NT Wright:: The tension of Worship and Mission

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This quote comes from "The meaning of Jesus; Two vision" by NT Wright and Marcus J Borg. The quote is NT Wrights::

I have come (not very originally) to envisage the two poles of Christian living in terms of worship and mission. The two flow into each other: worship without mission becomes self-indulgence (and might imply worship of a god other than the one revealed in Jesus); mission without worship degenerates into various kinds of do-goodery, following agendas that may be deeply felt but are by no means necessarily connected with Jesus.

Its interesting that I've seen this on both sides. Yet it is mainly my Charismatic/Evangelical heritage especially in the Vineyard denomination which I saw an extreme of 'worshipping' the god of worship.  I suspect it would have been this way if I went to Hillsong.

There is no doubt that good music/worship is an attractive influence on going to Church. I miss the "minors" of the Jesus is my boyfriend of worship music of the modern era. The new church which we attend the music is back a couple of decades in worship music style. But what I appreciate is the whole service is a call to worship. The lyrics are majestic in nature, aimed at God and his creation. Yet even though there is a different emphasis I think the balance of mission  is lacking. So its probably up to myself to balance the tension with mission....

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A look into "Mega Church"

One thing I'm quite interested in is the "insiders" look into the 'Mega Church". Neal of at Hand to the Plough", put me onto the "Thinking Theologian" an x-staffers take on the mega church phenomena. The Thinking Theologians was gone for a while and now he is back. Here is the reason::

In early May I was contacted by a Hillsong pastor, with whom I discussed this blog and my motives behind running it.
Whilst it was admitted that Hillsong are unable to close down the blog, I nevertheless voluntarily took down the content; to show willing in maintaining a healthy, constructive dialogue with the Hillsong leadership.
I have since had several conversations with the leadership, in which I voiced my various concerns regarding Hillsong. I remain convinced, however, of the very evident need for frank and open critique of Hillsong’s culture, systems, and world-view.
I have therefore re-posted The Thinking Theologian, and advised the Hillsong leadership of my intention to continue the blog.

So far it doesn't have the bitterness that you couldn't help feeling from Tania Levin People in Glass Houses. Roughly on the same subject.

I might add that I think the mega church is an important part of the Christian landscape. They can make a huge difference. That concerns need to have a place to be aired even if it is public! I think the bigger the church the greater transparency needs to be. Not only by those inside and part of the church, but those outside. Open the books everything!

(Update I've noticed that thinking theolgian has deleted a lot of his posts, you can still read them in google reader if you add the blog address to the reader, good old google and cacheing)