This Is A Strange Looking Worship Service
Pick a Sunday, any Sunday and walk into nearly any church in your town and watch closely what happens. You will most likely experience the following:
You will find yourself in a theatre or auditorium like setting. You will sit in rows of chairs or pews all looking forward toward a stage. On that stage you will find individuals who have been selected to carry out the elements of a program for your benefit, which you will sit quietly and observe (except for the time when you are directed to stand up and sing a few songs in unison).
You will notice two distinct groups of people. The audience. And the professionals. Among the audience are individuals who have once again made the weekly trek to the "church" to "be fed" by observing the program that has been developed by the professionals. Among the professionals will most likely be one or more musicians who will direct you in what and how to sing, which verses of the hymn to skip (Let's sing verses 1, 2, 4), which posture to take as you sing, and the duration of your singing. Your posture and duration of singing will also be determined by the socially acceptable norms of the denomination to which the church belongs. What is acceptable in one church may be taboo in the church around the corner. Also among the professionals you will most likely find a seminary trained "minister" who will spend anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour delivering a speech built around Bible verses which he has spent the previous week preparing (or in many cases the previous hour or so downloading from the internet). You will not be permitted to speak or make sudden, unexpected moves or gestures while he is speaking.
This program will likely be designed to consume about one hour of your time, after which you will walk through the exit, shake the minister's hand and tell him how much you enjoyed his sermon, and head to the nearest restaurant.
In America today, this is a pretty accurate description of what we call "church." Now, my tone here is clearly cynical. For that, I offer no apologies. Yet at the same time I must keep my attitude in check by reminding myself that God has and continues to use this way of church and the Godly men who lead this way of church, to bring people into His Kingdom. Some of my closest friends are pastors of churches similar to what I described and God is doing beautiful things in those settings. Yet I struggle, because I then must remind myself of another fact. And that is that in America, the Church of Jesus Christ is not advancing...the church is in retreat. Islam is advancing. Buddhism is advancing. Christianity is closing more churches every year than we are starting.
I know that there are more factors at work in the decline of Christianity in America than simply the way in which we conduct ourselves when we gather. But I also feel that in many cases we are packaging "church" in a way that quenches the Holy Spirit, strips the priesthood of believers of their priestlyness (I made that word up...but it works), and lulls congregations into a deep, apathetic, self-centered slumber.
I believe that the ways in which we package "church" creates several
dichotomies . We divide people into two groups: The professional clergy and the consumer congregation. But we also create an artificial division between our church lives and our regular lives. In our regular lives we have meals together, we learn through conversation and dialogue, we sit together in living rooms and drink coffee, we play sports together, we pursue hobbies together, we walk our dogs and meet our neighbors. But then when we think about church we have to - for one hour each week - shift into a totally un-natural mode in an attempt to experience that which I believe Christ meant for us to experience in the most natural of settings and postures; which we feel we must now abandon to engage our spirituality. How strange indeed.
Every man who is called by God to plant and/or lead a church must carefully listen and follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit regarding the way in which they will "do church." We must be very careful to guard against arrogantly believing that the way we do it is the only right way. I take those words to heart as I now share with you the way in which I believe God is calling me to lead a community of believers here in Augusta.
As God adds to our numbers those who will comprise the body of Epic Church we will gather together regularly, just as congregations all over the country do each week. However, the person visiting the Epic gathering that I envision may initially think to themselves, "This is a strange looking worship service."
The best way for me to share with you what I believe God is inviting us to create here is to do so through a story. What follows is a fictional account of a fictional person who is visiting for the first time an Epic worship gathering...which doesn't yet exist. Allow me to introduce you to Brandon.
Hi, I'm Brandon. It was a Thursday evening. A friend of mine from work invited me to come to church with him; something that I hadn't done since attending Sunday School as a child. We got off work around 5:30 and drove downtown. We parked out on the street, went into one of the downtown buildings that vacated long ago when all of the businesses moved out to the new mall.We went upstairs and walked into a large 3 room loft. As I walked through the door I was confronted head-on with two things: the sound of dozens of people laughing and talking, and the aroma of a home-cooked meal. I was surprised when my friend said to me, "We start every gathering by having a meal together. Some of the women who are gifted in and passionate about hospitality get here about an hour early to prepare the meal for everyone. A lot of the people also brought food pot-luck style to share with everyone."There were probably 75 to 100 people there, and we all ate dinner together. The conversations around the table were wonderful. About 45 minutes later six or seven people washed their dishes and went through a doorway into another room. Soon after they left I heard music being played in the other room. It was a live band and they were top-notch.About time the music started everyone began moving into the other room which they called "The Sanctuary." It was quite large and didn't look at all like a church sanctuary. Instead it looked like a huge family room. There were couches, loveseats, big comfy chairs, end-tables, coffee tables, lamps. And on the walls were paintings, crosses, ancient iconography, lighted candle sconces. The lighting was down low, the room was mostly candle-lit with a few of the lamps on. The band was off to the side of the room playing music that set a deeply spiritual tone to the room. Poignant images were up on a screen near the front of the room.As the congregation gathered in the sanctuary, a worship time began like I never expected. Some people stood with their hands raised, singing along with the band. Some huddled together in groups of 2 or 3 and prayed for one another and for other needs that they were aware of. A couple of people actually set up a canvas and easel and did an oil painting that depicted what they were experiencing in their relationship with God. One girl sat quietly off to the side writing in a journal. Some people went to special prayer stations built into little alcoves in the wall. One was a "repentance station" and I saw a young guy there write some stuff on a piece of paper and then light it on fire. I then noticed that he was crying as he dipped his hands in a basin of water and then raised them in the air to God.Everyone kind of did their own thing with God, while the band set the tone of the moment with music and scripture readings. After about 45 minutes the pastor said a few words, inviting everyone to come together for "The Forum." I didn't know what this was going to be. I assumed it was time for him to preach but I'd never heard the term "Forum" used for this. He then explained that this was the time for conversation and the sharing of experiences we've had in our relationship with Christ or with others. It was kind of like open-mic night. People came and read poetry or journal entries. The painter explained the meaning behind his painting and a lot of people cried as he told how the images on the canvas represented how God had helped him make peace with his earthly father...who had abandoned him years earlier.After 3 or 4 people shared some things the pastor came back and spoke for about 30 minutes. He read a passage of Scripture, taught the meaning of it, and then explained it's relevance to our life. Throughout this teaching time there was dialogue and conversation, not simply a one-way speech. The forum ended, some music started back up. Most of the people began slowly making their way out to head home. Several just stayed around talking, drinking coffee. My friend told me that the place usually emptied out around 11:00 or 12:00 at night. And this was church.He told me that they met like this every week. The teaching from the Bible is always centered around one of what they called the "Core 3." The "Core 3" are the three things this church focuses on: Intimacy, Healing, and Purpose. Some weeks the worship and forum time are built around the theme of intimacy with God through Jesus Christ and intimacy with one another. At other times the theme is all about healing...mostly emotional and spiritual healing. My friend said that things can sometimes get pretty raw as people talk and pray through abuse issues, addictions, etc. On some weeks the theme is centered around purpose. The forum on this night is designed to help people discover who they are in Christ, how they are gifted and called, and to equip and train them to live out their life purpose.After my first visit, I feel like this is a place where I can be me - I can be real - and I can experience God in the unique ways that He's built me to experience Him. I'll be back next week, with my cousin Danny.technorati tag: Augusta Church