| Kentucky Baptists and Worship |
| A study conducted by Jim Cordell, director |
Several Kentucky Baptist churches are being revitalized through worship renewal. Many others need to take a serious look at why and how they do worship.
Worship has evolved into a controversial topic for many Christians today. Why has worship become a spiritual lifeline for some while others view it as something to endure? Paul B. Basden ask the question, “Should we interpret the diversity of worship styles in today’s churches as a modern-day Babel, in which the current confusion reflects the judgment of God? Or should we see what is happening rather as a modern-day Pentecost, where God’s people are praising Jesus Christ in ways and means that are not familiar to all but that are still inspired by the Spirit?”
This two-year worship research project grew out of a passion for helping Kentucky Baptist churches experience authentic corporate worship of God. I must confess that my journey into worship has to this point raised many questions.
Here are examples of questions that church leaders and concerned members are asking about worship:
- What is worship?
- How traditional or innovative should worship be?
- Is it necessary to have different services for different groups of people?
- Do we have to change the way we worship in order to grow?
- How is it possible to satisfy both the person who HATES a particular innovative aspect of worship enough to refuse to be a part of a service that includes it and the person who LOVES that aspect of worship and will not attend a service that lacks it?
- How can we pass our faith to another generation with different worship preferences?
The complexity of this important issue can best be understood when we consider the many and varied influencing factors. The many ingredients mixed together have the potential for producing a beautifully decorated cake or a disaster. Some factors are:
- The Biblical, historical, theological, cultural and contextual influences on worship
- That human nature says “We know what we like and we like what we know”
- How the secularization of our society has impacted worship for ministers and laity
- Intergenerational differences, both perceived and real
- The accelerated rate of change and the individual’s ability to embrace or resist it
- Do we understand the purpose and object of worship?
- How has post modernity impacted worship?
- The need for practical models on leading congregational change through transitions
My journey into worship has focused on both study (knowing) and experiential (being). The worship survey is but one of several components involved in the worship research project. The cumulative information in the final set of reports flows out of the following process:
- Reviewing the Biblical material on worship
- Attending six national worship workshops
- Reading several books and articles on worship
- Visiting with over seventy (70) congregations to experience worship
- Dialogue sessions with pastors and worship music leaders about worship
- Conducting a statewide worship survey
- Most importantly, bathing all this in intentional prayer and meditation
| Worship Survey Background Information |
The worship survey was developed with the assistance of a specialist in statistical research and survey developer.
Click here to read the survey for congregation members.
Click here to read the survey for church staff members.
 You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can get free.
Once the survey was developed, it was refined through input from four worship survey focus groups comprised of ministers and lay leaders.
Next the process involved dividing the 2,500 churches affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention into congregational size – small, medium, and large. Since our greatest number of churches are in the small category, next being medium, and the fewest number in the large category; we used a different ratio for each grouping to get a balanced sampling of churches. Geographical diversity was a major consideration.
Once the congregational sample consisting of 500 churches was generated, a mailing list was developed. This list targeted key leaders – pastor, worship music leader, Sunday School director, chairman of the deacons, church clerk, and WMU director. Since most of our church leaders are middle-aged and up, we endeavored to secure names and addresses of actively participating young adults (ages 20-30) to include in the survey. Unfortunately we received only 45 responses from young adults.
Click here to read the entire worship survey report.
You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you can get free. |