Worship as a spiritual feeding tube?
It it not uncommon to hear the Sunday worship is that place where we go to get "fed" for the week. It is the time in which we learn and worship and are nourished for the coming week.
I have written in the past about worship needs to be more like skiing, less like football and more like soccer and even worship as going up musical stairs.
All of these metaphors have been helpful for me to discuss and think of worship, but the metaphor of being fed has never worked for me.
The only time I can imagine "being fed" is when I cannot feed myself - when I am really young and really old. Even when I order food at a restaurant, I am not being "fed", rather I am given food but I do more than just sit as another feeds me.
So when I think of worship as a place where I am "being fed" I think of a time in which I am unable to do anything and someone else (or something else) does all the work and I just sit there - unable to do anything but spit out or consume the food.
When I hear of people talk of worship as a place where they go to "get fed" I cannot help but desire to wonder at what point do we need to drop this metaphor?
My senior minister asked if I had read The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch. It has been a while (December 2010) but I pulled off my kindle my notes and came across this little gem in light of worship:
"[People] come to "get fed." But is this a faithful image of the church? Is the church really meant to be a "feeding trough" for otherwise capable middle-class people who are getting their careers on track? And to be honest, it is very easy for ministers to cater right into this: the prevailing understanding of leadership is that of the pastor-teacher. People gifted in this way love to teach and care for people, and the congregation in turn loves to outsource learning and to be cared for. I have to admit that this now looks awfully codependent to me."
Just to clarify, codependency in this context is not a great thing.
I have written in the past about worship needs to be more like skiing, less like football and more like soccer and even worship as going up musical stairs.
All of these metaphors have been helpful for me to discuss and think of worship, but the metaphor of being fed has never worked for me.
The only time I can imagine "being fed" is when I cannot feed myself - when I am really young and really old. Even when I order food at a restaurant, I am not being "fed", rather I am given food but I do more than just sit as another feeds me.
So when I think of worship as a place where I am "being fed" I think of a time in which I am unable to do anything and someone else (or something else) does all the work and I just sit there - unable to do anything but spit out or consume the food.
When I hear of people talk of worship as a place where they go to "get fed" I cannot help but desire to wonder at what point do we need to drop this metaphor?
My senior minister asked if I had read The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church by Alan Hirsch. It has been a while (December 2010) but I pulled off my kindle my notes and came across this little gem in light of worship:
"[People] come to "get fed." But is this a faithful image of the church? Is the church really meant to be a "feeding trough" for otherwise capable middle-class people who are getting their careers on track? And to be honest, it is very easy for ministers to cater right into this: the prevailing understanding of leadership is that of the pastor-teacher. People gifted in this way love to teach and care for people, and the congregation in turn loves to outsource learning and to be cared for. I have to admit that this now looks awfully codependent to me."
Just to clarify, codependency in this context is not a great thing.
Dumb sheep, hidden treasure and Jesus
Quick little parable of Jesus about the Kingdom of God (KoG):
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.'
When reading this parable, you may be like me and consider that the KoG is like this treasure in which we find, sometimes stumbling across it, and when we do we rejoice and give all we have in order to obtain this treasure. Sounds good to me.
Until I realize that nowhere in that interpretation of this parable is there any room for God. In fact, in this understanding of this parable, it is we humans who are doing all the work and God is absent. Which is radically different than what the rest of Jesus' message is about, in which God is the one who is acting first and primary.
Take the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine to find the lost one. We get it. God is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Notice that God is acting first and primary in this common interpretation of this parable. God is the good shepherd and we are the dumb sheep.
Christians have a bit of a self esteem problem sometimes. We are okay with identifying ourselves as dumb sheep and a man who "stumbles" across a treasure. But we are not usually comfortable with identifying ourselves as more.
Back to the parable of the treasure in the field.
What if this parable is God is the one who found a treasure and put that treasure in the field? Then God so delights in this treasure God gives all that God has in order to be one (reconcile) with this treasure? What if humans are God's treasure?
The KoG is like God first found treasure (human beings), then put that treasure in the field (the earth). And then God gave all that God had (God became human and lived, died and resurrected) in order to be one with this treasure (reconciliation with humanity).
In a world (and sometimes in the Church) in which you and I are constantly told we are not good enough, not smart enough or pretty enough, could it be that Jesus is saying to us - God thinks you are good enough.
What if the Good News is that God holds you as treasure?
We are comfortable with the idea that we are dumb sheep, it validates to us what the world says to us. However could it be that a counter-cultural message that is the Good News be that you - yes, you- are God's treasure?
