Dan Kimball is a pastor out (here) in California. He has written a book called Emerging Worship – Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations. (Just so we're clear: "emerging/emergent" is not just a church or cultural fad, but an actual event that is happening now. There is a generation that is 'emerging', just as there have been generations that have 'emerged'. I hope that's something we all are able to understand and agree on.) In one of the chapters he identifies ten common values of these gatherings and the process of their planning, from genesis to execution. Check these out. They are in bold, with my synopses of his elaborations of each. I like them, even though many are things whose implementation would meet some criticism and outright resistance (probably even from me!).
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Common Values in Emerging Worship Gatherings
Dan Kimball, Emerging Worship – Creating Worship Gatherings for New Generations
1. Moves away from spectator type of gathering. Avoidance of “show” (“Broadway play” analogy).
2. Organic design to worship gathering. Avoidance of linear experience (e.g., five songs-sermon-closing song-benediction). Participatory, above all.
3. A sacred space is created for the worship gathering. Visual aesthetic important to emerging generations. Icons (crosses, etc.), symbols, artwork (as both worship expression and visual space-transformer) included in décor. Scripture visually prominent. Room arrangement. Placement of worship band, speaker/preacher, worship leaders, etc., not elevated, front, and center.
4. Multi-sensory approach to worship planning. More than just listening and singing. Leading is done in a communal manner (more than just one or two people – no “stars”). Eclectic styles of music, reflective of the community. Global influence. Artistic expressions, by both artists and congregation. Sermons are more the telling of a story than transferring of biblical information; move away from ‘lecture’ format.
5. Freedom of movement in worship. Movement to prayer/communion stations. Interaction with each other.
6. Different focal point. Avoidance of “stage” design, for worship leaders and preacher. Experiment with room set-up. Minimizing of leader(s)/people dichotomy.
7. Revival of liturgy, ancient disciplines, Christian calendar, Jewish roots. Embracing of ancient forms of worship, not just post-Reformation. Interest in hymn-singing. Acknowledgement of Christianity as ancient religion, not just a few centuries (or decades) old.
8. Emphasis on prayer. Opportunity to quiet the heart and listen to God.
9. Communion a core part of worship. Not 'occasionally', but each week.
10. Jesus the centerpiece of worship. Focus on following Jesus and Kingdom living.
Monday, June 26, 2006
Pensées de Nát
(Apologies to Monsieur Pascal.)
Pursuing God results in finding him. However, we often don’t see the fruit (a) that we expect to see or (b) when we expect to see it. We pursue God because we want to see his kingdom come. The fruit of our pursuit of God is love for God and love for others. It’s not always a clear nugget of wisdom, or warm fuzzies, or clarity of life-path or career-path, or more money, or more happiness, or less stress, or no pain & suffering, or a guarantee of a simple, worry-free life. It results in a sacrifice of oneself for the sake of others and for the sake of God.
I do not know what my family and I will be doing a year from now – where we will be living, what our vocations will be, what life-trajectory we will be pursuing. I do know that God our Father holds our future and that we are to direct our hope and trust in his direction.
I want to pursue God with my family, not just by myself. I want to pursue God with those in my faith community, not just by myself. I want to encourage others in my faith community to do the same.
I have a responsibility to pursue other people. That's not just because I am a minister by vocation; that’s part of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God’s values are of utmost importance. Those in his kingdom value the things that he values. They will be our defaults:
- love
- reconciliation
- the pursuit of people
- giving to those in need
- looking to meet others’ needs before our own
“The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit; a broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
The world is full of brokenness. People don’t really know that it’s full of brokenness. Actually, that’s not right; they do know, only they don’t know that they know. They recognize that the world is not fair, that not everything goes their way (though sometimes it does), and that they often feel unfulfilled by life, but they wouldn’t necessarily call the world broken. I am a follower of Christ and I still feel unfulfilled by life in a lot of ways. I don’t like that things don’t go my way, and I like when they do. Sacrifice is hard, but it is necessary. If we are to pursue and live the path of Christ, we must learn to sacrifice. Actually, we must sacrifice even before we learn to.
You know when you’re trying to think of someone’s name or something and you say, “Oh, it’s right on the tip of my tongue!”? That’s how the world is, i think. They are sitting there trying to articulate what they think they need, and what they think is “right”, and they are so close. I hear this in phrases like, “Everything happens for a reason” and in their pursuits to “be a good person”, or in their adulation of those who display selflessness and sacrifice and other similar qualities while most of the people they know do not. I wish they could know Christ and see his Body live out his mission, because then what they’re looking for would go from tip-of-tongue directly to total recognition.
I pray that the desire of my family and my community would be to live out the mission of God, to see his kingdom of love and grace and peace and light brought into the world.
Pursuing God results in finding him. However, we often don’t see the fruit (a) that we expect to see or (b) when we expect to see it. We pursue God because we want to see his kingdom come. The fruit of our pursuit of God is love for God and love for others. It’s not always a clear nugget of wisdom, or warm fuzzies, or clarity of life-path or career-path, or more money, or more happiness, or less stress, or no pain & suffering, or a guarantee of a simple, worry-free life. It results in a sacrifice of oneself for the sake of others and for the sake of God.
