Continuing some thoughts on Hoyt Hickman's worship work

The late Hoyt Hickman, one of the Deans of modern United Methodist liturgical thought, wrote a book titled Worshiping with United Methodists.¹ In it, he sought to answer the question, “What is Christian worship?” He listed five assumptions that characterize Christian worship.  His fourth notion is: Worship should be relevant and inclusive.

“Relevant” is a word from which I nearly turn and run.  I get it.  I even agree with it.  And, I am hard-pressed to find a fully appropriate alternative.  But I spent so long – particularly during my seminary years – listening to all kinds of people harp on “relevance, that to this day it makes my skin crawl.” 

It is certainly the case that what the church does, and this is nowhere more vital than during worship, should be germane to the lives of its membership.  It is also true that sometimes our worship can be so dated and full of bells & smells that it might as well be in Latin.  Worship that does not connect with the real lives of worshipers is no worship at all.

My knee-jerk reaction to the R-word is based on my experience of people who acted as if “relevance” was something they could package.  They might not know what it was, but they knew it when they saw it.  It is as if they could impose relevance on the worship event with a guitar and sandals.

My take on worship that is relevant is that it meets people where they are and connects them with the Spirit of God.  That means that a great deal of the heavy lifting must be done by worshipers.  Because for all else that happens in worship, the focus is on God.  Worshipers bring a gift of adoration and praise to God Almighty.  It is not up to Christian worship to foster a feeling or emotion or even a state of mind.  Christian worship is about bringing worshiper to the Worshiped.  When worship fosters an opportunity for the congregation to assemble at the foot of the Throne of Grace – that, y’all, is relevant worship.

¹Nashville: Abingdon, 1996.