worship” by Dan Kimball, and various things online. Emergent is hard to define beyond “wanting to try something new that works for emerging generations.” ‘Emerging generations’ is the under-30 group that’s largely missing in many churches (even mega churches) except for people who were raised in the church. What’s “new” is different for different churches and different areas, so it’s hard to define.

I think you may be associated with ‘emergent’ because some of the things that some emergent churches are trying are things you’ve been talking about for a while: services not totally centered on the senior pastor, designed by a team, creatively incorporating media as needed. Some of them (e.g., Axis @ Willow Creek) do things that sound like the coffee filter thing you’ve talked about (http://www.midnightoilproductions.com/reading/media-worship/metaphor/) to make the services more interactive.

In any event, I think your final thoughts nicely summarize what church media should be about, regardless of what type of church it’s for.

By: Tim Coombs

Tim Coombs — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:58:58 +0000

I’ve recently started a “visual preachers” group for those who recognize the importance of communicating with images and the new “emerging” mediums. Though the more work I do in this area, the more backlash I experience. No surprises there, but it’s nice to read your pieces and be reminded that I’m not alone in this venture. Keep up the good work.
Tim

By: John Battern

John Battern — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 18:49:10 +0000

I’ll never forget when I was at a MO workshop in Knoxville, Ia and one of the guys asked what names people gave to their “contemporary” worship services. One woman stood up and said quite emphatically “We call our a contemporary service because everybody knows what contemporary means!”

I just shook my head in disbelief. Emergent worship is even more diverse than contemporary worship. Making it indigenous is to me the real key.

By: deb

deb — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:32:00 +0000

Great piece! You’ve boiled it down to the core; the essence of The Message for any generation in any century via any medium: Meaning. Relevance. Substance.

deb

By: Matt Wolfington

Matt Wolfington — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:07:30 +0000

You hit a bullseye with the “contemporary” talk in our world today. I have decided that in our church there is no label for worship other than “relevant.” Using media connects more human senses to worship and allows the heart, mind and soul to work together in understanding the gospel. Media helps accentuate the faith, humor, sarcasm, thinking, passion, love, feelings and questions the Bible is packed with.

By: Rev. Beth Galbreath

Rev. Beth Galbreath — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:00:30 +0000

Thanks for great reflections. Out here in the boonies we don’t get much opportunity to experience “emergent” styles. I have had the impression that “emergent” mainly means “don’t be afraid to use ancient traditions in meaningful ways” as in “ancient-future church.” A relief from the boomer-rock (and sometimes unsingable) focus of “contemporary.” When we reintroduced the Communion ritual (instead of the post-service snack approach) in our “contemporary” service 8 years ago folks said, “Wow, that’s really meaningful! I didn’t realize!”

By: Rev. Jerry Tupper

Rev. Jerry Tupper — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 10:28:42 +0000

I think you have reflected what is happening on the cutting edge of emerging worship. I affirm your comments about “contemporary” worship. I have believed for several years that this term was a misused and has little meaning to the non-churched as well as being mis-leading. All styles of worship are contemporary to the times in some aspects of it. The format is more of style than simply labeling as “traditional” or “contemporary”, etc.

By: The MO Guys

The MO Guys — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:06:21 +0000

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