RETHINK WORSHIP - NOSTALGIA VERSUS POPULAR

I am unsure whether I am being realistic. Perhaps you can tell me. Worship and church have been synonymous but what we have been doing with worship deserves examination. First, we have lately presumed music is equated with worship and this has led to silly tags like worship CDs, worship leaders, worship bands, and worship teams, effectively omitting scripture reading, recitations, preaching, prayer, offering, testimonies and silence from a definition for 'worship.' As composers have produced creative and fresh hymns and spiritual songs there have also been attempts to accommodate the range of reactions. Many churches have provided options, that is, dissimilar worship services. Traditional versus contemporary is the pitched tension. Old versus new is a dichotomy that I view as needless and unhappy. Nostalgia versus popular? Baloney.

Who wants this? Pastoral staff members do not want additional preps and toil. Medium sized churches agonize from splintered relationships when trying to imitate the professed success of wealthier and grander churches. Segregation by age breaks the spirit of the Body. An older generation does not need to worship alone. Seniors don't need only music composed before or during their own youth. They must participate and witness the enthusiasm and involvement of younger generations. Children, youth and young adults need to experience worship together with elders to understand the corporate identity of this people that Jesus has redeemed. We should consistently be incorporating new songs into the best songs of previous generations. What is indispensable is a theological filter within each congregation to insure that the theologies do not differ between newer and older material. 

And then there is this peculiarity. When an expectation is provided that people deserve choices of worship styles, they are offended when their selection is altered or removed, so they leave. Of course an individual can worship privately, but that is not to say worship is about the individual. We are not a community of consumers. God also calls his new covenant people to worship together with others as a distinct group of those who share a salvation story. Am I being realistic or sticking my head in the sand?