Dave asked: "...are you saying that everyone should be together in one service, meeting, gathering, whatever? I may be reading this wrong but how does having 'the prayer service' and 'the rock and roll service' (Sept 12th entry) fit into this?"
Let me try to answer your question, as it is bugging me too. First aside, kaleo is not a rock and roll service. That was an unfortunate appellation provided by a senior couple who think in terms of rock versus church music.
The idea for kaleo came about because it was obvious that our church was not embracing any kind of emergent or even blended ideas in the main worship service on Sundays (despite our senior pastor being as theologically conversent with emergent as anyone I know, a position he discovered quite by accident). That, to me, is as wrong-headed as chasing every new trend that comes down the river. The college pastor--yes, we have one of those--wanted to do something different on Sunday nights, a time period usually reserved for the very old, very traditional, and the staff who had to be there. I believe the thinking was that since only about 1/25th of the congregation showed up on Sunday night, why not try something different and redeem that time slot.
Enter us. We'd been going there for a while enduring ridiculous amounts of traditional music and traditionally-arranged worship choruses for the sake of community and the best, most theologically sound preaching I've ever heard. Some of the folk knew we had some experience with emergent church and they asked us to get involved. We combined our ideas with other ideas that had been simmering in that church for some time. Young people especially were anxious to get involved, and kaleo offered opportunities for all kinds of people to get involved who had been unable to do so before.
Our hope is that kaleo will be appealing to all ages and to those who like traditional and contemporary worship. It isn't our intent to create two churches in one building. That may happen in the minds of some folk, but we've insisted on our entire leadership team, including the music people, being in the Sunday a.m. worship service as well. The theological vision articulated in the Sunday a.m. service is vital to the life of kaleo. The commitment to community despite our differences is non-negotiable.
Why are there still other offerings on Sunday night? I think the pastoral leadership of the larger church, and I'm only speculating, wasn't sure how well kaleo would go over, and they knew there were folk that wouldn't like it no matter how hard we tried to blend ancient and future. Rather than tell those folks to suck it, they offered them some worthwhile programs (three of the four are not worship services) on Sunday nights, including prayer, discussion forums, small groups, and once a month, a joint kaleo/big church worship service. My preference is that all of us would be together for worship, but that requires that both sides of the aisle understand, respect, and embrace cultural differences. I don't see that most of the time.
Second aside: the Saddleback services have nothing to do with theological convictions (except maybe "saving souls"); they are predicated on entertaining a bunch of crackers who don't seem to understand that worship isn't about entertainment. They are not worship services in the strict sense, but rather serve as parodies of worship services, since what is being worshipped is individual choice as to what form of entertainment I prefer. Dave Rattigan has some good thoughts on the Saddleback issue.
