When the liturgy just isn't fun anymore

 i wrote this article for my church magazine a while back, but still see it as relevant after an event that happened last week...(that story is on its way oh :)

i titled it 'dis-enchantment with orthodox worship'

By orthodox, I mean traditional and in line with that I am referring to churches such as the Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian denominations etc. Basically, churches where there is a stated procedure of doing things, there is a liturgy or program for services (either Matins or Holy Communion), the priests or pastors dress in a particular way and such similar things.

While growing up, it seemed as though all the people I knew fell into one of the above categories and of course as kids, we automatically fell in line with our parents. However today, it is very rare to find a youth i.e. 17-30yrs of age who professes to be Anglican or Presbyterian whole heartedly and is happily so. Rather there are more households like my cousins’- their father is catholic, their mother, apostolic and the kids are members of different Pentecostal churches (one is a winner, the other goes to Global Harvest and the third attends BLW). Why is this so? Is there something fundamentally wrong with orthodox churches or is Pentecostalism merely a passing fad?

I personally love my church and it happens to be an Anglican cathedral. This does not mean that I am ok or down with everything that goes on within the echelons of the church or even some of its practices, but I like the essence of the church, the hymns, doxology, liturgy, benediction etc which have formed a major part of my growing up years are actually some of the reasons that endears my heart to the church for example I can basically recite the Eucharistic prayer1 by heart! But come to think of it, this is a major reason why so many young people flee. They don’t like the whole repetitive, traditional, ritualistic services; the boring sermons with priests dressed in more clothes than the average street bum, and hymns? No way! Give way to Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary and the Winans Phase 2!

Coincidentally however, a lot of the so called traditional churches are evolving methods and means different from the hard core rigidity that characterizes their services, there is more flexibility in their worship, more youth oriented preachers are given centre stage. A major contention point used to be that of dressing. These churches are no longer as strict so that now a female doesn’t have to cover her hair and could also wear trousers which was hitherto frowned at.

It is possible today to enter a Methodist cathedral and the only difference with God will do it Ministries would be the edifice and possibly the priests. Orthodox churches that are refusing to comply are losing their youths faster than one can blink. What to do? The only solution I see now is for the older generation churches to make their churches youth-friendly. This is not to say that they should lose their essence. To appeal to the youths who constitute a huge percentage of our population, free worship sessions should be encouraged more often than the predictable and sometimes boring monotonous services. Whilst a more liberal approach is ok with regard to dressing, they should not go over board by compromising and permitting sin in form of outfits, also greater interaction should be encouraged between the congregation and the leadership.

Above all it should be borne in mind that worship devoid of Christ is no worship at all. So in making all these changes and more, the greatest emphasis should be placed on the pre-eminence of the triune God.