Shellys blog entry on church website for today. Check website at uccredeemer.org for past entries: “It is Us.” January 23, 2014 Continuing last week’s theme exploring “the box” outside of which we are being called by all the church gurus to think, a quote from a member of our Deacon Team: “We have met the box and it is us!” Though here at Redeemer, there are many fewer boundaries and walls around “church” than in many other congregations, they certainly still exist here. Some of them are simply a function of the lived experience of those of us who are members and leaders here. While most members are very open to new ideas and experiences in church, every one of us has some kind of line drawn in our internal sandbox that defines what we “must” have for us to “be church.” Some examples might be: • the words we use for the Lord’s Prayer. • pews in the sanctuary instead of chairs or open spaces. • organ music for hymns • a choir providing anthems • worship happening on Sunday morning • Sunday School happening during worship most Sundays • a youth group that meets Sunday nights • official “membership” marked by a joining ceremony and names on a list • counting members and defining ourselves as a church by those numbers or the numbers of people in worship on a given Sunday There is nothing inherently bad about any of these things, but when we define our “box,” that is our conception of what church is and needs to be, we need to be clear down to small details about what our understanding of that is. Then we need to ask ourselves what would happen if any of those things changed. How would we feel about it? Would we still be able to connect with God and other people to further our own faith formation and live out our mission as God’s servants? Keep asking yourself what box is you?
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:53:23 +0000
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