On Sunday night a group of five of us tested a new worship service which is pretty much based on an idea I posted over a year ago (initial idea here). And it worked!
Here is the basic structure for the night...
1) Move into the Space (with journal)
2) Light Candle (signifying God's presence) and say opening prayer
3) Someone reads the reading for the night. We decided to work through Luke's gospel starting with Jesus temptation in the desert (4:1-13). This was projected on a screen.
4) Reflect on the reading (people are given wondering questions to get them thinking). In this case they were... 1. I wonder what was Jesus doing for 40 days, 2. I wonder what it was like when Jesus was being tempted, 3. I wonder why Jesus let the devil tempt him, 4. I wonder what the devil would say today. These questions weren't read just projected on a screen below the reading.
5) Connect using journals and stations. For this session the stations were... A wooden cross to give things to God, stones to write confessions on and drop into water, pictures of Jesus to reflect on, a nature station, a soaking couch, a drawing station, play dough, prayer candles, books to read, sand box to write and doodle in and a place to write questions. Ambient Taize music played in the background.
6) We then got back together to offer our thoughts and work (artwork or journal work) to God
7) Close - using prayer of St Francis (the laptop battery died so we didn't do this as planned)
8) Discuss the experience with each other (optional - people have option to leave if they wish)
The "Service" took about an hour and could have gone for much longer. I felt like I had the time and the tools to wrestle with the text with no pressure. It would have to be the most relaxing thing I've done in a long time. It was a great space to connect with God with no sense of pressure to be some where else or thinking about something else.
I'm still excited about how easy this should be to do each time. With the set up each time just being a new reading, new wondering questions and adding stations as we are inspired to do so. The aim will be to meet every fortnight.
The big thing I'm dying to find out is, is this something that people on the edge of faith/church would be interested in participating in? I'll let you know sometime in 2007.
Here is the basic structure for the night...
1) Move into the Space (with journal)
2) Light Candle (signifying God's presence) and say opening prayer
3) Someone reads the reading for the night. We decided to work through Luke's gospel starting with Jesus temptation in the desert (4:1-13). This was projected on a screen.
4) Reflect on the reading (people are given wondering questions to get them thinking). In this case they were... 1. I wonder what was Jesus doing for 40 days, 2. I wonder what it was like when Jesus was being tempted, 3. I wonder why Jesus let the devil tempt him, 4. I wonder what the devil would say today. These questions weren't read just projected on a screen below the reading.
5) Connect using journals and stations. For this session the stations were... A wooden cross to give things to God, stones to write confessions on and drop into water, pictures of Jesus to reflect on, a nature station, a soaking couch, a drawing station, play dough, prayer candles, books to read, sand box to write and doodle in and a place to write questions. Ambient Taize music played in the background.
6) We then got back together to offer our thoughts and work (artwork or journal work) to God
7) Close - using prayer of St Francis (the laptop battery died so we didn't do this as planned)
8) Discuss the experience with each other (optional - people have option to leave if they wish)
The "Service" took about an hour and could have gone for much longer. I felt like I had the time and the tools to wrestle with the text with no pressure. It would have to be the most relaxing thing I've done in a long time. It was a great space to connect with God with no sense of pressure to be some where else or thinking about something else.
I'm still excited about how easy this should be to do each time. With the set up each time just being a new reading, new wondering questions and adding stations as we are inspired to do so. The aim will be to meet every fortnight.
The big thing I'm dying to find out is, is this something that people on the edge of faith/church would be interested in participating in? I'll let you know sometime in 2007.
6 comments:
interesting idea. sounds very spiritual. very emergent of you. i like that you are offering numerous experiences for people to connect and then have them come back to share with each other. my guess is that the sharing really expands what people can experience through the service because not only do they connect with God through their own experience but through how others experienced Him as well. i really like this.
question: do you see yourself using this as your regular worship service? or just doing it once in a while as part of a larger program?
by the way, what is a soaking couch?
this is very interesting, please continue to discuss updates in your blog.
Hey there Scott,
Thanks for the comment! I like that it sounds spiritual and emergent to you. The sharing part was pretty cool on the trial night. It was great to see people wrestling with stuff in a way that made you feel like they would eventually resolve it rather than just get stuck on the issue.
Re: do you see yourself using this as your regular worship service?
Yes, it will probably be the 2nd of two fortnightly services that I will be a part of, but I could imagine it as the only “service” that someone attends.
Re: ...or just doing it once in a while as part of a larger program?
Yes and no. It won't be quite part of a larger program but rather we'll be able to offer people other things. Part of my original vision for this whole idea was that rather than offer people a friendly BBQ or an explanation of Xy lecture as an introduction to Xy, this was meant to be a bite size chunk of Xy in action that people could experience. (I hope that makes sense.)
Re: by the way, what is a soaking couch?
It's a couch that you lie down and relax in and kind of just "soak" into.
Yeah sounds good! Good to see you've got it off the ground! How much preparation/setting up time do you anticipate it taking each fortnight?
Set up: Comfortably done in an hour by two to four people.
Weekly Preparation: One Hour. Sorting out exact bible reading, wondering questions, stations to use and who's doing what. Could still be done in an hour if one person does everything.
Making new stations: As long as you want whenever you want.
Working out what Bible book(s) to work our way through for a while: A quick meeting every six months or so.
In short, fairly low maintenance.
I think this is an excellent approach to worship. I work with youth and this would be exactly the sort of worship experience that would connect with them. I love the idea of the "soaking couch" and the sand for tracing in.
Hey there Brian,
Thanks for the encouragement and the post on your blog.
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