I do not know what my family and I will be doing a year from now – where we will be living, what our vocations will be, what life-trajectory we will be pursuing. I do know that God our Father holds our future and that we are to direct our hope and trust in his direction.
I want to pursue God with my family, not just by myself. I want to pursue God with those in my faith community, not just by myself. I want to encourage others in my faith community to do the same.
I have a responsibility to pursue other people. That's not just because I am a minister by vocation; that’s part of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is where God’s values are of utmost importance. Those in his kingdom value the things that he values. They will be our defaults:
- love
- reconciliation
- the pursuit of people
- giving to those in need
- looking to meet others’ needs before our own
“The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit; a broken and repentant heart, O God, you will not despise.” Psalm 51:17
The world is full of brokenness. People don’t really know that it’s full of brokenness. Actually, that’s not right; they do know, only they don’t know that they know. They recognize that the world is not fair, that not everything goes their way (though sometimes it does), and that they often feel unfulfilled by life, but they wouldn’t necessarily call the world broken. I am a follower of Christ and I still feel unfulfilled by life in a lot of ways. I don’t like that things don’t go my way, and I like when they do. Sacrifice is hard, but it is necessary. If we are to pursue and live the path of Christ, we must learn to sacrifice. Actually, we must sacrifice even before we learn to.
You know when you’re trying to think of someone’s name or something and you say, “Oh, it’s right on the tip of my tongue!”? That’s how the world is, i think. They are sitting there trying to articulate what they think they need, and what they think is “right”, and they are so close. I hear this in phrases like, “Everything happens for a reason” and in their pursuits to “be a good person”, or in their adulation of those who display selflessness and sacrifice and other similar qualities while most of the people they know do not. I wish they could know Christ and see his Body live out his mission, because then what they’re looking for would go from tip-of-tongue directly to total recognition.
I pray that the desire of my family and my community would be to live out the mission of God, to see his kingdom of love and grace and peace and light brought into the world.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Amawalk
In light of this morning's service, I thought I would post this link. It is a Benedictine website and begins with, "A VERY ANCIENT art, practiced at one time by all Christians, is the technique known as lectio divina."
Lovely to hear from you, Nat.
Marilyn
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Pray for Me, Please
Hi. I write from the Barnes & Noble in Burbank, California. I love this place; I lived here for five years just before moving to Durham.
I am on the Left Coast for two weeks. Often, I view this yearly trip as a chance to just get away from North Carolina, from thinking about church, and admittedly, from God. I have felt a Behooving to treat this trip differently. I want to use this time to earnestly seek God, His will for our church, for my family, and for me individually.
Pray for me. Thanks.
I am on the Left Coast for two weeks. Often, I view this yearly trip as a chance to just get away from North Carolina, from thinking about church, and admittedly, from God. I have felt a Behooving to treat this trip differently. I want to use this time to earnestly seek God, His will for our church, for my family, and for me individually.
Pray for me. Thanks.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Yo
Hi, Kids. Thanks again for meeting Sunday, your patience with this sometimes sputtering process known as the W. A. G., and for your gracious and honest dialogue.
Walker's thoughts have lingered with me -- about how we should stop talking and start doing!
Rachel and I were chatting about the differences between Emmaus Way and the Bible Church when it came to being 'missional', both in each community's meaning of the word and the way each community lives out mission. We concluded that E-Way is more missional at its core, as sort of a 'default', while the Bible Church is in the process of transforming into a more missional community (which requires more teaching, explanation, modelling by leadership, "debunking" of preconceptions, reassuring of skeptics, etc.). My first inclination is to blame the Bible Church for not getting "up to speed", but Rachel reminded me that tranformation is a process (duh). Also, she made this analogy: if, say, all the visual artists went and formed their own worshipping community, their corporate worship (and other) gatherings would be informed by their inherent values of art, beauty, creativity, etc. In my eyes, that characterizes Emmaus Way: as a community, they inherently value and thus apply a sense of mission in all they do (devoid of most of the "frills" that come with the modern evangelical church), while the Bible Church community is continuing to learn to value and apply some of these principles.
(Was that analogy clear at all?? Sorry if it wasn't.)
More later...
Walker's thoughts have lingered with me -- about how we should stop talking and start doing!
Rachel and I were chatting about the differences between Emmaus Way and the Bible Church when it came to being 'missional', both in each community's meaning of the word and the way each community lives out mission. We concluded that E-Way is more missional at its core, as sort of a 'default', while the Bible Church is in the process of transforming into a more missional community (which requires more teaching, explanation, modelling by leadership, "debunking" of preconceptions, reassuring of skeptics, etc.). My first inclination is to blame the Bible Church for not getting "up to speed", but Rachel reminded me that tranformation is a process (duh). Also, she made this analogy: if, say, all the visual artists went and formed their own worshipping community, their corporate worship (and other) gatherings would be informed by their inherent values of art, beauty, creativity, etc. In my eyes, that characterizes Emmaus Way: as a community, they inherently value and thus apply a sense of mission in all they do (devoid of most of the "frills" that come with the modern evangelical church), while the Bible Church community is continuing to learn to value and apply some of these principles.
(Was that analogy clear at all?? Sorry if it wasn't.)
More later...
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