Ilkley Baptist

Last night was the first meeting of a small group to offer alternative worship in Ilkley. People from three of the churches (there will be more) met in a home and, before eating together, shared various contributions on the theme of doorways; a quiet meditative, thought-provoking time. There was no leader, but the person who has done more of this sort of thing before gently asked a few questions about why we had chosen what we had chosen, why we had said what we said. It asked for interpretation and for a bit of personal disclosure. There was more debate and discussion about where we were coming from and where we hoped to go as we ate our meal.

I think, looking back, that those are the two things I learnt. The spirit of alternative worship is that you are not told what to think, or how to respond, or what this means; you are left to work out your own answers and to find your own way through the worship. It is a buffet, not a set menu with silver service. But interpretation can be offered. Not saying that this is the one meaning, but that this is what I find in it, and this may provoke others to make their own response.

Which leads on to the other revelation: that worship has to be personal to be worthwhile. Each of us has to find ourself in order to engage in worship, and we are aided in this by others revealing something of themselves, if it is done in the right spirit. This is, of course true in all sorts of worship. Preaching has been described as truth through personality. The great fight for a worship leader is to stop the congregation sitting back into conventionality. Worship must be about the people there, about engagement within and between, if it is to have a chance of touching God.