If that is an uncomfortable idea, then perhaps we are beginning to see how some people really thought Jesus was wrong.
‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.'
When reading this parable, you may be like me and consider that the KoG is like this treasure in which we find, sometimes stumbling across it, and when we do we rejoice and give all we have in order to obtain this treasure. Sounds good to me.
Until I realize that nowhere in that interpretation of this parable is there any room for God. In fact, in this understanding of this parable, it is we humans who are doing all the work and God is absent. Which is radically different than what the rest of Jesus' message is about, in which God is the one who is acting first and primary.
Take the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves the other ninety-nine to find the lost one. We get it. God is the shepherd and we are the sheep. Notice that God is acting first and primary in this common interpretation of this parable. God is the good shepherd and we are the dumb sheep.
Christians have a bit of a self esteem problem sometimes. We are okay with identifying ourselves as dumb sheep and a man who "stumbles" across a treasure. But we are not usually comfortable with identifying ourselves as more.
Back to the parable of the treasure in the field.
What if this parable is God is the one who found a treasure and put that treasure in the field? Then God so delights in this treasure God gives all that God has in order to be one (reconcile) with this treasure? What if humans are God's treasure?
The KoG is like God first found treasure (human beings), then put that treasure in the field (the earth). And then God gave all that God had (God became human and lived, died and resurrected) in order to be one with this treasure (reconciliation with humanity).
In a world (and sometimes in the Church) in which you and I are constantly told we are not good enough, not smart enough or pretty enough, could it be that Jesus is saying to us - God thinks you are good enough.
What if the Good News is that God holds you as treasure?
We are comfortable with the idea that we are dumb sheep, it validates to us what the world says to us. However could it be that a counter-cultural message that is the Good News be that you - yes, you- are God's treasure?
If that is an uncomfortable idea, then perhaps we are beginning to see how some people really thought Jesus was wrong.
Fort Worth Dish Out
A little project I have had the honor of working on is the Fort Worth Dish Out. Which is not a huge thing in the world of micro-finance and micro-granting, but it is a huge thing in my little world.
Not one. In fact, the opposite was true. People asked when could we do it again and even offered up their time and resources to help the FwDo in the future. It really was remarkable.
If you were not there, we had 162 people in attendance on a Sunday evening who each gave at least $20 to break bread, meet new people, share ideas, and participated by voting to support different mission/service projects/ministries in the Fort Worth community.
People were there for 2 hours. Which by most accounts, is 100% longer than most worship services.
And not a single person said to me, "hey, this thing ran long".
But more than that. It was Church.
Too often we think of Church as what we do in worship. And while worship is important to Church, worship is just one expression of Church.
And the worship expression has become the dominate, and seemingly only acceptable expression, of Church.
Recently I was asked by a respected clergy friend if there was any fall out from church members or from my bishop about putting on an expression of Church that had wine. (The UMC has a stance that does not jibe with alcohol consumption.)
Frankly, while I respect my bishop and will do as I am asked to do I would have to respectfully disagree with him if he decided to take issue with the FwDo. However, based upon a recent blog post he wrote, I do not think that will be a problem.
Here is the last paragraph of the linked post which I think expresses an incarnational theology beautifully (emphasis added):
"Wesley took the commanding mission (and commission!) to spread the gospel through making disciples way beyond radical hospitality. He went where the people were out of love of Christ and love of those who have no relationship with the living God as Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. What is the equivalent of the New Room and field preaching for us this day? I believe the same living Lord who called Wesley and early Methodists calls us today."
It seems to me that the UMC has at least one bishop who understands mission and service to a world in need and might be willing to support some ministries that move the Church into other expressions of Church that are not just worship.
I am thankful that there were many people at the FwDo who also caught a glimpse of what Church can look like in addition to Sunday morning worship.
Let us hope that vision does not fade in time.
Frankly, while I respect my bishop and will do as I am asked to do I would have to respectfully disagree with him if he decided to take issue with the FwDo. However, based upon a recent blog post he wrote, I do not think that will be a problem.
Here is the last paragraph of the linked post which I think expresses an incarnational theology beautifully (emphasis added):
It seems to me that the UMC has at least one bishop who understands mission and service to a world in need and might be willing to support some ministries that move the Church into other expressions of Church that are not just worship.
I am thankful that there were many people at the FwDo who also caught a glimpse of what Church can look like in addition to Sunday morning worship.
Let us hope that vision does not fade in time.
Be the change by Jason Valendy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.