The emerging church on Sunday
What does the emerging church look like on Sunday?
If the church at Antioch (and her offespring) is the first emerging church, as I suggested in a previous post, there is not a very detailed picture of what the church looks like on Sunday.
I have intentionally said Sunday, rather than Sunday morning, because the only pictures we have in the New Testament were taken on Sunday evenings. Remember that scene in Troas with the lamps burning and the heat rising and the young man dozing in the window? (I almost always smile when I read that people fell asleep when Paul preached.)
Anyway...there is not much to indicate what took place when the church met. They celebrated the Lord's Supper and Paul preached.
Can we assume the church followed the pattern of Acts 2? Does form matter? If so, what is the foundation for that form?
In case it isn't obvious I have to confess my knowledge of the emerging church is more theoretical than practical and this is one area in which I would like some help.
Labels: worship
posted by vieuxloup at 1:08 PM
7 Comments:
My Orthodox friends believe that their liturgical form of worship dates all the way back to the beginning. (I.e. Paul and the others were doing Orthodox style worship in those upper rooms.) They point to the rituals and liturgies of the Jewish Temple and synagogues as evidence, saying that this is what the early Christians would have been familiar with and what they would have imitated.
I think there's a little bit of something to that, but I don't buy it completely. And even if it is so, I don't think it should be prescriptive. Form is important, but it should always be contextual, IMHO.
My assumption is that the early church looked indigenous. In other words, they adapted the culture to hold the Gospel. The Orthodox churches may look like the early Jewish churches, but did they look like Corinth? Do Orthodox churches speak in tongues? (Perhaps they do, I do not know.)
Today's emerging church often looks indigenous to their culture, although many freely adopt from ancient cultures such as Celtic.
Many would call our worship simply contemporary, but it does have a flavorful edge that is reflected in our part of the country, a southern twang if you will.
As per "a little bit of something to that, but I don't buy it completely" -- perhaps everyone can agree there. Liturgy developes, and continues to do so.
But the root (the work of the people in worship) does not change. James's F. White's book on Protestant church architecture has a good first chapter on this. Principles and tasks mater. From there "form follows function."
As per PRE-Christian liturgy and early Christian liturgy, and the common trunk of Christian liturgy a really fun and informative website is this on -- hope you enjoy exploring it:
http://www.liturgica.com/html/lit.jsp?hostname=null
CLICK ON THE LEFT for: Jewish, Elary Christian, Eastern Orthodox, Western Catholic, and Protestant.
..........
as per White, check out his book too:
Protestant Worship and Church Architecture: Theological and Historical Considerations (Paperback)
by James F. White
http://www.amazon.com/Protestant-Worship-Church-Architecture-Considerations/dp/1592441637/sr=1-1/qid=1167320209/ref=sr_1_1/002-5547701-0004055?ie=UTF8&s=books
Liturgy developes, and continues to do so.
Well, except in the case of the Orthodox. They've been doing the exact same liturgy every single Sunday for the last 1600 years (The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).
When I visited a local Orthodox church a few years back we talked to the priest about this. He said "It's not that we're not open to change. We are, as long as someone gives us a good reason to. But in 1600 years no one ever has." :)
For an interesting read check out "The Lamb's Supper" by Scott Hahn, in which he parallels the Book of Revelation to the Liturgy of the Mass.
Felicia
The Orthodox *continue* to write new liturgies, as needed. Like for new martyrs, etc. The outline is flexible enough that only details need switching out. (like a good restaraunt menu)
The first day of the week begins at dusk on Saturday so I believe they would have been meeting on Saturday evening. If it were Sunday evening they would be into the second day.
Andrew
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