Not a bad idea to be skeptical about this development. OTOH, there is some
resemblance to yesteryear-style Methodism and its group participation
worship
which spawned various offshoots, like the Perfectionists and, as one theory
has it,
ultimately led to (or was an important strand in) the rise of Humanistic
Psychology
(think Esalen).
Will WikiWorship prove to be as 'fertile' for new ideas? Anyone's guess.
Question: It all seems directionless. What -really- is its purpose?
Worth putting this on your radar, anyway.
Billy
--------------------------------
In WikiWorship, church members help edit the sermon
Amanda Green ("The Washington Post," March 14, 2014)
Wilmington, N.C. — Turning part of the message over to church members is
the concept behind a new worship model called WikiWorship.
Yes, that’s wiki as in Wikipedia.
It was developed by the Rev. Philip Chryst, pastor of a United Methodist
mission in Wilmington, as part of an evangelism course when he was finishing
his degree at Duke Divinity School. He’s using it as part of a Lenten
series at 9:45 a.m. each Sunday through April 13 in the bar called Hell’s
Kitchen.
The week before each WikiWorship, participants submit questions on
religion, ethics, life or God via the mission’s website. Then Chryst chooses
one to
spur discussion at each service.
Releasing control of the pulpit without mashing up the message is the
challenge, the pastor said.
“WikiWorship, in many ways, is kind of evangelism but in a very post-modern
way,” Chryst explained. “It’s scary like those children’s preaching
moments in church because you don’t know what’s going to come out of a child’s
mouth.”
Despite the term “wiki,” there are no computers involved at these events.
The concept refers to the collaborative nature of the venture, where people
take ownership of the content, in this case sermon ideas and responses.
WikiWorship is less replicable than other evangelism experiments because
the success of the venture is highly dependent on the skills of the leader,
said Duke evangelism professor, Stephen Gunter.
“It requires creativity, high energy, high intelligence, and lots of hard
work every single week,” Gunter wrote in an email. “Chryst has all of the
above, and he has worked at this now for half a decade.”
Chryst likens the skills needed for WikiWorship to those of a stand-up
comedian, ready for whatever comments or questions the audience throws at him
or her.
In Hell’s Kitchen on March 9, with its Miller Lite sign glowing, band
posters plastered on the back wall and advertisements for the local St.
Patrick’
s Day Kegs and Eggs Bash, Chryst chose a difficult question about
non-Christians and damnation.
Chryst asked: “Are Buddhists, Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians damned
if they never claim Jesus Christ as their personal savior, even after they
have heard about him?”
The pastor answered it first, explaining he does believe in hell, and some
people will end up there.
“But all that being said, I don’t really have the authority to say yes or
no. God does. Let God judge the destiny of people’s souls. Ultimately, I’m
suspicious of humans who try to decide others’ destiny. But the important
part of WikiWorship is, I want to hear you.”
One-by-one, people at Chryst’s event raised their hands offering their take
on the topic. The pastor walked the microphone out to a crowd of about 50
people in the bar.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student Christian Bennett told
of a recent mission trip he took to Malaysia where, after being mugged and
losing his money, a Muslim man he met on the street fed him at a mosque and
helped him get home.
“That was a huge testament in my faith,” he said, “and to have this man
help me like he did and then to have someone say he’s not going to heaven,
that doesn’t add up to me.”
Inviting the congregation’s opinions and questioning is fulfilling a modern
willingness to question faith and is “a great way to engage people who are
disengaged with the church,” said Gunter. “Attracting them is only the
first step, however. You have to then genuinely engage the newcomers by
continuing to offer new questions and viable answers.”
Afterward, most of the people attending stayed for lunch and asked
follow-up questions of the pastor.
“That question could have been a shouting match really, really easily, but
it didn’t turn out that way,” he said.
Chryst hopes one day to write a book teaching other pastors the lessons he’
s learned from WikiWorship sessions. Chryst may also model his growing
community around the concept.
“I think churches that have guts should be able to say here’s the
microphone,” he added. “I’m not willing to say truth is all relative. I’m just
proud to be around a group of people who have the guts to do that.”
____________________________________
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