This blog corresponds with Season 3, episode 3 - Local, Organic, Natural Worship with a Small Carbon Footprint
One of the difficulties of worship
is that it is not easy to keep it local and organic. Whole Foods does not yet
have a worship section where you can stroll through and pick up a call to
worship, a hymn or two, and a home-grown sermon. It is up to you to keep it
real. Here are the main points we made concerning worship on our last episode:
v
Challenges of Worship (those basic assumptions
that drive us nuts!)
o
You must please people – everyone, all the time
o
Make sure it is interesting so you can draw
people in
o
Make sure it is interesting so you can people in
o
But… don’t sell out (i.e. don’t bend to the will
of others and run the risk of compromising the Gospel)
v
What is the purpose of worship?
o
Praise – rah, rah
o
Petition (please, please) and assurance (oh… ok)
o
Inspiration (Aha!) and Challenge (Christianity
extreme)
o
Commitment (I promise I will at some time commit
to a Christian lifestyle)
o
Growth and education (inch by inch, row by row…)
o
Preparing to see God in the week
v
How do we do it?
o
Know your tradition (T and t)
o
Know your context
o
Be creative and authentic
o
Honor the “safe space” of your congregation
There is not an easy answer to doing worship well and in a
way that is effective. Anyone who says there is is selling something. No matter
what we need to have a certain level of trust that God will be with us and will
work with whatever amount of crap or glory we offer. Just keep it real!
Railage:
Charley is responsible of thePope’s resignation? Maybe (but probably not), but he is not done with his
continued rant about some difficulties and marks against the current (soon to
be retired) Pope. Here’s hoping for a Pope that Charley will like.
Jonathan has a problem with
Episcopalians offering ashes to people on the street on Ash Wednesday. It isn’t
that he is against being present in the world, but instead that such a ritual
calls for a certain sacred approach.
A Liturgical Exegesis
Psalm 27 and Luke 13:31-35 –
Speaking to the uncertainty of us all. When do we truly “know” that all will be
well? It is an action of faith that calls for a deep level of humility.
Watcha Into?
Charley offered:
Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate: a New Vision for Financial
Stewardship by J. Cliff Christopher – it is radical, uncomfortable, and may
have a couple of good points to make.
Jonathan finished reading:
God in Pain: Inversions of Apocalypse by Slavoj Zizek and Boris
Gunjevic – philosophy and theology mixed together. Fun, fun, fun!
Next episode - rites of initiation or hazing it Jesus style!
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