Can you connect going up stairs with worship

I found this video, and while it is not profound it does seem to visually articulate something about human nature.



My question is, in light of this experiment, what do you think could change in worship to have 66% more people using the path of worship than another path?

Or, if that is too specific or outside your normal thinking, what about these questions:

What can you do to change a mundane behavior into something people want to participate in?

What if music cam with every footstep?

How can you and I nudge people to partake in activities/actions which are better for their health?

Would you have stopped in your day to 'play' a bit on the stairs?

Worship as football

It is becoming clearer to me the more I consider worship the more I realize my metaphor for worship is conflicting to the dominate metaphor at the setting I find myself located. It seems we tend to approach worship as one might approach a the game of football. These are just some thoughts I have so far on this metaphor.

*(To be honest I have never played football and am more than willing to admit my observations of the game are limited. I also know metaphors break down if stretched too far and so I mindful of too much stretching. But here we go.)

Football seems like the ultimate game of control. Each team knows when they are on offense and when they are on defense. Whatever side of the ball you are on, every 40 or so seconds there is another play. Each play, is drawn up and each person has a specific task they must do in order for the play to work. There is little deviation from the play. Even the quarterback is given options of routes which are in a priority dependent upon the factors of the game. Pads are used in football to protect the players from crashing into one another. Although it is dangerous, it is as controlled danger as we might get. In football, there are so many players and back ups for the backups. There are several coaches who specialize in their area from defensive line coach to special teams coach. When a play 'breaks down' it is considered wasted or it is the opportunity for creativity (I am sure you all have seen the plays where there is are 15 laterals done in order to get to win the game. Those are amazingly memorable and fun to watch). Football audiences are involved with the game only if there is momentum (and if you are a fanatic and use body paint, you are considered extreme and a bit odd.)

Perhaps the issue of worship is not only we dominantly view it as the "start" to the detriment of the "culmination" of our week, but also that we approach worship as a football game.

Tomorrow I will put some thoughts down to the question, "What if we approached worship like a soccer game?"

Until then, what do you think thus far?

Is the Kingdom of God a cone...

Circles of containment were and continue to be a remarkable way to live in the world. Violence is contained and localized and therefore seems just, right and normal. The problem is, circles never are able to remove the problem or advance a culture. Because circles are ever ending and repeat, so do cultural circles of containment.

This is where Jesus comes into play. Jesus was not in favor of spirals of violence and he addressed the fallacy of circles of containment - Jesus offers a more excellent way. A third way... Spirals of reduction.

Spirals are a shape which has a starting point and then moves downward to an end point until there is no longer a shape at all. This makes cones unique to spirals (which extend forever) and circles (which never end). Cones come to an end.

The life of Jesus Christ was much like prophets before him in which Jesus attempted to expose spirals and circles. However, as a Christian, I believe Jesus was the first to offer an alternative, a third way. He called it the Kingdom of God. I visually depict this idea as a spiral of reduction.

As an easy example and one common to many even non-Christian people - Jesus' encounter with the woman caught in adultery.

Notice that Jesus had a couple of options to him. He could move toward a spiral of violence and stone the woman as well as go out and find the man and stone him as well. He could move toward a circle of containment and stoned the woman - as the law commands. These were the only perceived options to Jesus at the time, perhaps this is why he squats down and draws in the dirt. So he could buy time to think about another way to respond to this situation.

"Those without sin can cast the first stone."

Jesus calls the people to a spiral of reduction. By pointing people to look at their own lives and get away from blaming the other, each person walks away - beginning with the eldest.

The eldest were the ones who lived with spirals and circles the longest. They were the first to understand there is way culture and thrive or advance with only spirals or circles. The recognize they need another way. They, we, need cones of reduction.

While this has only been a very basic sketch of spirals of violence, circles of containment, and cones of reduction. It is my hope to develop these images to help empower people to read the Bible with tools to understand and apply to their lives and culture.

It is my hope to develop the spiral, circle and cone image not only in terms of violence but also altruism.

*A little hint, in altruistic terms we want spirals and not cones.