Interactive Worship

Christianity Today is running an online article about the nature of the innovations that are changing Christian worship in our culture. In short, worship is becoming more customized, more participatory, and more community oriented.

I like these trends, not because they are new or cool (though, occasionally, they are both), but because they engage people in ways that linear, traditional styles of worship do not. Worship is no longer a carefully planned program, with only a few participants and many spectators. Instead, it becomes a collaborative effort in which the entire faith community is involved.

Having been involved in planning and implementing bible classes for the last few months, I am particularly intrigued by how these same ideas can be used in that format. I'm coming to the conviction that class should be an extension of the worship that is already taking place in the larger church assemblies, rather than a separate event with a separate purpose. That doesn't mean that class can't serve its traditional purpose of conveying knowledge about scripture - I just think that, especially in larger churches with more traditional worship formats (such as Highland), class is also an ideal place for worshippers to abandon their role as spectators and consumers, and become participants in worship.

Here's an example of how I think this might be done at a church like Highland:

In the main assembly, there is a message about how, in response to our own salvation, we are called into a Kingdom that feeds the hungry and clothes the poor. Songs about how God rescued us from sin and our gratefulness for that salvation are part of the worship program. Then, in class, after a brief review of some texts that connect the Kingdom of God with ministry to the poor (which resembles a traditional class), members discuss their reservations about this issue and longings to be involved with the poor. The class is concluded by creating a large prayer wall in which prayers for the poor of the community are written while music is playing softly in the background, and class members pray together in small groups about the poor of the community. Directions to specific people and places where this ministry can be accomplished are provided to members at the end of class.

I realize that some people would be uncomfortable with this format, because it calls them out of a "pew potato" role and into direct involvement with the message. But it also seems to me that it is closer to satisfying the purposes that church assemblies served in the first century.

What do you think?