Postkiwi

I’ve been thinking about Mike Frost’s critique of the “falling in love” approach to worship, expressed in his Saturday morning talk at the Forge Summit in Melbourne. Yes I share his concern about songs that talk about ‘falling in love’ with Jesus. These songs don’t seem to have much to do with an active lifestyle of faithfulness and mercy. However I’m not prepared to do away with songs that use the language of intimacy.

I’m thinking of Erik Erikson’s eight stages of growth and the ways in which they tie into approaches to worship.
1. Trust vs mistrust (infant)
2. Autonomy vs doubt (toddler)
3. Initiative vs guilt (early childhood)
4. Competence vs inferiority (primary school)
5. Identity vs role confusion (adolesence)
6. Intimacy vs isolation (young adults)
7. Generativity vs stagnation (middle age)
8. Integrity vs despair (older age)

In some ways a worship experience is an experience in which we are reparented and made whole by our encounter with God. People who have learnt not to trust their environment are invited to discover a God whose love can be relied upon. “Nothing I can do can make God love me more or love me less”. I think of people who have struggled to develop a sense of self-differentation or autonomy and doubt their own capacity to do anything without help. People who need permission to take initiative and express their imagination without guilt encounter the God who designed their creativity. People who struggle with a sense of failure and inferiority discover the empowering of the Holy Spirit. Those who long for a sense of affirming connection with the other discover in God a closeness that is life-giving and not abusive. People who need to make an impact on the world discover that God has not finished with them yet. And those who struggle to make sense of the world in which they live encounter the God of hope.

It sounds very utilitarian I know. Come to Jesus to allow him to meet your needs. But it’s deeper than that. Come to Jesus and be re-created as the person you were created to be. It reminds me of the answer Jesus sent to John the Baptist when he talked about the impact of his life on the lives of others.

So how does this tie in with worship songs? Songs that express a longing to be held in the arms of God - I see as an expression of a trusting relationship with God as caring trustworthy parent. Songs that express a loving desire to be close to God are likely to be helpful for young adults who are developing a capacity for intimacy. Only problem is when these are sexualised or romanticised.

What’s the problem with the romantic angle on worship? Legitimate passion and intimacy expressed in human relationships can be downplayed in super-spiritual settings. The emotional pressure to produce feelings for God can lead to a sense of terrible inadequacy or just plain antagonism in people who don’t see it that way. And those who do ‘fall in love’ with God will eventually ‘fall out of love’ with God when the infatuation ends in times of disillusionment.