Advent 2006
Dear Friends,
We boarded the bus at the gate to our seminary. There were both
seminary students and teachers heading to the middle and south
of the island of Taiwan to speak in churches, asking them to support
the seminary with their prayers, their financial gifts, and by
encouraging students from their churches to consider coming to
the seminary. Each November we spread out across the island to
share the good news of what God is doing at Taiwan Theological
Seminary and to ask local churches to be partners with us.
We slowly wove through the Taipei traffic to the expressway that
stretches from north to south. In addition to our Sunday responsibilities,
the music professor and I had planned a workshop called “Rich
and Meaningful Worship.” As in most churches around the
world, the Taiwan Presbyterian Church has been struggling with
the tension between “traditional” worship and “contemporary”
worship. Personally, I don’t like these two names, for every
worship service is traditional if we read Scripture, pray, and
sing together. The Bible, prayer, and music are part of the rich
tradition of our church. And yet every worship service is also
called to be contemporary, as the Holy Spirit leads us in new
ways of presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
A music student from Taiwan Theological Seminary plays a flute
to accompany a church choir.
So we carried drums, guitars, violins, flutes, and a baptismal
font to demonstrate to churches in the city and county of Taichung
how to blend the gifts from the past and the gifts from the present.
Eight students had agreed to help us.
We arrived at the church where we planned to host the workshop
at mid-morning and began practicing. I teach worship at the seminary
and spend lots of time in the churches talking about vital worship.
But it was a real treat to work with my colleague from the music
department and these eight talented students.
I began by talking about the purpose of worship. What is most
important is that God both calls us to worship and also receives
our worship as an act of praise. God is both the subject and the
object of our worship. We don’t start by discussing style,
we start by discussing the purpose of our worship, which is to
glorify and enjoy God.
A seminary student uses his gifts by playing guitar during a
workshop on "rich and meaningful worship."
As I talked about each part of the worship service, the music
professor and students gave examples of how to do it. We had a
call to worship sung from the balcony. Then an aboriginal student
sang “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” as he walked down
the center aisle. We sang traditional hymns and newer praise songs.
We sang songs from the world church. We used Western drums and
African drums. Our pianist is a first-year college student who
has a vibrant faith that he expresses beautifully in music. The
musical gifts of our students humble and delight me.
But what truly thrills me is the attitude in which our students
served. They are all busy. Two of the students left the high mountains,
where their classmates had arranged a trip, to meet us at the
church to practice. As I visit in the Taiwan Presbyterian Church,
I know that the church needs servant leaders. Last week, I saw
our students serving with joy and with faithfulness.
In the afternoon, representatives from 25 churches came to participate
in the workshop. There were folks of all ages. Worship is meant
to unite us as we praise our Creator. But often worship divides
us. That Saturday afternoon we were united as we came to learn
how to worship our God with joy and thanksgiving.
I remain grateful for the way you allow me to serve in this land.
As our PC(USA) struggles with financial difficulties, your prayers
and tangible support is making a difference for the Christians
of Taiwan.
O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Faithfully,
John McCall
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 256 |
