Ed and I attended a lecture by Robert Webber today at Tyndale. Robert Webber is a man I greatly respect. One of his books, The Younger Evangelicals, should be required reading for church leaders.
Webber described the rise of contemporary worship since the 1960s, and talked about the hunger that exists today to move beyond the superficiality of consumer Christianity. He says that younger evangelicals today see through that, and long for an encounter with God, and for depth in worship. So far, so good.
Webber did lose me at two points. He argued that we should lose that part of our worship that resembles "making love to God" (songs like Hold Me Close, or, as someone calls them, "Jesus is my boyfriend songs"). I'm with him to a point. I get tired of the sappiness too. But when someone asked about a Psalm like Psalm 63 ("O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you..."), Webber said that we should understand that as the expression of praise from Christ, and not from the worshipping community. Hello? I have to disagree with him there.
Second, he argued that typology is on its way back, since we can't always find the intent of the original author. It's okay to allegorize. If true, this scares me.
I love about 90% of what Webber says. If only his lecture had ended 10 minutes sooner...
If we're talking allegory, what's wrong with making love to God. Has Webber never read Solomon's stuff. It's HOT. If the level of passion in our worship is any indication of our true heart for God - I think we're in trouble.
I think many of us "conservatives" struggle with how to express ourselves in worship - at least the ones I hang around with. You'd be amazed by the number of emotionally repressed people I know in their 50s and 60s who can barely tell their kids they love them, especially in their outside voices. How do they tell God they love him?
Hmmm, is Song of Solomon an allegory or just a love story?
I agree with Webber that a lot of worship has been too me-based, but I think he goes too far in the other direction.
Hey 90% is fantastic! It reminds me of that quote where the prof says he is sure that 50% of his teaching is absolutely right and 50% was likely wrong but he wasn't sure which was which.
Steve, bang on. I probably only agree with myself about 90% of the time.
I agree with you only about 75%. But don't worry, like the prof. I only agree with myself about 50% of the time, sometimes less. :) And Webber, well, you know how I feel. Going on Brian's take, he should write a book on "The Repressed Evangelicals." Ok, now I'm not being nice. He's ok, like everyone else, though, he gets in trouble when he starts walking into the extremes.