With their use of original, house - style dance music in praise and worship, NOS have been pioneers. But now criticism and controversy threatens to overwhelm the Sheffield radicals. Tony Cummings reports.

The lyrics of the songs the Greenbelt crowd were asked to sing also caused problems for some. Cross Rhythms asked what lyrics like "Wishing our body dreams to come true" were all about. It seemed very much "child of the universe" language. Were they aiming to be seen as New Ageist?

Chris Braine responded: "We weren't aiming to be seen as New Ageist, although obviously many people put us into a New Age camp. I have many, many problems as a catholic Christian with the New Age Movement - the lack of tradition, the excess, the cult, the complete lack of depth in much of it, the escapism in much of the New Age Movement. But one thing the New Age Movement, ecologists and environmentalists are dealing with is the issue that we are about to kill ourselves as a planet.

People seem to be so complacent about what is going on. I feel complacent. We all feel complacent. We know what we have got to do in worship to a certain extent is wake people up, not only to the realities of the crisis that we're in and which is growing, but also to the need to find motivation from somewhere to bring about change, rapid change, particularly in the West. I think God's Spirit and God's heart is crying out like that, and therefore that chaos, that energy, the passion that 'God now' business was all trying to express that kind of urgency to ourselves."

Even acknowledging that NOS were pioneering experimentalists, wasn't NOS' rave worship something that was likely to leave young people with a lot of confusion over what Christianity and the church are all about?

"A lot of Christians I know go to raves regularly and they find the raves inadequate to worship in. NOS is the closest thing to what they want to do. I heard a comment last night, somebody from our church heard someone say 'This is better than being on E'. Raves are of course usually run without a worship dimension, and this is why, Chris believes, people who go to them turn to ecstasy.

"People who get onto drugs are seeking extreme experiences which are not good for them, not wholesome, don't build them up. I hope we can recognise that reality and demonstrate that in worshipping God people won't need that, certainly if they are worshipping God in Spirit. There's a great history and Christian tradition of active passionate worship which is totally humanising, totally upbuilding, totally Godlike and Christ like. I know it seems a massive jump from those realities to rave culture, but past worship probably seemed as strange when it was happening in their day as to what NOS are trying to do now."

Trying to evaluate the thoughts, beliefs and explanations of Chris Braine from an evangelical Christian perspective is no easy task. The Greenbelt organisers have been keen to emphasise that NOS' theological position is "orthodox" yet when applied to NOS such a word has more to do with their use of Eastern Orthodox ritual and symbol than with what evangelicals would describe as biblical orthodoxy. More interviews as to the precise nature of NOS' brand of belief are needed and we look forward to Cross Rhythms being a forum for discussion of these matters.

In the short term however, we can make two points, concerning naivety and creative ability. Firstly, NOS, for all their avant-garde sophistication, showed themselves at Greenbelt to be stunningly naive in gauging how the Church would react to their experimentation. In their efforts to reach a smattering of rave culture young people at the Festival, they alienated, and even angered, many Christians.

Cross Rhythms is obviously very sympathetic to Christian innovation in the arts in general and the Church's experimentation with rave culture in particular. But we have always emphasised the need for sensitivity and the need to avoid being unnecessarily offensive. NOS failed in this respect. Secondly, Cross Rhythms questions whether NOS' communication skills are anything like good enough to present an authentic picture of God as found exclusively through Jesus Christ - let alone the long overdue need to find ways of making pertinent cultural reference to human sexuality that is both relevant and biblical. Where do NOS go from here?

We shall see.