My hands and wrists are numb from crocheting (tip: a size Q crochet hook and three strands is not good for you) so I thought I’d accelerate my path tward carpal tunnel by updating this journal.

My Candidacy Process
Pastor Morgan at the synod office called me back. As soon as they get my congregational registration (which Pastor Tom called me about on Monday) and my undergrad transcripts (i.e. three months since UCSC is processing those puppies) are in, they’ll schedule me for an interview. Oh joyous day! Callou Callais! My friend Doris has been asking me daily if I’m sure I want to go through with this. My response: yes. After receiving that response, she reminds me that I’m only gonna get through my hoops if I really want to do this. This means that I need to make that appointment for psych/career testing.

“Contemporary Worship”
Far be it from me to be controversial, right? *readers nod heads approvingly* Yeah right. Let’s talk about why I think that the whole rush to “contemporary worship” is not the greatest of ideas.

1.) It’s hard to find quality. Face it… most worship bands out there are a few people who know a few guitar chords or think they can sing. There are some good worship bands that are composed of volunteers (I should know… I was part of one last year and in college) but a lot of times, churches go into half-heartedly and the music is half — well… you know what I mean. My thought is that whatever you (as a church) do, it should be done well. This means finding someone with musical talent that extends beyond the garage band to lead the music and recruiting some other people with musical training to be a part of it. Some churches actually pay their worship leader, which means that they can hire a professional.

2.) The message is in the music. Sorry to those contemporary composers out there but… most worship music is the “rah rah Jesus” stuff which is OK as a gathering number but… if that’s all you sing, you are missing a really important way of educating your flock. Rich Mullins has songs that have substance. (Yes, “Awesome God” has some substance — you actually have to sing the verses to get it.) If you want to do a decent worship service, you really have to search to find songs with substance — at least ones that have equal substance to those old hymns.

3.)Division is not a good thing. You tend to get people divided between the “traditional” service and the “contemporary” service. This is especially problematic when you put the contemporary service on Saturday night — you lose those people in Sunday School classes. You also have to factor in extra services which serve to lengthen Sunday morning — something that does add stress to pastors. (They actually *work* during the week — not just on Sundays.)

4.) They don’t necessarily draw young people. My generation wants the old superstitious stuff — not the new PowerPoint stuff. Most of the people who like that are old or at least middle-aged. 🙂

More tomorrow when my hands aren’t burning. Time for Letterman… and some Aleve!