On my commute home from work today there was an interesting story on NPR about one faith tradition revitalizing the church and renewing their worship for the next generation.  Some of you probably heard it too.  What really caught my attention was the part towards the end of the piece where they were talking about the changes made to the worship service:

On a recent Sunday morning, 1,200 [worshipers] fill the cavernous ballroom at the Manhattan Center in New York City. They leap to their feet and wave their arms as a rock band plays a mix of Fleetwood Mac and worship music with a thumping beat. They fall silent as the lights dim, and burst into applause when, theatrically, a single light comes up to reveal a woman behind a podium.

…

She speaks without notes for 40 minutes, weaving personal anecdotes with references to the Bible, Aristotle and Christian leaders. She is the 44-year-old daughter of [the founding pastor], and a graduate of Harvard Divinity School. When her father appointed her to head the U.S. church 18 months ago, she focused on one simple goal: to win back young people.

…

[She] replaced the old holy songs with rock ‘n’ roll, and florescent lighting with concert lighting and a giant video screen.

…

She… faced a problem that plagues even established churches: How do you transmit the passion of a convert to a child who merely inherits the faith?

…

So [she] did what the evangelicals do: She used music and technology to spark spiritual experiences. She says it is working.

“Some have called it ‘electricity running through my body, feeling of warmth — just feeling as if they’re engulfed in love,'” she says. “For those kids who come and have that conversion experience, then their belief system becomes theirs.”

Since [she] took over, weekly attendance has nearly doubled.

Yes, this is one of my set-ups.  For those that heard this piece you know that it is not about some generic evangelical church, but rather the Unification Church and “the leader” is In Jin Moon, daughter of the founder and church messiah, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

Check it out.  I eliminated a bunch of identifying information and talk about the church establishment’s response to her leadership and change in worship style.  But I think I give you all the relevant quotes regarding the worship service.

Obviously what struck me was that beyond the identifying information about the church this discussion could have been describing a great number of contemporary Christian worship services.  In style, at least as described, there are no obvious differences.

In fact, what information the story gives about the substance of worship could easily be contemporary Christian worship:  Preaching using “personal anecdotes with references to the Bible, Aristotle and Christian leaders.”  Music with rock replacing “holy songs.” (OK, so I would hope not to hear Fleetwood Mac songs in worship, but I know that Beetles music has been used in contemporary Christian worship.)

And what are they looking for?  The experience — “electricity running through my body, feeling of warmth — just feeling as if they’re engulfed in love.”

But it gets results — if you count the doubling of attendance as a measure of success.

It does bother me when the description of contemporary Unificationist worship is practically indistinguishable from contemporary Christian worship.  I will admit that we don’t have the words of the songs and the text of the message, but the substance and focus of the worship should make them distinctive from one another.  Yes, Ms. Moon admits to borrowing from evangelical services, but when a style is so generic that it is “platform independent” I do have to wonder what we are doing.

I will admit that I am painting with a broad brush here.  And I know that I don’t have all the details about the content of the worship music and message.  But in a way, that is the point.  What is catching the media attention and what is drawing people in sure is presented as the style and not the substance.

Yes, I am a broken record about this, but without apology I say again that the marks of the substance of our worship should be:

[F]irst, the true preaching of the word of God, in which God has revealed himself to us, as the writings of the prophets and apostles declare; secondly, the right administration of the sacraments of Christ Jesus, to which must be joined the word and promise of God to seal and confirm them in our hearts; [Scots Confession, 1560]