Where i Am

A worship curator

I have been reading and pondering the idea of the value of artists and the arts in our community worship gatherings. As I walk down this road, I am more inclined towards creating a position for a worship gathering curator than I am for a "producer", maybe we need both, I'm not sure. A curator is someone who is cultivating and helping to create environments. Their work is felt but not seen. Still thinking...

In hopes to help people enter past only using their reasoning function in worship gatherings, this Sunday we are using a variety of tools to help facilitate this. As we focus on Pslam 77 through the lens of Walter Bruegeman's three movements of the Psalms, we have:

1. created a prayer station that is simply a table in the back, with black cloth on it, two bowls: one with rocks and one with water, as well as a stack of blank index cards and pens. A sheet of instructions on it will state - “Please use these rocks to reveal struggles in your life to God. Use the water as a representative of your baptism and the index cards to write out memories of how God has healed struggles in the past as a way to enter the hope of Christ now and in the future.”

2. Asking people to take a rock from that station and hold it with them through out the service. Those rocks represent what we have brought in with us, specifically our struggles. There are always struggles, some of them are personal to our specific situation, some of them are situations that are near us that we bear as well.

After a congregational reading of Psalm 77 we are asking for people let the weight and substance be a reminder to them of the reality of their struggle. Then to sit with that reality, look at it, perhaps name it. Then as we move through the time of worship and on into teaching for them to allow God to speak to them through the reality of that experience.

3. The music arrangements that we are doing are more blues in reference. Using only electric guitar and drums and synth. A harsher, sadder, more visceral experience.

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Maundy Thursday

Our service tonight was moving and spirit filled.  Tonight we celebrated the last supper that Christ celebrated with his disciples.  Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

Dori and Jeff - the two who planned the service

Communion

This last week we had an "all worship/communion" Sunday. These happen once a month in our youth group. However, this week we wanted to have a non upfront leader/audience experience. Rather, we desired a group involved/ group led time of preparation for communion. The thought was since God is communal (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) our time leading up to during communion should feel communal.

Also, we constructed our time to lead us to communion. Usually we simply have a musical worship time that includes communion at the end. However, this time communion was the culmination of the morning. Everything tied into that story and was leading us to it.

It looked like this:

A meditative version of "All Who are Thirsty" to begin with to bring people in.

A call to worship from part of Psalm 65.

Continued with three more songs concerning God's character, his promise fulfilled in Jesus and repentance.

A person stood up in the group and read aloud the Luke narrative of Jesus' last supper.

After that we opened up the student's center for students to prepare themselves for The Eucharist by visiting one or all or three different rooms.

The room down stairs held a cross with candles and laminated verses around it. People could pray together there or be prayed for by two adults from the congregation prayer team. Meditative music was played in the background.

In the main room there was meditative music and the Luke narrative of Jesus' last supper scrolling through on the screen. This was a room to be alone and meditate.

Upstairs in the loft there were pages of paper and writing utensils so people could journal.

At the end of the time we were all called back and we took communion together as a group in one room.

We ended with a building version of "the wondrous cross".

It felt like a non up front led time. It was like a breath. We were together, we breathed out to the different rooms and breathed back in together for communion. It was very cool to see how the Holy Spirit (in the space that was given) spoke and prepared each student differently for the time of communion we had together.

Darfur Drawn

I have recently been introduced to a website called Darfur Drawn.  On this website are images that were drawn by children in Darfur while Human Rights Watch researchers were talking to their parents.  These images were not prompted, they simply came out of the kids.  They are powerful and disturbing images that tell what it feels like to live in Darfur as a child. 

Right now we're in a series at church with the students on justice.  Below is a slide show I put together for that series this week, using those images from Darfur Drawn, a few slides put together in Photoshop and the David Crowder Band song; 'Surely We Can Change'.   

Just click on the play button below to play the YouTube version.  You'll want your sound up.  If you want a larger and crisper view you can click on the link below the YouTube, it will take about 30 seconds to a minute to load though. 

Download darfur_drawn.mov