(Reminder: My goal is for this to be a dialogue. If you have any comments, thoughts, rebukes, please post, thanks. Also there are those who need get your mind out of the gutter concerning the post title...you know who you are)
Whether you know it or not today's service is set up for a climax. In the Roman Catholic church, the climax is the Eucharist/Lord's supper/Communion. That is it, that's what it's all about, partaking of the bread and the wine. The typical climax of the protestant church is the sermon. Ever heard "God, bless the words of the pastor, may they come from you?" Let's be honest for a second, everyone that God calls is not a good speaker. If the words are from God then God sounds like a bumbling idiot sometimes. We have made our climax someone speaking for 35 minutes (while the average attention span, due to television, is around 17 1/2 minutes or something).
I believe a postmodern church's climax should not be sitting around listening to someone speak (see Engaging post from yesterday). The climax of the true church is communion with God. This may take place around the Eucharist, but it needs to take place in other forms. Meeting with God is the number one thing a community of believers can do (not feeding the poor, although I believe that desire is a natural bi-product of knowing God). This may include silence, this may include confession, this may include public prayer, or reading of Scripture, there are a number of things that this could look like. But I tell you this, give me 3 minutes of serious connecting with God each week with my community and you'll probably have a faithful church member.
I'll cut this one short too and save the other piece for tomorrow.
Christy and I
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another try at this...12 years ago
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my pale mind13 years ago
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Which is more impressive...14 years ago
4 comments:
Now this makes sense to me. I like the abstract idea and leaving it open to just connecting with God. If people of faith are filled, aren't we that much better off. Imagine the great possibilities that could come of this. More community, less judgement, more love, etc...
The question is, how do we do this. :)
I see your point and I hear the heart of what you're saying... but let's not diminish the importance of good solid Biblical teaching. Many church goers have but one opportunity in a given week to receive this, and even 35 minutes seems like precious little time to rightly understand the Word of God.
the silence you mentioned is something that i think is more needed than alot of people think. especially in the church. i believe that people fear it. and i mean that in the truest way it can be said. truly fear it. mainly because i see it as a time where god looks to speak and make his way in to our normally loud and chaotic lives. and despite what alot of people 'think' they want, i think they'd rather not hear from god. christians more than anybody. a carnal mans ears are fearful of what god might have to say as benefiting as it may be.
i think its a foreign thought these days though to especially in prayer, just close your mouth and let your spirit speak, instead of attempting to force words out for the sake of "praying" when we really we have no idea what to pray for when it comes to this world or for the sake of ourselves. i truly believe the most honest forms of prayer take place when words are absent. [romans 8:26]
attached to that: i wish you knew how many guitars ive wanted to bust in half when the person holding it feels the need to play backup music during church prayers. it might just be a bad attitude, but seriously, i think this is such a big area where i feel like saying, "hey bud, its ok to sit in silence and be quiet for a bit. seriously. but, know that i appreciate your attempt to provide a soundtrack to this moment."
you know what i mean?
anyways. good words bobs.
Not sure how to continue the dialogue with a statement, so I'll respond to the three so far:
Christy - Hi babe. I agree, how do we do this? I believe it takes the body of Christ, each body, to decide it's own shape. The foot may not look exactly like the hand, but all a part of the body. I believe a people of faith that are filled will easily fill that void of time that we now do a "service" in. I think of a family getting together at Christmas...does someone need to program the time or does the family somehow know what to do next?
Jenilyn. One of my next points is going to be on Teaching. It's something I'm very high on. But I don't like where it's at now. We allow 1 to 1 1/2 hours per week to effectively influence the other 167 hours for God? 167 to 1, that is our current rate...and we wonder why the world has issues and the church only grows through babies. We have attempted to limit God's time for his people to this Sunday hour. I believe that the Bible will need to be taught very seriously. I actually have a friend whose full-time job in Atlanta is basically teacher for a church of few hundred postmoderns (age 17-35). He teaches throughout the week and also has a class on church history. Teaching has to be there, but where and when is the question.
Susi-Love it. I knew you would be tracking and makes me think of some of our past conversations. When I was in college I would get so frustrated because I would spend 1 1/2 hours in church and in that time I could only pray silently for like 1 minute. Makes me think of Elijah on the mountain top trying to see God. I think in this time of allowing God to speak, we'll have times of silence but also times when God speaks through his people and uses the gifts God gave to the body.
Love the guitar comment. Nice transition into what my next post is going to be...
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