It’s not that people gathering together singing songs is a bad thing. And neither are people who can lead other people in group settings. It’s that the word authentic comes across as exclusionary; as if the only authentic form of worship is there, at your church, or if taken on a wider scale, in a church building.

Maybe it isn’t meant that way, and chances are pretty good it isn’t. However the word authentic has far more connotations than denotations in our society.

I have to admit a good friend of mine is a ‘worship leader’ and we have this conversation all the time. There are many ways to worship, but the church has put such a stranglehold on the term that if you were to ask the average joe at church what ‘worship’ is, it would invariably be ’singing in church’. If pressed I’m sure you would get deeper answers, but off the cuff I’m not so sure.

If that is the case, which I believe to be in your favor, then is there a need to use the word authentic?

-mike

Good words on here. I agree with them all.
AND still believe that God can and will use people to bring others into an authentic worship experience.

But alas.
I wither.

Los

God deserves our praise and gratitude for the wonder of His blessing. Is He impressed by our staging?

“Los talks about ‘bringing the body of Christ into an authentic worship experience’ on his ‘about’ page. What is that, exactly? Cannot, and in fact, does not, worship happen everywhere and anywhere? If I marvel at the amount of greenery in a WV forest, is that not authentic worship? Or does it need to have some sort of rehearsed soundtrack with a lightshow? Seriously? Authentic? It is terms like these that hijack meaningful experiences away from the common believer and keeps them inside the four walls. What defines authentic? Do the mega-churches have to defend what they do with terms like authentic?”

Amen, brother.

-mike

A couple of thoughts:

I was saddened to see the title ‘main communicator’ being bantered about. Wow, a main communicator? Is that mega-church-speak for ‘pastor who doesn’t know a single person in the audience’?

For the most part, that type of post is old hat for me. I have had roughly the same conversation many times with a friend who works at an aspiring mega-church. Here in WV though, it is hard to find a population dense enough to make it ‘mega’. There is only one in the state, in Morgantown, if you say that over 2K is mega. Apparently there needs to be size designations.

Los talks about ‘bringing the body of Christ into an authentic worship experience’ on his ‘about’ page. What is that, exactly? Cannot, and in fact, does not, worship happen everywhere and anywhere? If I marvel at the amount of greenery in a WV forest, is that not authentic worship? Or does it need to have some sort of rehearsed soundtrack with a lightshow? Seriously? Authentic? It is terms like these that hijack meaningful experiences away from the common believer and keeps them inside the four walls. What defines authentic? Do the mega-churches have to defend what they do with terms like authentic?

Authentic. Real. Relationships. Relevant. Any other buzz words I missed?

-mike