Worship in These Times

Authenticity and Connection

Last week Noel sang and led a songwriting workshop at Converging 2023, a Nashville gathering  of progressive Christian musicians, pastors, and others interested in worship that is justice-building and inclusive. The set list for his concert included “Jean Claude,” “In These Times,” and “For the Love of It All”—songs written more than ten years ago but as relevant today as they were when new. They allude to the holocaust, freedom, civil rights, hate crimes, dysfunctional government, and a wounded planet. Sound familiar?

Read these verses from “In These Times,” which Noel wrote in 2007: 

There’s a warning in the wind that comes wailing through the trees
A depression in the shoreline left by the pounding seas
There’s a lesson in the drought that brings a country to its knees
In  these times . . .

We are dancing with disaster when we live beyond our needs
And pretend our hungry souls are not related to our greed . . . 
Life's a journey, but it's not about the speed
In these times …
…

As the perfect storm approaches and the gale around us roars
No longer can we close our eyes and hide behind our doors
Our choices fewer now by what we've chosen to ignore
In these times . . . 

How often have you sat through a worship service in which the prayers, readings, sermon, and songs were truly connected to your lived experience of the last week, to events in the news that weigh on your mind and heart, and to the concerns of your community? Conversely, how do you feel when the elements of worship fail to name the fears, anxieties, joys, loves, contradictions, and dilemmas that occupy your thoughts and trouble your soul?

My worship professor in seminary, Don Saliers, often spoke and wrote of what worship can be—“humanity at full stretch before God.” When I first heard that phrase in my late twenties I caught only a glimpse of what that might mean. Over the years I’ve seen and participated in far too few worship experiences that met that standard, but this conference did. It exhibited life at full stretch because in song, liturgy, and lecture it named the range of emotions I feel every day as I listen to the news of violence and war, racism, anti-semitism, sexism, greed, abuse of power, fear of the other, the climate crisis, book banning, and flirtation with authoritarianism. 

I want worship that names the fears, the weariness, the isolation, the frustration as well as the hope, the possibilities, the longings, and joy of living in these times. I want music that not only praises God but also notices both the wonder and the woundedness of the world that God created out of love. I want liturgy that calls attention to the giftedness of life, names injustice and oppression, laments loss and indifference, and calls the community to action. I want authentic words, images, and sounds that tell the truth about the human condition in these times so that no one leaves feeling alone and disconnected from community. I found authenticity in word, image, and song at Converging 2023.

I wish I could share with you something of the whole experience, but in the section that follows I can point you to some of the musicians and speakers who made Converging 2023 so uplifting, engaging, and relevant in these times.  JTF

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Connections

Read about  Converging 2023.  See more photos of the conference on the Facebook page of the Convergence Music Project. 

Singer, pianist, and composer Ken Medema, who was born almost blind, listened to the speakers at Converging and on the spot gathered each of their messages into song lyrics and improvised music to match. Listen to Ken’s “I See America Through the Eyes of Love.” 

At this conference, writer and church historian Diana Butler Bass opened up new and surprising—even shocking to some—scholarship about Mary Magdalene. Here is the text of her sermon on the same topic at the 2022 Wild Goose Festival. It’s called “Mary the Tower, and it’s posted on her July 22, 2022 Substack newsletter, The Cottage. Read Diana’s most recent “Sunday Musings” post called “Sing a New Song . . or an Old One,” about Noel and the conference. Many thanks to Diana for mentioning Strings in her post. 

Hear Brian McLaren and CMP co-founder Bryan Sirchio talk about Brian's work, his current focus, the music he'd love to hear and sing in worship, and about his own songwriting in particular.

Listen to Noel Paul Stookey sing “In These Times.”

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