However, the solution is not entirely in the past, as if there was a golden age of worship, as if the church of a particular point in time had the eternal recipe. Eden is very long ways away.

Honestly, in many ways our ecclesial past got us in this mess. At what point did the church still resemble Jesus’ biblical movement? The year one-hundred A.D.? Four hundred? Probably the former. But Jesus seemed to bemoan many of the institutional trappings that have defined the church for most of its history, certainly since Constantine’s conversion ushered in an age of populous and royalty marked by many of the same icons of the empire (pastors wearing robes, etc.).

If you look closely you find new seedlings popping up in the fertile soil of our landscape. People are coming up with unique solutions in our unique age. No one has quite been here before. It has been a long time since Christianity was not imposed on people through law, social pressure or habit. This might be worth celebrating. Forget the numbers. Forget church ‘decline.’ Narrow is the gate indeed. So why build cathedrals for the masses? Jesus was known to speak in the synagogue, but his was a life of motion and of service, venturing out into the wild and pursuing those who would never even feel welcome into a popular social dwelling. Many churches – who may not even be recognized as such – are finding great freedom and power in living lives of motion and service, and touching the very types of people that Jesus touched. Why play any kind of music – from hymnals or PowerPoint slides, organs or electric guitars – in a closed building at all? Why not meet the lost and needy where they are – outside? Bring your guitar if you must.

I am describing what some people call the ‘missional church’ or a certain stream of the controversial ‘emerging church.’ Whatever you call it, it is real and I believe pleasing to God. Clearly this movement defies easy definition, and whatever it is I am not calling it perfect. But it is exciting and inspiring, and most of it is happening by its very nature off the radar, in the homes of the needy far away from big buildings, television cameras and public attention.

If you are looking for a quick primer, check out chapter 13 of Ed Stetzer’s Planting Missional Churches (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006), pp. 161-9 (for a brief summary, see my http://www.followserveunite.org/2008/05/we-are-missionalincarnational.html); see also Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), and Stetzer and David Putnam, Breaking the Missional Code (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006).

I think you’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head when you said:

“Others allege a flaw in American character. According to this critique, we’re so into individual rights and radical democracy that we’re constitutionally incapable of the solemn reverence that true worship requires. Kneeling and submission are alien postures; everything has been totally leveled out. We could relate to a buddy God much better than a universal Lord.”

As a worship leader, I have found many people too uncomfortable to put themselves in these Biblical postures of worship: lifting holy hands, clapping, kneeling, bowing, dancing, making a joyful noise. Instead, they prefer to stay within their personal comfort zone, which must not be breached.

Indeed, worship is not just the singing during a Sunday service, it’s a spiritual act as we offer our bodies, our very selves. This involves our service to God, our giving, etc. But there are some churches where, for fear of offending (or breaching the comfort zone), even offerings are not collected, and certainly no one would dare speak the “T” word (tithe) biblical though it may be.

We in America are too used to our “rights” that we’ve become slaves to this ostensible freedom.

I say, look at a church where people are not afraid to lift their hands, bow their knees, clap their hands, etc., and you are looking at people who are truly free. Of course those are not the sole manifestations of freedom and worship, but they are a sign.

You mention: “In the new, contemporary service, everybody stands for a long “package” of repetitive praise songs, led by some sincere young musician usually lacking both social maturity and theological awareness.”

While this may indeed be the case in some churches, I would like to point out that repetition itself is not wrong. Many of the Psalms have repetitive phrases. Repetition can become less than a glorifying thing if not done with the right heart. Then it becomes a rote exercise, missing the point. I have worshipped where the young leader may not have been a theologian, but led by the Holy Spirit, helped us focus on one phrase, extolling one particular attribute of God. We repeated the phrase musically for quite a while. Now, if I grew weary and didn’t do this for the right reason, I would have found it tedious. But in the right spirit, submissive to the leading of the minister of worship, I found that practice to be absolutely transcendent. This is something I would not have understood unless I had submitted myself to something that originally would have fallen outside of my comfort zone.

This had nothing to with the worship leader’s skill. It had everything to do with the condition of my heart and my absolute determination to give God the praise and adoration and glory, no matter what the circumstance.

Of course, a great worship leader will not add anything negative to the aforementioned circumstances. But ultimately, though it should be well directed, our worship must come from within and not be created, driven or deterred by the skill (or lack thereof) of the speaker or worship leader.

Why wait for a special seminar or special meeting by a famous person who happens to come to town before we can engage in real church life? Let’s do it every Sunday.

In other words, there does not have to be a “worship crisis.”

But here’s the rub: how do we give Americanized consumers something deeper and better in a worship service without losing them to the mega church down the street? I agree that we evangelicals don’t do corporate worship very well. But the reason, at least in my case, that I struggle to introduce my people to good worship is that they are not interested. My people want sentimental stories and jokes in the sermon, not Biblical exposition. They come to me looking for easy, quick answers to life’s problems, not wisdom. They want lively, easy to sing, repetitive music that sounds like what they hear on American Idol. And liturgy? Forget it. That stuff is dead, dusty, and booooring. For my people, worship equals singing praise songs. The camps our students attend, Christian radio stations,and Christian bookstores all reinforce this idea. It’s hard to kick against the goads.

I believe the complaints of pastors that people our too self-centered, and your complaint that most churches are not worth attending, are connected. Most churches are not worth attending because self-centered people have demanded worship that fits their fast-food lifestyle—they want their worship to be easy to consume and instantly satisfying, just like everything else in their lives, and we have given it to them. Now, younger evangelicals are longing to go back to an “Ancient-Future” faith, and they are finding it hard to convince their churches to come along for the ride. That’s why many are giving up on the established churches and starting something new—or leaving free churches and becoming Anglican, Orthodox, or R.C. I must say that I am tempted to go myself (I can often be found on Wednesday mornings at my local Episcopal Church.)