being authentic...
"Authenticity" is one of those values of postmoderns and the emerging church that seems to go underdefined. I guess we assume we can tell when something is authentic. In church on Sunday we talked about prayer being authentic communication with God. We talk about worship being authentic. We talk about living authentic lives. What does it mean for me to be authentic?
Bill Cosby told a joke in the classic standup routine Bill Cosby:Himself. A man to whom he was speaking said "I drink because alcohol enhance your personality" Bill's response is "Yeah, but what if you're an asshole?"
That was mostly antecdotal. My point, can being "authentic" conflict with being "Christ-like"?
I think the answer is "no". (see, you thought I was going to be anti-authenticity)
Being authentic, as I understand it, means being what God created you to be. This is something unique for all of us. I don't want to drag the worship conversation out again (God knows, 20 comments later that thing was beat to death!) but I think one of the major issues with worship is that we are made to conform to modes of worship that are inauthentic to how we would truly express our gratitude to God. One of the things I really loved about my church in Pittsburgh was that we had stations set up during the worship service with different means of reflection at each station. Some of us are old school and get alot from sitting in chair or pew and listening to a sermon. But some of us need to get up when we hear smoething that really touches our soul and journal, or draw, or paint, or pray, or etc... I personally am not much of an in-worship doodler, but I have tons of respect for folks who are and see it as a part of their worship of God.
Prayer is another thing. Prayer throughout the Bible is a deeply personal and unique thing. Sure, there is always a place for the "Dear God, thanks for all the stuff ya' do" kinds of prayers, but there also needs to be space made for "WTF, God?!" prayers. (yes, that is one I have said. This week in fact.)
A great example for authenticity is Laryn Hill's Unplugged album. If you haven't heard this cd, please let me know and I will make it my personal mission to play it for you. Intermixed with the music, which is this amazing fusion of hip hop and folk music, are these interludes which play out like mini-sermons about her spiritual journey. She talks alot about breaking out of religious conformity and finding her own unique expression of worship. This expression, as I mentioned, manifests itself in a fantasticly original rapper/singer-songwriter hybrid style of music. It is authentic to who she was in that place and time and expressed her theology, her praise, and her heartache. There's not alot of hip hop folk singers in the world and by taking a risk and being herself (fusing her passions) Laryn Hill created smoething brilliant and, yes, authentic.
Does the church let us take risks? Does it let us be ourselves? Does it allow for new expressions of who God is in our lives and in the world? We pay some amount of lip service to authenticity, but I wonder how many of us are willing to take the risk of being truly authentic. It might result in something that people have never seen before. Some won't like it. But authenticity is worth the risk. It's worth it to be who God made you to be.
Bill Cosby told a joke in the classic standup routine Bill Cosby:Himself. A man to whom he was speaking said "I drink because alcohol enhance your personality" Bill's response is "Yeah, but what if you're an asshole?"
That was mostly antecdotal. My point, can being "authentic" conflict with being "Christ-like"?
I think the answer is "no". (see, you thought I was going to be anti-authenticity)
Being authentic, as I understand it, means being what God created you to be. This is something unique for all of us. I don't want to drag the worship conversation out again (God knows, 20 comments later that thing was beat to death!) but I think one of the major issues with worship is that we are made to conform to modes of worship that are inauthentic to how we would truly express our gratitude to God. One of the things I really loved about my church in Pittsburgh was that we had stations set up during the worship service with different means of reflection at each station. Some of us are old school and get alot from sitting in chair or pew and listening to a sermon. But some of us need to get up when we hear smoething that really touches our soul and journal, or draw, or paint, or pray, or etc... I personally am not much of an in-worship doodler, but I have tons of respect for folks who are and see it as a part of their worship of God.
Prayer is another thing. Prayer throughout the Bible is a deeply personal and unique thing. Sure, there is always a place for the "Dear God, thanks for all the stuff ya' do" kinds of prayers, but there also needs to be space made for "WTF, God?!" prayers. (yes, that is one I have said. This week in fact.)
A great example for authenticity is Laryn Hill's Unplugged album. If you haven't heard this cd, please let me know and I will make it my personal mission to play it for you. Intermixed with the music, which is this amazing fusion of hip hop and folk music, are these interludes which play out like mini-sermons about her spiritual journey. She talks alot about breaking out of religious conformity and finding her own unique expression of worship. This expression, as I mentioned, manifests itself in a fantasticly original rapper/singer-songwriter hybrid style of music. It is authentic to who she was in that place and time and expressed her theology, her praise, and her heartache. There's not alot of hip hop folk singers in the world and by taking a risk and being herself (fusing her passions) Laryn Hill created smoething brilliant and, yes, authentic.
Does the church let us take risks? Does it let us be ourselves? Does it allow for new expressions of who God is in our lives and in the world? We pay some amount of lip service to authenticity, but I wonder how many of us are willing to take the risk of being truly authentic. It might result in something that people have never seen before. Some won't like it. But authenticity is worth the risk. It's worth it to be who God made you to be.
in short, "no". the church does not allow us to take risks, to experiment, to seek authenticity, to be ourselves, any of that stuff. sometimes not even a little bit.
we have the example of SFTS chapel worship, where branching out into new things seems almost impossible. experimentation is very, very low. to me, it is often indistinguishable from zero.
and compared to the average congregation, SFTS chapel is almost avant-garde. its...demoralizing, frankly. how can we possibly find god if we can't even go looking?
this is the major, number-one reason i'm even considering new church development as a phone-hating introverted demophobe. i feel like it would be hard for me to help people like me find god through modern worship services, traditional or contemporary. and that's an awful feeling. and i remember how hard it was to get an experimental service at my old church in akron - and that was with full support of the pastor and an unusual session.
that's what i want, though. experimental church. experimental worship. science finds the truth by testing what it thinks is true. why can't we do the same? not through reductionism, but good ol'fashioned experientialism.
its a little overwhelming because we're talking about a paradigm-shift, and those function at a glacial pace if they happen at all.
just give me a little piece of property or store-front somewhere and about a hundred people who want to try new ways of doing church and i'm pretty much happy.
Posted by
Douglas Underhill |
12:05 PM
I think this idea of authenticity in Postmodern discourse, though it has the danger of being little more than a buzz word with no real substance, could be a really useful way of talking practically about some theological ideas.
Specifically I think it might have some interesting intersections with the concept of Imago Dei. In which, case I think it ought to be clarified that authenticity should not become an excuse to be unwilling to change, to be inconsiderate of others, or generally to just do whatever "feels good". However, if we look at it as an encouragement to try and live into that original self that we are created to be and we see imaged in Christ, then authenticity could be a very rich and worthy goal.
Posted by
Anonymous |
1:42 PM