Having the Agenda of Not Having an Agenda, or Not Talking about the Elephant

I have only taught one class in the new quarter so far in the series of lessons on, “The Upper Room Worship Experience,” and I am already in the need of addressing a topic that I so much do not want to become the central focus of the class. It is the elephant in the room that can no longer be walked around. It, and the fact that some would think that it is my hidden agenda, which not being the case, has forced me into making it my agenda to point out that it is not my agenda. Okay, enough of talking around the gargantuan obstruction among us and time to dive into the deep dark waters of communal anxieties. “Instrumental music,” there I said it and it will be the topic of my class this week, to which I will have to spend too much, but not near enough, time explaining. Yes, it is an important part of a class that is intended to bring a greater understanding of worship principles and practices, but the fact that it carries such significance to our basic concepts of the heart of a worship discussion speaks volumes to our historic view of unity more than it does to our philosophy of praise. So then, in addressing the topic from the viewpoint of determining its rightness or wrongness of practice, it becomes my supposed agenda, with all parties wondering where it will take us in application; when actually the real agenda is to approach the subject of being united, while different, as we get to the real topic of worship that reaches beyond the question of whether or not our singing can be with accompaniment.