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Alternative worship is often seen as an experiment in style. A dark room, some candles, some videos and a DJ, and you've got an alternative worship service. But the stylistic innovations are just the fruits of a different way of making church happen. It's the method, not the style, that makes it 'alternative worship'.

The method is a bunch of people making church out of the stuff of their own lives, without too many rules about what is and isn't allowed. The point is to get past the conventions of church and into the deeper reality, of people bringing their whole lives before God. Shape and content emerge as they discuss what they'd like to explore, what's topical, what would help them pray, where they sense God's presence in the world.

It's the difference between listening to a sermon and studying the Bible in a homegroup. Instead of sitting back and taking what they're given, they're working it out for themselves, as a community. They work as a team of equals, whether or not there are ordained persons involved. In the service there is no stage or pulpit for the team, and the congregation take an active part, through discussion, activities, art, rituals.

There's room for any kind of contribution, so people develop gifts they didn't know they had, or find ways of using their 'secular' talents and interests in worship. Hence the TVs and CDs, the candles and installations, the old liturgies and new technologies. Of course mistakes get made, things don't always work. But nothing's set in stone so failure is allowed.

You'll notice that I haven't mentioned youth. Alternative worship proper is hardly ever by or for teenagers, although there are youth services that look something like it. The reason should be apparent from how it's made. It comes from people who feel a real sense of disconnection between their church experience and the rest of their lives - and who know their own minds and take responsibility for their own spiritual journeys. It's not for people who need, or want, instructions and answers handed to them.

This hands-on approach to church is hard work. But the reward for all the effort is church that is a natural part of your life. It's your own worship, you and your friends made it as a gift to God and one another. It's what you wanted to say to God, not what someone thought you should hear. It's as beautiful, fun, serious as you can make it.

So why isn't alternative worship more successful? Well, it challenges church structures and methods, which isn't always welcome. It demands high levels of commitment from the team. It represents a demographic largely absent from most churches - the culturally-engaged 20s-40s. It looks too unchristian for many believers, too christian for many unbelievers.

But while individual groups are not large, the alternative worship movement is spreading, and its methods and thinking are now having a wider effect. It has been tackling the issue of church in a postmodern society for over a decade now. And the rest of the Church is increasingly interested in
learning from its journey.

If you want to know more about alternative worship go to www.alternativeworship.org
For photographs of actual alternative worship events go to www.smallfire.org

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