Church for a changing culture: an introduction to alternative worship

14: Tools for encounter

Alternative Worship tries to give people 'tools' for honest encounters with God.

'Tools' might mean prayer, pens and paper, a video loop, something to eat, someone to talk to, Holy Communion, or anything else that can help us to meet God in some way. Alternative Worship invents new tools and reinvents old ones, but they all have one important characteristic - they don't lead to predetermined outcomes. That is to say, we seek to bring God and the participant together - but not to manipulate the encounter to get specific 'results'. This is essential to protect its genuineness.

But 'open-ended tools' will seem dangerous to many - how can we be sure it's 'safe'?

What if people get the wrong ideas? Well, there has been editorial control, if you like, in the designing of the 'tools' - they are designed by Christians, used in the context of a Christian act of worship, to make an encounter with the Christian God. But what the parties do with the encounter is up to them. We trust God to make use of what we offer, and we trust people with the tools rather than treating them as children who must be closely watched or controlled.

The implication of all this is that the team who organise the event see themselves as facilitators rather than leaders.

Their skills are put to helping everyone present, themselves included, have an authentic encounter with God. They don't presume to dictate the content of that encounter or where it should lead. They trust that God will deal with people with infinite sensitivity for their situations. The absence of pressure, or concern for specific 'results', encourages openness to God. Amazing encounters may follow.