THE WORSHIP VIBE - WORSHIP IN A DIGITAL WORLD | Rex Miller

“The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out.” — Dee Hock, Founder of VISA

I introduced seven emerging realities that will drive society in my book, The Millennium Matrix. They are; accelerating change, interconnectedness, complexity, real-time fulfillment, unpredictability, virtuality, and convergence. The cause is the rise of interactive digital communication. These define the conditions that every person, organization, and institution must confront—including the church. Worship leaders have been the churches vanguard in sensing this sea change. This article pushes us from sensing to understanding the roots behind the tremendous dislocation and spiritual hunger we see all around us, every day – especially in our congregations.

“The ability to communicate—readily, at great distances, in robes of light—is so crucial and coveted that in the Bible it is embodied only in angels. Distance is a fundamental premise of a material world. . . . When anyone can transmit any amount of information, any picture, any experience, any opportunity to anyone or everyone, anywhere, at any time, instantaneously, without barriers of convenience or cost, the resulting transformation becomes a transfiguration. The power it offers bring us back to the paradigms of paradise and its perils, prophets and their nemeses: infinite abundance and demonic scarcities.” — George Gilder, Telecosm

Digital technology is changing our sense of time and history, both pulling the future into our awareness and drawing in the best of the past. Digital technology allows us to recontextualize past events and develop a kaleidoscope of current experiences and future possibilities. It treats time as malleable, to be compressed or expanded as needed.

The shift to a digitally defined culture is not just a change in technology, attitude, or understanding. It is a sensory change with revolutionary implications. In the Oral world, we were surrounded by God’s mystery: anything was possible in these days of miracles. In the Print world, we shifted to believe we know the “what” and “why” of the world—and if we didn’t, surely with some effort we could. In the Broadcast world, we could suddenly peek behind the curtain to discover that those who told us they knew the answers really didn’t and that the world was more fluid than it was stable. Today we are looking at a future where change is the "stable" principle, the organizing principle, and the foundation from which we build. No wonder we feel the turbulence of Vertigo!

In the coming Digital universe, change will no longer be an issue to cope with, but the assumed condition of existence. There lays at the boundaries of our social order glimpses into new realities. These glimpses are becoming clearer as we begin to collectively peek through the door to a digital universe. Its hyper-reality has not only brought new insights, but has sparked a thirst for deeper connections at all levels.

We now have the means to extend our desires into anyplace or into anything we choose. Our imaginary games of fantasy can for the first time achieve virtual reality leading to a corresponding physical expression. There are theoretically no boundaries or restrictions within this environment. The gravitational pull of our traditional worldview is being eliminated and we are experiencing a social and moral weightlessness as a consequence. This, in part, has led to the growing sense of social, spiritual and personal Vertigo.

Our minds and bodies will undergo a rewiring to support this different sensory experience. The quality of our relationships will change completely as will our organizations, communities and society. This new worldview will generate a new ordering of our world.

•	They will want direct, hands-on experiences. They will want their reality unmediated, not produced.
•	They will rely on relationships first and organizations second.
•	They will turn to peers before they check with “authorized” sources.
•	They will innovate before they adopt.
•	They will embrace “open source” technologies and organizations and reject proprietary technology and proprietary thinking. Open source thinking is the opposite of branding.
•	They will demand immediate feedback and results.
•	They will be able to analyze both content and context.
•	They will see the world more “mythically”—thinking globally rather than locally—and be better able to deal with the world’s complex conflicts.
•	They well speak and think fluently with multi-media in the same way we think of being multi-lingual.
•	They will be able to integrate both right and left brain processes.
•	They will push the extremes in a search for the center.
•	They will flock like birds, not march like soldiers.
•	They will be blind to boundaries.
•	They will see the world as permeable, not sealed within a series of closed systems.
•	They will see value and meaning tied to relationships and context, not as abstract and universal.

