I stayed up really late last night shooting the bull with my buddies in my residece hall here at Kansas University. The conversation turned to religion, as it frequently does, so instead of retiring at a reasonable hour, I decided to brave it to the very end. Somehow, the issue of contemporary versus traditional worship came up, and I was very happy to hear what my peers were saying.

Apparently, the people involved in this conversation all believed that contemporary worship has been responsible (at least in part) for an enormous reduction in the quantity and quality of theology taught in Christian(-esque) churches, even within our lifetimes (none of which are longer than 20 years). One person said that he was tired of worship which watered-down or seemed to be afraid of its teachings. One (who was raised in an extremely liberal tradition) said that she was insulted that Contemporary Worship practitioners seem to take for granted that people are not able to grasp the difficult concepts of the faith, and therefore removes anything that requires any intellect at all. She also said that she and her family refused to attend services when they were doing the "All-ages" service. (I am sure the congregation's goal in implementing the service was not to get people to stop attending.)

Another friend mentioned that he, although he has attended church regularly from infancy and has a diploma from a Christian high school, was not really introduced to such fundamental concepts as the substitutionary atonement until picking up C. S. Lewis in college. He is starting to see the benefit of more traditional worship and meaningful catechesis, even though those things are both entirely absent from the churches of his upbringing.

Most annoying to all of us was the fact that churches implement Contemporary Worship with the express purpose of attracting young people like us. A word of advice to anybody who may be toying with implementing special contemporary services aimed at attracting young people (I know I am preaching to the choir, but maybe you will show this to someone else): DON'T DO IT!

Although lots of people our age do prefer contemporary worship, many of us are actually striving to get out of those environments where we are starving for spiritual nourishment and get into those places where the Word of God permeates every part of the service. Yes, young people are moving away from CW and (hopefully) back to the traditional forms of worship that have served Christ's church so well for hundreds, even thousands of years. We don't like being separated from the "adults" in the congregations, and we don't like being spoonfed the heterodox @#$% inherent in contemporary worship.

Respectfully yours,
Jonathan Williams

Jonathan Williams
jonvw@earthling.net
http://www.ukans.edu/home/jonvw
"Nihil novum sub sole"

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