video webcasting and worship

This looks interesting in what it may be able to do for the possibilities of video in alt.worship events. It just looks like it may be getting easier to set up stuff. The interesting thing would be if the actual viewing points become more personal and the possibilities that this opens up. It also has the potential to increase isolation. Now I recognise that giving individuals their space can be a big attraction of alt.worship. On the other hand I am concerned about the potential loss of corporateness. I know when I am involved in leading this kind of worship, I tend to go into trainer mode, somewhat, and build in group exercises and the like just so that we retain the corporateness which I treally do think is theoogically demanded of us both in terms of the image of God and also the 'discerning of the body'. I also think that it is an important countercultural marker which over the next few years is likely to be less countercultural as integralist mindsets become more embedded. Th issues is how we balance the individual and the corporate.

I think that there is a lot of nonsense said and written about this. The actual fact is that there is almost always some kind of balance and trade-off between them. Some criticise modern worship songs for their slushy individualism [and there is a great deal to affirm in that critique], however it is interesting that they are usually dependent on a large crowd to gain their full emotional impact; the feelings invoked [or possibly created?] by them and poured into worship are often generated or power-assisted by the corporate context. It's one reason why music is so important in lots of contemporary worship: it does a fine job of syncing individuals particularly at an emotional level. I note that the NT has more to say about breaking bread together than singing together, yet we have, in practice, reversed that.

On the other hand it is also often the case that some ideological corporate worship events -such as a catholic mass, can be among the most isolating of the individual in practice.

The truth of the matter is that as beings who image God we reflect both the diversity and the unity; the personhood and the community impulses. What we, alternative, 'normal and emerging church, need to do is to be aware of these and to prepare for worship with them both in mind and with an eye to the blance between them.