Preaching a Double-Header
April 1, 1997
My good friend Steve was sipping a second cup of coffee as I walked up to him. I was exhausted after giving my all to the 9 a.m. worship service. Now I needed to find new energy for worship at 10:45.
"Every Sunday morning," Steve said, "I see you come in here about 10:15, and it's like you step right through a mirror from one world to another!"
Over the last decade, our congregation has developed two rather distinct worshiping communities. The traditional community meets in the sanctuary. Its design is hushed and spartan, with subtle gray walls, indirect lighting, white cornices and woodwork, and a choir loft directly behind me as I preach. The pews are long and straight, arranged in Puritan concert-hall fashion. The pulpit, with its clean lines, is a dignified symbol of tradition, authority, and austerity. When you enter the sanctuary, you are quiet. The organ sets the mood of somberness.
Worship here is informed by Enlightenment rationality: God is the wholly Other whom you approach at a distance by the mediated steps of classical artistry in word and song.
The contemporary worshiping community, on the other hand, gathers in the sunny Great Room. The chairs are stackables, arranged in a sweeping semicircle of eye-to-eye intimacy. The acoustics in the room are poor, but that doesn't matter, since the praise team is powered by amplified speakers pointed in every direction. There's no pulpit, of course—only a music stand, which I may use if I want to. People tell me I preach better if I don't; I get more "real and personal, not tied to words on a page."
When you enter the Great Room, it's noisy. But noisy conversation and people interaction are the home of spirituality in a post-Enlightenment community. God is ...
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