Room for God? - Softcover

Wenz, Dr. Bob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1419675621 ISBN 13: 9781419675621

Publisher: BookSurge Publishing, 2007

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From the Author

Fifteen years ago as a pastor, I wrote God Centered Worship in an Age of Man Centered Christianity. It would be published the next year by Baker Books as Room for God? A Worship Challenge for a Church Growth and Marketing Era. I wrote as a pastor for pastors and church leaders and was very pleased with the response I received because it seems that the issues I raised resonated with readers. It was the height of the church growth era and many were concerned, as I was, that in the midst of the efforts to take the gospel to the baby boomer generation that worship had become forgotten at best and distorted at worst. At times, worship and evangelism had become so blurred that it was difficult to distinguish between the two. Some churches so watered down the gospel of salvation by grace and through faith in Christ that grace ceased to be amazing and became only synonym for God's love for generally well deserving people. It was an era when many churches went to war over worship styles, the consequence of never having developed or discussed a Biblical theology of worship. The book was reviewed favorably in a number of periodicals, including Worship Leader magazine; and I believe I contributed to the discussion about the centrality and importance of both the practice of worship and the Biblical principles the under gird it.
            Now, nearly a generation later the ripples caused by the church growth movement continue to move through the church. Many church growth methodologies are now second nature to a whole generation of pastors. Everyone now knows that church location is critical, that good nursery care is essential, and that Saturday night services are not just for the Catholic churches. In spite of their high visibility, the megachurch still only accounts for a small portion the total church population. With only 20 per cent of U.S. churches experiencing conversion growth in a given year it is apparent that the church growth methodologies are not a panacea, that most megachurches are really just cannibalizing smaller churches, or both. So even as mega-churches abound [numbering more than 1000 with weekend attendance of 2500] and continuing to grow, the final verdict on the impact of the church growth movement is still some years away.
            For hundreds of churches the issues of worship, evangelism, and the relevance of the Gospel continue to be important issues that have not gone away. In reality, the questions are even more difficult and the environment is even more challenging than ever. Most people in the western world had never heard the word postmodern in 1989 when postmodern era is said to have commenced. In retrospect, however, it is clear that seeds of postmodern thought, sewn throughout the 20th century were beginning to sprout during the last decade of that momentous century. The prevailing Judeo-Christian worldview that dominated western culture for the 20th century has been giving way to Postmodernism. With its denial of hierarchical truth, its deconstruction of language, its denial of a meta-narrative, its denial of intrinsic meaning, and its overall disdain for consistency - all of which we will examine - postmodernism is really not a word view at all, but an "anti-worldview."
            What has made the spiritual landscape even more complex and even more confusing today than ever is a disturbing movement in the evangelical church that suggests an "if-you-can't-beat-them-join-them" posture in the face of postmodernism. The emergent church movement - as difficult to define as its secular counterpart - has drawn in many with its critical assessment of the modern church and especially its judgments against the church growth movement. Yet the emergent church movement is not a corrective to the church growth movement; it really constitutes a huge step in the opposite direction, at times going beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy. The emergent movement uses compelling language emphasizing "community" and "journey" and, especially "missional" -- words apparently chosen to highlight the shortcomings of the modern church. Those shortcomings include the corporate model of church organizations, resulting in a lack of true fellowship - which appears a valid observation. A list of the church's alleged shortcomings also includes the proclamation of propositional truth because it offends the postmodern. Contemporary worship, argue the emergent voices, has become formulistic, performance based and irrelevant to both Christians and seekers alike. It needs both new creative and esthetic input from the arts as well as a renaissance of the ancient forms of the early church.
            An important and wide-ranging debate about the emergent church and its theology is ongoing in books and blogs. My concern here relates to worship. The problem is that the gospel of the emergent church - having capitulated to the postmodern thought - offers almost nothing to celebrate and no One to worship. Actually, it constitutes a crisis; for what is emerging and taking shape in the emergent church is not gospel-lite (the accommodation of the church growth movement in the seeker driven church). The gospel refashioned to accommodate the postmodern audience abandons and effectively denies the essence of historic orthodoxy. Candles and art and Gregorian chants can create a mood for worship, but without the gospel of a Holy God's grace for sinners through faith in Jesus' atoning work on the cross, there nothing that compels and sustains worship in spirit and in truth.
            In the simplest terms, we don't know how good the good news is until we know how bad the bad news is. The gospel is at the heart of true worship, and true worship is the heart of the church. Everything in the church orbits around worship - evangelism, disciple making, missions, care for the poor, and even care for the earth. All the other activities of the church and each of us individually are temporary. Only worship is eternal for it is the enduring purpose for which God created us.
            A revised Room for God?, which you hold in your hands, begins with an assessment of the urgent need to hold on to Biblical worship in the contemporary evangelical world where we continue to find the ripples of the church growth era as well as the newer ripples of emergent movement. Because worship is only the tip of a theological iceberg that protrudes through the water, the heart of this book then goes beneath the surface in search of a deeper understanding of the Grace of God. Faulty or inadequate worship usually floats on top of an inadequate understanding of grace. The third section of the book will investigate what the Bible itself says about worship in principle and practice.
            My passion for worship began twenty years ago with a course on worship. The fires were stoked further when I later pastored a church in the heart of church growth country [Southern California], but time of study and thought then was personal - how do I navigate my way through this church growth era as a pastor?   Now, after having moved from pastoral ministry to a national platform for three years with the National Association of Evangelical, I was afforded a national perspective on the church. I have now postured myself and my ministry to help the church in whatever way I can hold on to - or in some cases recapture - and protect a Biblical perspective and Biblical principles of worship. This volume is but one way in which I hope to help. God willing, what I have written will lead to other avenues to come.
Dr. Bob Wenz
Renewing Rotal Worship Ministries
Colorado Springs, CO

About the Author

Following 25 years in pastoral ministry, Dr. Bob Wenz served as the Vice President of the National Association of Evangelicals in both Washington D.C., and in Colorado Springs. He has now returned to a ministry focused on his principal passion and his primary calling: a teaching, training and coaching ministry for churches and pastors to elevate worship and preaching to a higher level. Dr .Wenz holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University in speech communication, a master’s degree in religion from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a doctor of ministry degree from Bethel Theological Seminary. He served as senior pastor of churches in Michigan, New York, California and Washington, D.C., during which time he also developed an international teaching and training ministry for national church leaders and missionaries. He has ministered in more than 40 countries since 1987. Bob teaches at The King’s College and Seminary in the areas of preaching, hermeneutics, worship, and pastoral ministries. He also teaches philosophy and speech at Pikes Peak College in Colorado Springs. Previously, he taught public speaking at Arizona State University and the history of the church and Christian thought at Nyack College in Washington D.C. He has been married to Suellen for 31 years and they have two children.

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