Every quarter, Vineyard Music produces a small magazine called Inside Worship. Edited by Dan Wilt, a man who has been a catalyst for great leaps in my own development as a “Worship Artisan”, it regularly explores both ancient and modern expressions of worship, asking how we might grow in maturity as a worshipping community.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me or has taken more than a cursory glance at my browser history that I am a Guardian fan. Perhaps a more accurate term would be a Guardian believer. I like its frequently intelligent comment, its willingness to engage seriously and (normally) fairly with non-mainstream viewpoints. This simple Bible-believing evangelical charismatic feminist finds a lot of natural points of agreement with the paper’s general outlook.
That all said, however, I have been annoyed this week by two articles they put out. The first was by Andrew Brown on Justin Welby’s links with Holy Trinity Brompton. The second was by the prolific media-savvy vicar-cum-journalist Giles Fraser (who I normally like and definitely respect, not least for his principled stance during the Occupy St Pauls) bemoaning aspects of Evangelical faith and culture and, again, taking a dig at HTB. One would be forgiven for thinking that Nicky Gumbel had said something incredibly rude about the Guardian Editor’s cat at a party, and the paper is out for revenge as a result.