I’m really rethinking spiritual formation–how do people grow into Christlikeness. Are our “services” designed to optimize growth? How do we help people cross bridges and pass milestones in their spiritual journey? The Old Testament is full of rites and rituals. There are some in the New Testament (Baptism and Communion), but I wonder if we don’t need some more Mezuzahs and Ebenezers. I think we need to add some more physicality to our spirituality.
More on that a little later.
Postmodern Missionaries
I think church planters need to view themselves as postmodern missionaries. We need to rethink and rediscover and reinvent evangelism, worship gatherings, preaching, and spiritual formation for postmodern generations.
This blog is some of what I’ve been rethinking. The end result will be another service in the fall, but I’m not content with just doing what we’ve done in the past. I think we’ve got to consider all the options, discern the wind of the Spirit, and then take a calculated risk based on what God seems to be doing. As with everything else, it’ll be an experiment.
We used to give each of our worship experiences a different name to create an identity. FYI–I like worship experience or worship gathering to “worship service.” Service is what we do when we leave!
The problem with our first go at it was that they were too alike to really justify different names. I do like the idea of renaming them and trying to create different experiences. I think the easiest way to do it is by venue. Venue determines 75% of what you can and cannot do. A movie theater is an awesome venue, but it doesn’t allow some of the creative options that a club or coffeehouse would. For example, it’s difficult to do stations or create an altar or allow for Q and A in a theater. It is more observatory than participatory by virtue of the venue.
Pastoral Roles
I like to redefine my role as pastor via metaphors. I think of myself as a spiritual coach. As a spiritual coach I’m trying to push people past their limits. I want to stretch them for one reason–so they play up to their potential. I didn’t always like my coaches at the time, but they pushed me in practices to prepare me for the games–when it really counted. My role is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The word “next” is at the heart of my pastoral lexicon–I always want to push people to be thinking of the next step in their spiritual journey.
Another pastoral metaphor is that of an engineer. I’m trying to engineer experiences or environments that facilitate spiritual growth. I can’t “make” people grow. But I want to be an expert at creating opportunities where people can grow. I want to “set people up” to experience God and see God in new ways.
New
If we’re still doing church two years from now the way we’re doing church now we’re doing something wrong. We’re living off old manna. I think we need to always be reinventing ourselves.
I like to think of church in developmental terms. I have an eight-year-old son. I have no idea what he’ll be like twenty-five years from now–what he’ll look like, what he’ll do with his life. His identity will totally change over the years. He’ll be the same person, but a very different person. NCC is an eight-year-old. I hope, Lord willing, that I’m still pastoring NCC twenty-five years. But I have no idea what we’ll look like, what we’ll feel like, or who we’ll become. Our identity is always changing and morphing.
It’s amazing how many times the Psalmist says, “Sing to the Lord a new song.” We need to experience God in new ways. We need to take people to new places. I think that is the quintessential challenge of ministry–presenting ancient truth in brand new ways. Truth is kaleidscopic. We reveal the beauty of truth when we help people see it from different angles.
At our Inward Bound Retreat we did “stations.” We’ve done it before, but one station was new. We did a “wash” station. The “cleansing ceremony” or “rite of purification” is a thread that runs throughout the book of Leviticus. As I reflected on those rituals I recognized a “physicality” to them. There is something about a physical action that helps us internalize spiritual truth. So we washed people’s hands to symbolically help people internalize the truth that Christ washes our sins away. It was a powerful experience because it was new. I doubt that a single person there had ever experienced God in that way.
We also tried to give people a “new picture” of forgiveness via video. We played off of Micah 7:19 that says God casts our sins to the depths of the sea. We did an “on location” video shoot (with underwater camera) because we wanted to give people an image to hold on to. We wrote out confessions and put them into a confession box on Friday night. Then we threw the confession box to the bottom of Lake Habeeb with Audio Adrenaline’s song “Ocean Floor” as a backdrop. It was a powerful picture that I’ll never forget. Swinging Pendulum
I think so much of ministry is about the tension of opposites. Job 11:6 says “True wisdom has two sides.” I think truth is found where tensions collide! The way that works in my life is that I find my teaching and my life is a “swinging pendulum.” It’s tough to stay centered. I usually underemphasize something in my life and overemphasize something else. Then the pendulum shifts.
