Posts Tagged ‘sacred rituals’
The Death of A Series
It’s always a bitter sweet week when we switch from one series to another. And that is this week. We just finished Sacred Rituals – an idea I stole from Mark Batterson at NCC – where we looked at our (Western Hills) rituals, the ones we think are crucial to the life of our church and transformative in the life of a believer.
Communion, worship, baptism, generosity, and last Sunday was community. A few nuggets I hope continues to transform us as we move forward…
We do the “rituals” because by doing them we are not only joining something larger than us but we are being changed by Him to look more like Him.
The problem with ‘community’ is so few of us know what it is or what it looks like INSIDE the church centered on Jesus. Part of the reason for this is that most churches don’t demand it but the biggest reason is because it’s risky, it comes with bumps and bruises and so many of us don’t want to get hurt. (Get back on the bike.)
There is no Christianity in the New Testament without community. It was not possible to follow Jesus and NOT be around a table in someone’s home somewhere.
The Church exploded because of the work of the Spirit in community, around the tables. Not programs, not personalities, not buildings, not great marketing. Love, Live, and Serve in community, around the table, in the home.
Do you have a place that you could run to in the middle of the night after breaking out of jail and they would pray with you? (See Peter’s story in Acts 12.) How much would that kind of community be worth to you? Two nights a month? Two hours a week?
Sunday Should Be The Most Dangerous Day Of The Week
“There is no way we could ever pull that off.”
That’s a direct quote from a pastor friend of mine when he heard about our current series Sacred Rituals. He saw our trailer for the series and when he heard that we played that music while we shared communion as a church two weeks ago — he said those words again.
So I asked …”How come?”
“It’s too risky. You didn’t pass the communion around, you played a chant, you’re hanging stain glass everywhere…” Then he said those words again – “There is no way we could ever pull that off.”
“I still don’t quite understand. Why couldn’t you?”
“It would be so far outside what people expected….”
Our conversation shifted in the awkward moment of silence that followed. I wish we had continued the conversation…maybe we will one day. I know what I’d say now. I’d challenge him a bit that our role as worship leaders is consistently create a context for others to connect with God. It’s Jesus they need, not another well planned worship service that will teach them another Greek word they will never use.
And by that mandate alone — Sunday should be the most dangerous day of the week for us. If the goal is to connect people with God, who knows what He’ll do when He gets a hold of them. We’re talking about God and He’s ‘not a tame lion.’
The point is – our worship services should be anything but predictable, boring, and static. Mainly because God is none of those things. There is no way on the planet that should be ‘business as usual.’ What is ‘normal’ when talking about the presence of God? I’m reminded of a Sally Morganthaler quote — when we show up for worship, we should be wearing life vests and crash helmets.
There should be a sense of wonder and trepidation every Sunday morning. We want an opportunity for a ‘holy moment’, a ‘thin place’ experience where the veil between the mundane and the Holy is merged. Why? Because it’s the seedbed of transformation. It’s fuel for the soul, sometimes it’s healing for soul. Because people need God Himself more than they need to be informed or entertained.
BUT that’s not ALL that worship is. Worship is larger than just the service, the encounter. It’s also a living sacrifice. Practically speaking, a living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word in every decision, thought, and deed in my life. If I start living like that… If I start worshiping like that…
I’m convinced the same sense of wonder and trepidation WOULD be available to me every day. And Sundays would be so much more sweeter, deeper, and yes…dangerous.
More Thoughts on Worship From Sunday
Yesterday was awesome at Western Hills. God continues to blow me away in this series – the depth and meaning of these simple rituals.
Yesterday, after the first service worship set, I could barely talk. I was supposed to ‘wrap-up’ the service with about a 8 minute spiel on worship and completely flubbed it. I was completely torqued and upset at myself after first service when one of our folks interrupted my pity party and said — “That was a home run. Simply awesome. Thanks for creating space this morning for us to connect with God.”
Which was God’s way of slapping me upside the head to remind me — “It’s reallllly, realllly, reallly, not about you. Trust me on this one. If I used a donkey to talk…well, you can figure the rest out from here.” Second service went much better after that wake up call.
2 HUGE shifts that 1st Christ-followers had to make to ‘get’ worship. First, we worship in response to God’s mercy, not to get it. Very different from other religions. Second, Worship is a living sacrifice, not just a specific encounter or moment.
A living sacrifice is when Jesus gets the last word on every one of our decisions. That’s worship. Real worship starts the moment we hit the door to leave a church service.
Some Random Thoughts Looking Ahead
We start our new series Sacred Rituals on Sunday. (Trailer here and we didn’t get 20 comments, so Rick is off the hook.)
I hope we’re able to do more than just educate about the rituals but also experience them.
I hope people reach a new level of awe and wonder with God as a result of these ‘rituals.’
I hope we (the church) never lose sight of why we do what we do. Even if it means we shake things up to help us remember.
I hope our services continue to be places of encounter and experience of the Holy, not just a ‘good show.’ The rituals help in this journey.
The ‘sacred rituals’ are sacred because of their object, not because of who can perform them. They are for ALL followers of Jesus.
Everything starts with communion. Real communion with Jesus. Worship, baptism, generosity, community — all begin with communion, not the ‘act’ of the cup and the bread but what the cup and the bread represent. That we are part of Christ…because of His act, His movement, not ours.
Sacred Rituals Trailer
I completely stole this idea of the sermon series from Mark Batterson over at NCC. Here’s the trailer for the series we will start on February 21st. Come experience it with us.
Rick Stones said that if we got 20 comments on this post, he’ll sing a Gregorian Chant for us during the series.