Worshiping worship - Part 1

Among many of the leaders of the area of the UMC which I am located in, there is a premium placed upon worship.  Worship is often described as the most important thing that we do as a Church.

A previous post touched on this idea which you can read if you would like.  

It is not clear to me that there is one thing in the Church that ought to be the most important thing.  To say such a thing seems more of a reflection of the priorities of the person saying it than of the reflection of God's priorities for the Church.

Can we really think that corporate worship is more important than working to eradicate slavery in our back yard?  Or that teaching about the message of Jesus is more important than prayer and meditation?  

How can one hold one aspect of the Church above another?  Did not Paul speak of the Church being a body that is made of different parts and no one part is greater than the whole?  Can the hands of service tell the heart of worship that they do not need it?  Of course not.  

When we elevate worship above the other aspects of Church I would submit that we are in danger of moving toward an idolatry of worship.  We worship worship.  

From the infamous golden calf to elevating sacrifice above mercy to worshiping Cesar, the Bible shares of of many stories of humanity struggling with idolatry.  

The Church also seems to struggle with idolatry in that different parts of the Church elevate one expression of God over the others.  Mainline Church elevates God, Evangelicals elevate Jesus, and Pentecostals elevate the Holy Spirit.  Try talking about the 'Holy Spirit' in the mainline and you will find it to be more uncomfortable than talking about 'God'.  

The Trinity is a teaching about the nature of God which says, of many other things, that no one aspect of God is greater than another.  Yet, our Churches fall into the idea that there are aspects of being Church that is greater than others - namely worship is the "most important" thing we do.  

What if we were to take the idea of the Trinity and apply it to the Church?  

The next post will explore this a bit more...

Adventures with a name tag

I have a name tag at Church which I usually do not like.  The lettering is too small and it has too many words on it to be in any way helpful to people who have not been bitten by a radioactive hawk and possess a super-human ability to see very clearly.  

With all that lettering and the number of words on my name tag, it has become clear the only thing people see on my name tag is the word "Church".  

As one who is curious to know about people and learn from them, it is usually counter-productive to meet an atheist or an agnostic wearing a name tag that says "Church" on it.  It smacks of establishment and no one likes "the man".  

I sought out to make a new name tag for myself.  

I am not creative enough to come up with this name tag on my own but I discovered this style after viewing a number of Meetup groups who were discussing creativity.  While their name tags were temporary stickers, I thought it would be great to go with a bit more of a permanent/official/reusable look.

So here is what I got:

While some might consider this too weird or "hey look at me!", I have discovered the flexibility and uniqueness of this name tag has opened the door to a number of wonderful conversations with people.  And the thing is, it is the other people who choose to engage in the conversation first!

One day I wore that I love "Girard".  To my amazement, I met a guy who knew who Girard was and was well versed in his writings.  He and his wife were in from out of state for medical treatment for their son.  After thirty minutes, he and I traded names and contact information so that we might reconnect on the internet as we find things related to our conversation.  

Earlier this week I visited a coffee shop and the brewista stated, "oh, you are the guy with the name tag.  What do you love today?"  

Not a big deal by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been a wonderful experiment thus far in engaging with people to talk of life, philosophy, religion, God and even Anchorman:

Gaining and loosing the gift of prophecy

In Romans 12, Paul writes these words:

"For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching;the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness."

One of the striking phrases to me in this section is the idea of one receives "prophecy, in proportion to faith".  It is striking to me because it is often understood that prophecy is either something you have or you do not have.  Much like brown eyes - you either have them or you do not.  

However, if we are to consider that we are to grow in faith then does that mean that we too can proportionally grow in prophecy?  And if we diminish in faith then do we proportionally diminish in prophecy?  

Recently I completed reading "The Prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann (which you can find my Kindle notes here).  And in my reading of this book, with the Scriptures as well as what I recall from Seminary, it has awoken an awareness in me that prophecy is something more of a skill that we cultivate than a trait that we possess (or do not possess).


First off let me use Brueggemann's words to clarify what a prophet is:


While the prophets are in a way future-tellers, they are concerned with the future as it impinges upon the present.


The task of prophetic ministry is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception alternative to the consciousness and perception of the dominant culture around us


It is the task of the prophet to bring to expression the new realities against the more visible ones of the old order.


As we grow in the faith of Christ and live into the call of God in our lives...
As we understand the message of Jesus and how he rooted his message in a rich tradition of prophets...
As we undertake spiritual disciplines and grow in the fruits of the spirit...
As we mature into the beings God desires us to be...

We grow in the skill of prophecy.

MLK did not just wake up one day and "discover" he was a prophet.  No.  He cultivated a love of Christ for years before he stepped into that role of the prophet.  Even Jesus was 30 years old before he stepped into public ministry!  Becoming a prophet takes time.  And it is clear in the Biblical witness, it is something that we can all grow into.