Personally, my first language is Broadcast, my second is Print, my third is Digital. The difference between my approach to using the computer and my children’s approach provides a metaphor for our differing worldviews. I use only a portion of its capabilities. I use it for specific functions and do so self-consciously. My children, on the other hand, find new applications every week and solve technical challenges that I quickly give up on. I work with my computer while my children live with it. How will this emerging worldview manifest itself in our expressions of worship and the subculture or the worship industry?

The Worship Vibe

Pastors have focused on the preaching and teaching elements of their trade since the Reformation, but emerging leaders are far more engaged in worship than ever before. The worship vibe will extend beyond the actual performance and captures the attitude and atmosphere of the entire church. In the lexicon of these rising leaders, every church has a worship vibe, and that vibe deals with more than just worship style.

Today, the dominant church structure paradigm places the pastor at the top, which means that preaching and teaching take priority and everything else is secondary. As we divide the church into separate functions or departments, the role of the worship leader has become a distinct and elevated position. This kind of bureaucracy, however, creates inevitable internal competition. Sunday, for the church, often shows a polished family portrait, but behind the scenes the family members are often jockeying for their part of the Sunday pie.

In what I’m calling the “Convergence” or “Living Church,” the role of protecting the worship vibe is necessary in order to overcome the gravity of functionalism and politics. The worship vibe has to maintain reality—the good and the bad. Protecting reality sets the organization free from divisive politics and from falling into the trap of buying into one’s own hype.

Protecting the worship vibe also means ensuring that the pace favors relationships over functionalism. It means helping maintain perspective, and creating an environment where Christ is found and honored through the most simple and mundane acts of service.

Protecting the worship vibe also means having that “red flag” mechanism Jim Collin’s discusses in Good to Great. It’s the canary used in mine shafts to detect noxious fumes. It’s the sonar that sends out signals to reading the echoes that return. There is no position or function designated or defined that describes this role or what it provides – yet. Politicians have consultants that try to read the whims of public opinion. Corporations hire advertising firms to test marketing strategies. Kings had their prophets. Today, for the Church – we need individuals with trusted discernment who can tell when the tail begins to wag the dog, when the train begins to leave the tracks, when the “emperor” has no clothes, when discord has taken root and on and on. Boards of directors, boards of elders and similar governing bodies are insufficient and typically part of the problem if there is a problem.

This is not a governing function – this is an ecological issue. It has to do with protecting and nurturing the spiritual environment. Protecting the worship vibe goes so much further than Sunday. Should we aim for anything less in protecting the spiritual refuge of the church?

Masters of Worship

I encourage worship leaders to study the fundamentals behind our shift from print and broadcast to interactive digital communication – to understand the medium that shapes our sensibilities and informs our experiences. Worship leaders are typically more immersed in the technology than their leadership peers. However, don’t confuse technological sophistication with understanding and mastering the medium. The story of Frankenstein is the classic warning to all who adopt technology as a tool of salvation without understanding its nature to beguile and take on a life of its own. The tail too easily wags the dog but at the same time we have to become totally fluent in this new medium. This tension and conflict is our safeguard. Let worship leaders wrestle with their tools of expression until, like Jacob, the angel of the Lord dislocates your hip and you walk forever with a limp. Without the limp you may not be able to discern the seduction of the medium from the power of the Lord.

Paul achieved this level of immersion and mastery. Leonardo Da Vinci is another example. Da Vinci, as a master artist, understood the strengths and limitations of the mediums he worked with. Oils on canvass behave differently than watercolor on paper or acrylic on hardboard. Da Vinci may take the same subject but each medium requires a completely unique approach and technique. The distinction between a master artist and a very good one is that the master transcends the medium and time with an image that penetrates the soul. Very good artists create impressive works but they remain captive to their mediums.

If we study the emerging medium of interactive digital communication we will be able to go beyond our current paradigms of worship and find a broader role and a higher goal – mastering worship in the context of congregational community so we can liberate our worship to the Master.