Story, Structure, Style

Story, structure, and style are three elements of a paradigm first formulated by family therapist Salvador Minuchin. To the person interested in finding a useful way to think about the act of divine worship, this paradigm may be helpful.

Many of us, when we think of worship, think of it as "the way we do it in our church"; that is, as a complex system of words, actions, events, history, and emotions, all tied up in God. When one attempts to say something useful about worship, one therefore needs a way to discuss it in less complicated and less "loaded" terms. Thus, we offer this paradigm as a way to identify and clarify what we know, think, feel, believe, and understand about Christian worship, given the breadth and depth in which worship is discussed in these volumes. Christians are storytellers. We have a gospel that tells the story of our Lord Jesus Christ, who himself used stories to proclaim his message. Though the first generation of Christians had only the Hebrew Bible as Scripture, once the stories of Jesus were committed to writing, together with the Epistles and other texts, and once these texts—and no others—were received as authoritative ("canonical") by the church of Christ, they became the defining standard of what Christians are and do. Scripture, then, becomes the text, the rule, the standard form of the STORY, by which Christians identify themselves and recognize each other. As far as the Christian is concerned, the story is wholly objective, not subject to opinion, addition, or omission; it is constant. When we think of the Christian story, we may ask several useful questions: "¢ Whose story is being told? Who "owns" it? "¢ What kind of story is it? A story of rules and laws? of relationships? of crime and punishment? of love and mercy? of history? "¢ As an individual Christian, how does my personal story interweave with the Christian story, the story of Christ and the church? Do I make the story conform to my experience and understanding or do I grow to become part of the story? "¢ How does the story of my particular congregation, or my denomination, or my social or ethnic group interweave with the Christian story? "¢ How does the liturgy—the corporate worship—in my church contribute to the undistorted telling of the Christian story? "¢ If I consider how another congregation or denomination tells the Christian story in its life and worship, how does it differ from mine? Is it the same story? Does moving from one building or denomination or ethnic group to another actually change the content—the central message—of the Christian story as I understand it? Once we consider these questions, we may then be prepared to face the ultimate question of whether or not we "heard" the Christian story "straight" when it was told to us and whether or not we are "telling" the story "straight" to those we are teaching to be disciples of Christ. Thus, story is the "bottom line" of everything that happens in Christian liturgy. The story of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the unchanging center of the life, work, and worship of the church. It is the thing that defines us, tests us, and judges us, as we seek to be faithful communicators of this gospel we serve. Therefore, if the story changes when we communicate it in worship, then we are obligated—in fact, commanded—by our Lord to adjust our message in our worship until it faithfully communicates his message. Structure, the second point of the paradigm, deals with how the Christian story is "managed" in the telling. Structure is the context in which the story is told. Structures are mostly objective and relatively permanent, though they may be changed for good cause. When we think of structure, we may ask such questions as: "¢ What forms and forces direct or try to direct how we tell the story? Am I aware of how I have been shaped (educated, indoctrinated) as a Christian? Am I conscious of the assumptions, the "givens," the "relative absolutes" of my life which have conditioned the way I receive and transmit the story? "¢ How do power structures (such as denominational affiliations, political and socioeconomic status, and organizational structures) exert their influence on how I and my congregation communicate the story? "¢ Which forms and forces are relatively rigid, and which are somewhat flexible? How do time, space, tradition, and denominational doctrine condition the context in which we tell the story? Would the story change if we changed the furniture, the meeting time, the order for worship, the selection of music, or how the worship leaders dress and comb their hair? "¢ How might present structures be examined, evaluated, and changed, if necessary, to make certain that the undistorted story is being communicated to the next generation of Christians we are teaching right now? Most of us worship in buildings, use songbooks, use Bible translations, and organize our congregations according to what prior generations of Christians thought were appropriate and correct. If we could design and construct our own forms and structures, what shape might they take? If I designed the worship space, how would it look? What would I see, hear, feel, taste, experience, and do in that space? When would I want to be there? With whom? All these considerations are the structure, the framework, the context that we use—and that more often uses us—to communicate the story. Finally, style is the "stuff" we bring to the discussion. Style is concerned with how we communicate, or "express," the story within our structures. Style and structure interact strongly with each other and changes in one often necessitate changes in the other, but that is as it should be—only the story remains constant. Ask yourself, Would Justin Martyr or Paul or Hippolytus "fit in" in your church this Sunday? Would they understand the language? know the songs? figure out the bulletin? Of course, in the abstract sense, they ought to be able to recognize a Christian service with its praise, prayer, preaching, confession, communion, and care; but the specific elements of your service, most likely not. Unlike story and structure, style is mostly subjective; that is, style is subject to trends, fads, fancies, personal tastes, and conventional wisdom. Style most often becomes the battleground of worship, because it is the most subjective, and is most easily subject to congregational power struggles. Even in 1880, Henry Martyn Dexter understood this crucial difference and so was able to write to his congregational, free-church contemporaries:

Any Congregational church, whose taste and sense of expediency may so incline it, is at perfect liberty to order its worship by the liturgy of the Church of England, or the Protestant or Reformed Episcopal Church of the United States, or by a liturgy of its own. So long as it does nothing which shall give reasonable ground of offense to the other churches with which it is in fellowship, it may order its prayers, its praise, and all the methods of its worship, to its own entire content; and its pastor, remaining true to our fundamentals of doctrine and polity, though enrobed and endowed … with "chausuble, albe, amice, stole, maniple and zone, with two blessed towels, and all their appendages," would remain, in good faith and entirely, a Congregational minister still.

It is not unreasonable to infer that Dexter understood that, to a point, even choosing structures is a matter of style. Questions of style that might be useful include: "¢ What style does our congregation use—in our worship space, at the times we gather—to communicate the story? "¢ Is our style so rigid, predictable, and unyielding that it is more like a structure? "¢ Does our congregation understand and accept that styles and structures are not integral parts of the story itself? "¢ Do we know that styles and structures may change without violating the essential message of the gospel? Do we understand that styles and structures are humans' contributions to the Christian story and not God's? Considering the whole paradigm, we must ask if our congregation has an effective means of keeping the three elements of the paradigm separate. Are we clear on which things we have added and which things are essential and unchangeable? We must be ever careful to distinguish the message (the story) from the medium (the structure and style) by which it is transmitted. At present, there is much discussion on what kinds of worship are "best" or "most attractive." Some people strongly advocate something called "contemporary" or "charismatic" or "traditional," and so on. Some use terms like "doxological," "pedagogical," "evangelical," "liturgical," "spontaneous," or "planned." As the following chapters will show, all of these terms relate to style and structure, and none of them is part of the story itself. Most of the divisions congregations and denominations experience relate to opinions about structure and style. When the veneers of denominational doctrines are finally peeled away, each Christian must consider: Where, when, and how is the undistorted Christian story being communicated? How do I know it is undistorted? Am I doing it? Why or why not? And am I sure that God is pleased with my effort and the effort of my congregation when we appear before God in worship?