Of Worship Leaders and Pagans

A couple of articles on the web caught my eye today but I still haven't worked out why I think they are connected.

The first was an article about worship leaders becoming pop stars and this triggered one of my on-going worries - when do we cross the line from leading the church singing to being performers? It is something that worries me when I play in church and I don't know what the answer is. We don't, generally, have one person in front "leading the worship" which helps but it is all too easy to turn it into a gig instead of something to glorify God. By the way if you hadn't noticed I don't like the term "worship band / leader" - singing is only a small part of a life of worship.

A short version of the article can be found here:

http://www.christianitymagazine.co.uk/features/0907%20worship%20idol%20access.aspx

The other article, in the Guardian, was about the rise of paganism in the UK. It struck me that what was attracting people was a form of pantheism and we in the church have to find a way of connecting with these people if we want to bring them into the Church. One thought - there is a panentheistic vein running through Christianity (the idea of a creating and sustaining God)so shouldn't we be able to find some common ground so that we can get alongside them? Any thoughts?

The full article can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/22/paganism-stonehenge-environmentalism-witchcraft