We asked our readers to come up with questions about worship curation for the person who coined the term (Mark Pierson) to answer in his presentation at STORY, Chicago (September 15-16). Several excellent questions were submitted covering different aspects of curation including context, leadership, and artistic approach.
Congratulations to Kathy Keener-Han for winning a 30 min Skype call with Mark for her question!
Read the submissions here and take note that in late September, we’ll be posting the full audio of Mark’s answers:
Mark, how can the model of curating be applied in a more traditional liturgical setting, like the Lutheran church I currently serve in, where it seems that creativity is often scoffed at as “contemporary”?
Drew Yoos, Lutheran youth minister in South Carolina, USA
How do you avoid worship becoming about emotionalism while trying to set a reflective tone with young people?
Russell Lloyd, Creative director for a school mission organization in Melbourne, Victoria, AU
What is the worst thing you can do as a curator to make worship difficult for your community? (We recognise the small mistakes we make, but what are the bigger fundamental errors?)
Alison Squires, Christian aid and development worker in Auckland, NZ
Do you play to both literalist and allegorical readings of the text/theme? Do you find that if you play to one, that you “lose” the others who “don’t get it?” What kind of choices do you make to comfort and stretch people from their ways of seeing and knowing?
Kathy Keener-Han, PCUSA interim pastor in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA
You suggest in your book that being attentive to community needs and input is important, but trying to curate a worship experience as a team is difficult. As a curator do you have any advice about balancing the input of others with your creative vision for a worship experience?
Brian Beckstrom, Campus pastor in Waverly, Iowa, USA
How can interactivity be integrated in the standard Evangelical or non-denominational style worship service? The performer/congregant paradigm doesn’t readily accomodate community and collaboration, yet it seems to be growing in terms of “market share” of churches using this model. Rather than shoehorning competitive models (liturgical, pentecostal) into the Evangelical world, how can the Evangelical model be challenged, subverted, or mutated into a curation-friendly service?
Paul Gratton, Weiv interactive worship tool designer, Prineville, Oregon, USA
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