My students have been reading a chapter I wrote called Contemporary Worship, due out with Broadman Holman publishers in a book called Five Views On Worship this Spring.

In the chapter, they will consider worldview issues, Church and culture integration, the content of contemporary worship music and the worship trends of the emerging Church.

The question for this week is:

“What were the two (2) most impacting thoughts you came across in this chapter? Explain why they impacted you, and their implications for the 21st century Church’s worship (and it’s connection with popular culture)?”

FY 100 will respond in these comments to a 2 hour WorshipCircle night we just had, packing about 50 people into a room with multiple guitars, djembes, violins, keyboards and voices.

What did you notice happened throughout the night? Did someone need to lead, or no? What happened in the hearts of the people coming. Did they engage with God, or something else, or both? From your gut, how did you feel about it all?

Our class attended a night of worship, 3 hours of ancient/present worship laced with ancient prayers, communion and a Stomp percussion fest to end the night.

Here are your InResponse questions. A few paragraph thoughts on each, reflective and analytic, would be best.

What did you love about the event? What elements rose to the top for you as living worship experiences? Think of words from our studies such as accessibility, intimacy and integrity.

What did you not like about the event? What kinds of elements distracted you, or frustrated you?

Speak about those who led in generic terms, such as “the drummer,” the “background vocalist,” the “worship leader,” the “communion leader,” etc. Was there anything any of those participating did to especially enhance your time, or to detract from it? Be honest, and be specific. This is a case study.

Target areas you loved in the way they did what they did, and things you noticed that distracted you.

Note elements of musicianship and planning and how they affected you — arrangements of songs, physical postures of team members, etc.

Note any overall, or final impressions. You will be drawing on these insights when you lead worship, in teams of 3, at an upcoming SSU chapel in a few weeks.

We’ve been “re-storying” the origins of man, with the study sheet we read in class last Friday. Again, visitors and friends from around the world, join in the discussion!

Here is your InResponse question for this week:

“The biblical worship story of humankind begins with human beings being made in the imago Dei (the image of God), reflecting God’s goodness into the world, and reflecting creation’s praise back to God. I.e. We are the lead worshipers of the created order.

Now, how does seeing human beings as broken ImageBearers affect how we lead people into worship?“

For this weeks FY 100 InResponse question:

What arenas of life do you think we have most separated God from in the way we have traditionally viewed the “sacred/secular” world?

How can we redeem this — I.e. move another direction as the church. Use ideas from your What Is Worship? notes.

Our class was excellent yesterday, as we discussed our original posts on personal worship experience and highlighted many ideas and threads that seemed to rise through them all.

Elements such as distraction, man-centeredness, meta-story, aging and familiarity, language, honesty and self-disclosure, the power of music and memory, new and old, the Divine Hours of prayer, liturgy and many other ideas surfaced that guided our discussion.

For the class, and for others to interact with:

What particular stories or ideas shared during our class time impacted you the most as you re-think the topic of worship? Add in a little research (ex. if the idea of “dark matter” interested you the most (here’s another link), do a Google search on it, and season your comments with a little research).

This past week, the students in FY100 viewed Vineyard Music’s Leading Worship DVD with Matt Redman, Brian Doerksen, Tim Hughes, Kathryn Scott, Brenton Brown and Andy Park.

So, here is the question for InResponse:

What elements, philosophically, made the most sense to you about how one effectively leads others into a worship encounter? Recall ideas of intimacy, accessibility and integrity and comment on them. What practical aspects of preparing yourself and others to lead worship struck you the most (i.e. flow, rehearsal, memorization, etc.)?

As this post has come late due to my travels, I welcome more brief responses if the students are getting to this just now.

This past week, the students in FY100 viewed a demo of the new What Is Worship? DVD to be released soon by Vineyard Music, and that forms the basis for the events we’re doing throughout Europe over the next year.

So, here is the question for InResponse:

In what ways did the themes of this DVD re-shape your vision of what worship is? What were the phrases or ideas that you found especially impacting? How would the ideas surrounding the imago Dei and the “wiring for worship” human beings have in them reform present church practice and our view of culture?

Go for it.

These posts (that start with FY100) on my blog pertain directly to the students in the course FY100: Leadership In Contemporary Worship Practice at St. Stephen’s University. From anywhere you are in the world, feel free to jump in and join our class conversation.

We have an excellent class of passionate young leaders, musicians, artists and worship leaders. We’re going to have a blast learning and growing together.

There are approximately 11 students, and we began our work worshiping together, getting to know each other, reviewing the FY100 Syllabus, detailing the course work and resource media, and listening to Matt Redman, Brian Doerksen and Kathryn Scott (all via video) speak of their personal journey into contemporary worship leadership.

Our first InResponse question, to be posted by the students by next Friday on this post, is:

“What did you love and hate, find helpful and unhelpful, about your own worship experiences through your faith journey to date?”

Answers will be posted by Friday. Click “Comment” below, and dive in. We welcome others outside of the class to join the conversation.