So, I guess my little "Open Letter to Praise Bands" generated some interest.
I'm glad that it could be a catalyst or foil for some intentional reflection on the how
of Christian worship. I won't even attempt to address the array of
responses it has generated. I'm content to let some misreadings spin
themselves out. So I'm not out to police the ways I've been
misunderstood.
However, I do think it's important to name an issue in the background that affects how we can have this conversation: not all Christians share the same theology of worship. Indeed, my concern is that some sectors of North American Christianity don't have much of a theology
of worship at all. Many of us--including many congregations--have only
an implicit understanding of what worship is, and we have not always
made that explicit, nor have we subjected our assumptions to rigorous
biblical and theological evaluation.
It is my passion for theological intentionality about worship that generated my book Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation. It's not fair to ask those who read a blog post to read an entire book, but I would invite those who both agreed and those who disagreed with my "Open Letter" to consider Desiring the Kingdom as a fuller articulation of the theology of worship behind my criticisms.
Many of the negative reactions to my missive stem from a fundamentally different understanding of what worship is. That
means we are working from fundamentally different starting points. So
when someone thinks that I "misunderstand" what's happening in worship,
actually I just disagree with the assumptions behind such worship.
I
think this is why some have missed two crucial points in my "Open
Letter"--points that were admittedly touched on just briefly. Let me
reiterate them here: Continue at James K. A. Smith
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