I keep trying and trying Contemporary Services (they're at decent times of the day). At my church the music, tho' shallow, has God centered lyrics and the voices are very good. No strange colored lights or heavy metal. What I have a real problem with is that I didn't join an Evangelical church! That is NOT worship of God to my mind! I am an ex-AngloCatholic and ex-RC that can't find a traditional Anglican Church in my town (and my dr doesn't want me driving on freeways) so I joined a LCMS/Lutheran church. I very much like their beliefs and the super friendliness of this congregation, just not their liturgies and looking at liturgies at other LCMS churches around the country shows that this Evangelical style worship is the new thing.
One of the huge shocks for me at one stage in my life was to realise that I had been away from my home parish for 4 years, and when I returned it could no longer be home to me. I wanted to go to Church for worship - to put God at the centre of my life - but the emphasis in the parish was fellowship and about the time we spent with one another. In fairness I think I had had a range of experience that had changed me somewhat in that time, however I also feel that they had moved a little in the other direction. Good luck on the search. I saw a church sign the other day offering 'Fresh Lite All-age Church', and I wondered what any of that might mean, and left me feeling I probably didn't want to know. What does Lite Church look like??? Anyway I have no doubt they are good people.
This worship is intolerable and heretical and I refuse to even pray in such churches. Some LCMS churches are very liturgically traditional however, so your quest would either be to find one or go with an alternative. I myself am proud of the fact that the average age of the hymns my church will be singing in the morning is roughly 1,000 years.
I myself was alienated from the UMC parish where I was baptized, baptized, mind you, in this manner! I would not be so sure. OSAS and some hardcore Reformed types in my experience are morally bankrupt hypocrites. I fear to interact with people who believe that they can sin with impunity and not risk hellfire, as a matter of safety.
Ironically, while contemporary worship is one of (but not the chief) reasons I wish to move to an anglican parish, it is also why I am prevented: I am the lead sound engineer, and I can't find anyone to replace me, and I refuse to just walk out on a parish that is family to me. Our worship leader will refer fondly to a hymn by Fanny Crosby as "an old hymn of the church" to which I correct him, that, no but "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" MIGHT be.
The Anglican Church I attend has contemporary music but a traditional liturgy. It is kinda of an odd mix but I do like the priest.
My first LCMS pastor and his wife were thoroughly opposed to introducing 'seeker sensitive' concepts to the evangelistic programs of the church. I remember a particular conversation where the wife remarked, "Why is the contemporary service always the late service? And the traditional service is always at the crack of dawn. I wonder what would happen if they flipped the schedule and made the traditional service the late service?" Well, I actually saw that experiment conducted when I lived in Corpus Christi, TX. The RC chaplain to the military base was a former Episcopalian who had joined the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He was obligated by his affiliation with the Archdiocese of the military to offer the Novus Ordo mass as well as the Anglican Use. He did Novus Ordo at 9 and Anglican Use at 11. I suspect he had done this knowing precisely that younger military people are keen on that later time on a weekend. This allowed him, when he reported his statistics, to claim he had a viable Ordinariate mission going (which he did not).
I really wished that people who accuse liturgical worship of merely going through the motions and have dead faith see that we aren't following dead rites and liturgy is actually helpful for spiritual formation. Spoiler Just being naughty: I don't have a term to describe contemporary churchmanship so I made up a term for it - Dropped church.
Liturgical worship means that the is a plan, there is a map, we know where we are going, and we know how to meaningfully participate. The root words for the word liturgy are laos and ergon meaning the people's work. It seems to me that without liturgy we run the risk of performance where we have something that is done to the people, not by the people.
I've heard it said that tradition is the living faith of the dead and traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
In the same boat here....everybody's gone contemporary....or just as confusing bi-lingual services....In the same situation you are, kinda former Lutheran trying to find a good Anglo/Lutheran service thats not lead by Ted Nugent and The Rolling Stones.. After working weekends for years, and now haveing Sundays off work, I now am exploring my local are (Seattle) for a good Sunday morning service (Sat evening service aka: REO Speedwagon and Friends) just don't quite hack it with me
And it isn't just the area we're in, (I'm in western Wa too), but I've checked - it's true no matter where you are. I guess I'll just have to go extremely early in the morning, and if that's so casual that I don't think it's any better, I'll have to see if I can stomach the Episcopal church here or if it's any better. If not, I'll just have to stay home on the weekends there isn't any Eucharist. At least both churches do lots of necessary things esp for the homeless or poverty stricken kids.
Well, there we have it. "Truth will out." There was a time when I saw how most of the people in my RC parish were just going through the motions. Moving to a pentecostal church was like getting pulled out of quicksand and being twirled around on a carousel ride; it really woke us up! Half the congregation seemed to be on fire! And the messages were so much more edifying, too. But 30+ years later, I was seeing the same things in the pentecostal churches as I'd seen in that RC parish: mediocre messages, people going through the motions, etc. It became a chore to go to church. Thank God, He showed me where to go to remedy all of it. It doesn't seem like many of the people at this Anglican church are sleepwalking, and the rector certainly knows how to 'bring the Word.'
It is very good that you have found such a parish and I hope it remains so. But the point of my post (and I believe you got it) is that no one tradition is ammune to dead religion, even those who left "tradition" behind (or so they thought). It is a matter of the heart, both individually and collectivelly.
Exactly. The future is unknown. And if I ever see my church going in the wrong direction, I'll know what I have to do. Brigid, if you have no real options besides contemporary, remember that your decision should be guided by the input of the Holy Spirit. He will give you a sense of peace for following a certain course of action; follow His peace. And please keep in mind that whatever it is might not seem pleasing to you in some respects, but God's reason for planting you someplace might be so you can be of service and a blessing to others. We see the present and recall (with imperfection) the past, but God knows the future. HE knows what you should do!
Update: I can't stomach going to the Episcopal church here! I looked on their website and the gay flag and the trans flag hold as much prominence as the Anglican/Episcopal symbol. It's downgrading it's denomination/Christianity for PC. I'm not able to commune there. Other websites show similar things in this area. I'd need to go to church in the mid-west or east coast in order to find something close to Our Lord. I will need to stay with the LCMS totally. At least their major emphasis is Him and His Word. Jeffg - I hope and pray for your search for a good traditional parish, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too high in this area. You would think with the Episcopal church losing so many parishioners that they would look at the cause!