I see this in my devotional life–swings between Bible reading (eating) and Prayer (breathing). I have a hard time keeping them in perfect balance. I also see it in my teaching. We try to swing between what we call “outreach series” that are more milk than meat and “discipleship series” that are more meat than milk. It’s tough to keep a balance. I see this in my life theologically. I tend to swing back and forth on the supernatural–the amount of emphasis I’m giving to miracles and spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit.
I think spirituality is a rythym thing or momentum thing. There is an ebb and flow that can’t be controlled or manufactured. You just have to “go with the flow” by “keeping in step with the Spirit.” You have to lick you finger, put it up in the air, and see which way the wind of the Spirit is blowing. It is more art than science!
Altars
As I’ve read Scripture and researched other churches I’ve made a few observations:
There sure are alot of “altars” in the Old Testament. I’m not sure that we’re very good at capturing or celebrating or commemorating spiritual milestones. I think our worship gatherings need times where people can create an altar via a selah–a time of reflection or meditation or journal writing. I’d love to produce some journals for some of our series so people can take notes and more importantly, write down what God is saying to them and what they are believing God for. I’ve always felt like we needed a service that ended with the altar. We need opportunities for people to linger or tarry in God’s presence. I have always felt like our best services were the ones where people didn’t want to leave. We did an informal dismissal, but no one left. I don’t think every service needs to end that way, but it is one of the things I like about the Club and future coffeehouse. It’ll be conducive to this kind of environment. A theater really isn’t. Our services are pretty programmed–and they have to be. But we need to complement that with a service that has a more “open feel” and isn’t as programmed.
The word “education” means “to draw out.” To often we try “to stuff in.” We try to fill people with in-formation and then wonder why there isn’t trans-formation. It’s because we don’t allow people to discover things for themselves. Our services aren’t “open-ended” enough.
In a sense, I think the creation of altars is like “marking a trail.” They are reminders of how we got to where we are which seems to be a big concern of God. He doesn’t want us to forget.
Vows
Another major Old Testament theme that is see is “sacred vows.” It is amazing how many times David talks about the different vows he’s made to God. Psalm 76:10 says, “Make vows to the Lord and fulfill them.” Vows are a step beyond goals or resolutions. They are a sacred promise. I wonder if we “let people off the hook” too easily by not challenging them to make concrete commitments to God. I think we need to be more creative in challenging people to take concrete steps in response to messages.
I need to temper this with Ecclesiastes 5 which says it’s better to not make a vow than to break a vow. It is serious business!
Order of Service
I think we need to rethink our “order of service”–the different elements that make up a Sunday morning experience. We need to be more intentional in communicating “why we do what we do.”
I think we need some more formal elements like a “call to worship” and “benediction.” But we need to do them in a way that recaptures their original intent–to prepare people for worship and to bless people as they leave. We used to do a “focus thought” that helped get people focused on our theme for the day. But that seems to be one of those elements that isn’t urgent so it doesn’t get planned.
I continue to wrestle with “preparatory worship” and “responsive worship.” I think worship is both/and. It prepares us to hear the word–it opens our spirits. I’ve always likened worship to a “lock.”
I asked my wife to marry me on a boat ride on Lake Michigan with the city of Chicago as a backdrop. In order to get onto the lake you have to go through the lock because the water levels of Lake Michigan and the Chicago River are different. The lock allows you to “rise to the level” of the lake. I think worship allows us to rise from the natural to the supernatural. It prepares our spirits for what God wants to do in us.
But worship is also responsive. The Holy Spirit touches “spiritual never endings” during a message and worship can be a more meaningful response after the message is already preached. I envision a both/and approach with “open worship.”
Crossing the Line
I think we need to find creative ways to help people “cross the line” and put their faith in Christ. The “altar call” and “sinners prayer” were effective measures for a season of history, but we need new ways of helping people sign on the dotted line.
We’ve tried this different ways in the past–pick up a book (First Steps) or talk with someone about the decision you’ve made or celebrate communion for the first time or fill out a connection card or raise a hand. I’m not 100% satisfied with any of those “next steps.”
I think this requires rethinking conversion. I’m hoping and praying for a unique way of doing this that fits NCC’s DNA. It needs to be a “defining moment” which I think requires some kind of physical step or action.
I’ll explore this more in a future blog.