Being involved in discussions on what makes for good worship is an interesting experience. What I find in the midst of the back and forth banter is that the dialogue most often is not about the content and craft of worship, but its style. I am not suggesting for a moment that the style of worship is unimportant, but what I find problematic is the notion that what makes for good worship is what people believe will attract others; and they usually define attractive worship according to what they like.

Several years ago, I was out of town at a conference. On Sunday morning I made my way to a historic Congregational Church. The sanctuary was old, but well-kept and attractive. There was no screen for PowerPoint. The church has two traditional services on Sunday morning and two times for worship on Sunday evening it refers to as contemporary/liturgical. Every service was filled to capacity. The congregation was multigenerational and ethnically diverse. College students make up 38 percent of the congregation and 49 percent of the members are in their twenties. The pastor’s sermon was excellent — it was well-crafted, authentic and substantive. Indeed, the entire worship experience could be described in this way. (I forgot to mention that the Sunday I was there, they were taking in approximately 30 to 40 members at each of the four services.)