Wrestling with worship questions

Jodi-Renee Adams writes a blog on the CreativeWorshipTour site. I have to say that I’ve never met her, and chances are good we don’t run in the same circles. She is, for instance, completing an MDiv degree at Denver Seminary (a fairly evangelical seminary). But I really enjoy encountering her blog! Here’s a post where she is wrestling with a whole range of issues (women in worship, worship and theology, the nature of revelation), and she does so with great passion and emotional honesty:

But what about these questions: where does revelation begin? by the way, who initiates that - the worship leader, the music leader, the media guy, Tim Burton, the homeless guy I passed on my way to church? what does revelation look like, smell like, sound like? does it only count if it's blatantly Christian or "healing" (as in, "my Uncle Buddy finally stopped drinking because we've been praying for him and beating him over the head with a Bible every week?" or "Susie finally stopped going to dance clubs and now comes to church on Sundays?"), how do we allow for mystery in our "programming?" how do we acknowledge, nay even celebrate and tremble at, mystery through our music, chords, lyrics, prayers, liturgy, communion invitation, ambiance? when do women count? where do women count? how come you're only a good singer in church if you're a soprano or a tenor? what are the percentage of congregants who are actually tenors or sopranos? ( I threw that one in there because I think about it alot...sorry) what does "culturally relevant" actually mean? how often can we say "I don't know" or better yet, "we don't know" and still have credibility? how do we learn that "corporate" is identity, not context? how do we illustrate the cloud of witnesses, the communion of saints, the mystical and universal church? why does beautiful have to mean "pretty" and not also mean "disturbing," "grotesque," "honest?" What the heck does it mean when someone says "worship was really good today?" what is up with all the acoustic guitars? who is ultimately the subject and recipient of our worship services? me? God? the world? the Church? what's the point of the gathering? is God really present in our worship gatherings any more than he is in the porn shop doorway or the library?

I wish that more of my students at Luther Seminary would wrestle in this way. And maybe they do -- just not in public where we can all share in the wrestling! And perhaps that's more a problem of/for faculty, than students, because maybe we (as faculty) aren't modeling this? Stephen Brookfield suggests that we should not be asking students to do anything we haven't done first, in front of them. So... I guess I'm wondering to myself, where am I involved in this kind of wrestling with my colleagues?