I have just returned from three days at our Annual Conference (the yearly gathering of United Methodist clergy and laity in the state of Virginia where we worship, pray, celebrate, debate, and order our life together).
I have been going for ten years and this was the best one yet I must say. In the past, these three day events can drag and be boring. While there was nothing earth shattering in terms of the items debated this year the music was awesome this year. The focus of the three days was ministry with young people so we actually sang quite a few Tomlin songs and other top 25 favorites. We had some younger people to share messages that were really good.
I know the music and style of worship ruffled some feathers and so that is good. One woman who was walking behind me coming into the civic center was talking to her friends and about how she was going to write a letter to the Bishop complaining about the ear splitting music- blah-blah-blah. I just shook my head.
What I should have done if I thought about it at that time was tell the women that while her opinion was valid she was not the audience for the music- God was. Too many times we get caught up in our preferences in worship and forget we are not the audience so in the end it really doesn't matter whether we "like" the music or not. What this woman was voicing was the consumer mentality that has beset those in the pews in our churches. I am sure this woman was from the kind of church that would bemoan the consumer nature of all those "new churches". Hmm, who is consumerist?
Kudos to those who planned and executed the worship at Annual Conference. A job well done!
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