Worship As Playground: Living the Song-Story of God H
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Digital Commons @ George Fox University Doctor of Ministry Seminary 1-1-2013 Worship as playground: living the song-story of God H. Colleen. Butcher George Fox University This research is a product of the Doctor of Ministry (DMin) program at George Fox University. Find out more about the program. Recommended Citation Butcher, H. Colleen., "Worship as playground: living the song-story of God" (2013). Doctor of Ministry. Paper 46. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dmin/46 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Seminary at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctor of Ministry by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY WORSHIP AS PLAYGROUND: LIVING THE SONG-STORY OF GOD A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GEORGE FOX EVANGELICAL SEMINARY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF MINISTRY BY H. COLLEEN BUTCHER PORTLAND, OREGON MARCH 2013 George Fox Evangelical Seminary George Fox University Portland, Oregon CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL ________________________________ DMin Dissertation ________________________________ This is to certify that the DMin Dissertation of H. Colleen Butcher has been approved by the Dissertation Committee on March 13, 2013 for the degree of Doctor of Ministry in Semiotics and Future Studies. Dissertation Committee: Primary Advisor: Derek Voorhees, DMin Secondary Advisor: Dan Kimball, DMin Lead Mentor: Leonard I. Sweet, PhD Copyright © 2013 by H. Colleen Butcher All rights reserved The Scripture quotations contained herein are taken from the NIV Version of the Bible, unless otherwise indicated. DEDICATION To Nathan, longed for and loved gift laughter generator honesty metre budding pneumanaut. May the gathering of God’s people be, for your generation, a place where imagination will find its voice. Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. VII ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... X PREFACE ........................................................................................................................ XI INTRODUCTION METAPHORS FOR WORSHIP .................................................1 What Story Shall We Sing? ........................................................................................3 Musical Playfulness ....................................................................................................6 Sound as Norming Paradigm ....................................................................................7 A Symphony of Worship .........................................................................................12 CHAPTER ONE THE STORY WE FIND OURSELVES IN ..................................20 Church … What’s Your Story? ................................................................................22 Immersion in the Cultural Narrative .....................................................................25 Consumerism .......................................................................................................26 Individualism ......................................................................................................29 Materialism ..........................................................................................................31 Moralistic Therapeutic Deism .................................................................................33 Time for a Tune-Up ..................................................................................................38 Uninformed About the Biblical Narrative .......................................................38 Unequipped to Design Pedagogically Formative Practices ..........................40 Unintentional About the Development and Assessment of its Practices ...42 Unaware of the Importance of Cultural Exegesis or Semiotics ....................43 Conclusion .................................................................................................................45 CHAPTER TWO THE NECESSITY OF STORY ....................................................47 Why Narrative Matters ............................................................................................48 What is a Story? .........................................................................................................50 Narrative and Identity ..............................................................................................52 Homo Narrans .....................................................................................................57 Narrative and Orality ...............................................................................................59 Communicating the Alternate Narrative ..............................................................63 How Did Our Story Develop? ...........................................................................63 Story-tellers and Story-catchers ........................................................................66 The Jewish Story ..................................................................................................71 The First Nations’ Story .....................................................................................72 Church … What’s Your Story? ..........................................................................75 Conclusion .................................................................................................................78 iv CHAPTER THREE IMAGINATION .......................................................................79 Can We Imagine? ......................................................................................................80 Contours of Imagination in Philosophy ................................................................83 Kant and Heidigger ............................................................................................85 Bachelard ..............................................................................................................87 Ricoeur ..................................................................................................................89 Contours of Imagination in Contemporary Research .........................................92 Research in Brain Science ...................................................................................92 Research in the Human Sciences ......................................................................96 Contours of Imagination in the Church ...............................................................100 Imagination and Theology ..............................................................................100 Imagination in Worship ...................................................................................104 Imagination and the Church’s Problem of Inculturation ............................107 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................112 CHAPTER FOUR COVENANT, CREATIVITY AND COMMUNITAS ..........115 Let’s Make Some Music ..........................................................................................115 To ‘Apple’ or to ‘Orange’? .....................................................................................117 Re-Rooted in Covenant in Order to Risk .............................................................119 Covenant is the Irrevocable Gift of Relationship .........................................120 Covenant is Participation in the Trinitarian Dance .....................................124 Christological Hermeneutic .............................................................................127 Conclusion – Re-Rooting in Covenant in Order to Risk .............................132 Re-Animated by Creativity in Order to Play ......................................................136 Creativity is Expressed in an Aesthetic Life ..................................................138 Creativity Delights in Improvisation .............................................................145 Creativity is Collaborative ...............................................................................152 Conclusion – Re-Animated in Creativity in Order to Play .........................156 Re-Membered into Communitas in Order to Discover .......................................158 Liminal Spaces ...................................................................................................160 EXODUS .......................................................................................................................................................... 161 EXILE .............................................................................................................................................................. 162 RESURRECTION .............................................................................................................................................. 164 LIMINALITY AS TRANSFORMATION ................................................................................................................ 165 Childlike Maturity ............................................................................................167 Conclusion – Re-Membered into Communitas in Order to Discover