Postmodern experience?

i had two church experiences this weekend that when combined I consider to be postmodern simply because they were so different. thought i would share.

neither worship was in and of itself postmodern in the emerging church sense of the term, but the experience of both of them in one day was certainly a mind job.(to use cipher's term)

the morning i went to a mission start south of the cities that is growing very fast. i went there because i am doing another independent study focusing on media and technology in preaching and worship with dr. rogness. so i went here because this was one of the churches he had contacts with who are "technology heavy."

the service actually turned out to be very technology lite this sunday, but it was unlike anything i had seen in a self-professed lutheran congregation before. basically it was a praise service like those i have experienced back in texas at evangelical free or baptist congregations. it started with announcements, we greeted one another, there was a 3 song praise set, a prayer and then a 40 minute sermon. the service then ended with another song as people gathered for prayer around the cross, which when the pastor finished praying we were dismissed rather informally(definantly no "go in peace, serve the lord"). the sermon was pretty good for a 40 minuter and focused clearly on their sermon series. that we are in the season of lent was not mentioned at all.

although i was less impressed with what i considered to be performance music(people clapped for the musicians at the end of the songs), in which most of the people(especially the men) were hardly singing at all. what impressed me most was that i was welcomed immediately by a member of the congregation(a fairly impressive thing in a worshiping congregation of about 200) and when she found out i had never been there before, immediately invited me to sit with her and her husband. while she was friendly, and encouraged me to return, she was not pushy.

the second service was at a large and growing established congregation in the cities that prides itself on liturgical worship and is trying, through a sunday evening service, to appeal to a younger "gen x" set. (i have an ongoing relationship with this congregation, which is also very welcoming, so it wasn't my first time there)

basically though, while trying to be more postmodern, they haven't quite gotten there yet.(although their emphasis on liturgy resembles the emerging churches i have seen much more than the praise service did) the evening service is, with some variations, a replica of the morning liturgy although during lent they are using a marty haugen liturgy that is very good. while that is nice, the unfortunante result is that we spend a lot of time shuffling between that liturgy book, a bulletin and the occasional hymnal. certainly not very welcoming to the uninitiated. (an experience made very clear to me recently while attending with an unchurched friend)

while it has its drawbacks, the benefit for me is that here the people have a large role in the service, respond to the readings and prayers, sing the hymns and liturgy boldly, and we shared the lord's supper.

so what do i make of all this? i don't know except that only in a world as diverse as ours has become could too thriving lutheran parishes have such radically different styles of worship. is one ontologically better than the other? i really don't think so. but i do think there are things that each parish does better than the other. perhaps it is the role of "postmodern" church leaders to learn from these two very different experiences(and i am sure you could all relate to what i am talking about with experiences of your own) and take the best of what each had to offer. is that too naive? i will be interested to here any responses.