We often talk of going to church as “meeting our needs” or “recharging us for the week to come.” While it is true that participating in church life does indeed meet our needs and prepare us for our Christian work out in the world, it is also true that going to church is not just about our comfort. In fact, the biblical prophets would argue that their job is to make people of faith uncomfortable. This September at The Way, we will consider Amos’ prophetic message. It is not easy to hear. It is not easy to take. And it will make us uncomfortable. So why put ourselves through it? Because Amos has words to say to us today; his message is as relevant now as it was when he first proclaimed it. Come, get uncomfortable this September with the prophet Amos!
September 7 God’s Call to a Prophet
September 14 God’s Call to Responsibility
September 21 God’s Call to Compassion
September 28 God’s Call to Hope
Monday, September 8, 2008
Being a Stranger: By Jennie Churchman
I recently had the privilege of spending a Saturday volunteering with one of Tarrant County’s community organizations. It was a great day of putting my beliefs into action, and I’m glad I did it. But I also experienced what it is like to be an outsider, and I must say that it is not an easy role for me to play. I’m accustomed to leading volunteer groups, not joining one incognito. Worse than incognito, actually…more like awkward fifth wheel.
Walking into the gathering place alone was a little intimidating, but I tend to be an out-going person so I didn’t let it bother me that much. Because the room was already crowded with volunteers, I staked out a portion of the wall near the door to lean against as I waited with the others to receive our day’s work assignments. One older man came into the room, looked all around, sighed exasperatedly and said, “It’s the same group of people it always is.” I immediately felt defensive. What was I, chopped liver? We couldn’t have been standing any closer together without touching. I mean, I could see his pores! Could he not see me? What a way to make me feel valued and welcomed. I thought about letting it pass but instead said as cheerily as I could, “I’ve never been here before.”
At the lunch break, I had another moment of feeling like a true outsider, or rather, another moment of being put on the defensive for seeming like an outsider. Lunch was blackened pork chops with all the trimmings. It was excellent. I was happily eating my pork chop making small talk with the man next to me when a woman across the way interrupted me to say, “This is Texas. We don’t eat it like that. We pick it up and use our fingers.” First of all, I had been doing dirty, sweaty work all morning, and while I had washed my hands, I still didn’t feel like eating with them. A knife and fork suited me just fine. Second of all, I don’t like to gnaw on bones. I don’t eat ribs for the same reason. It grosses me out—that’s a little too close to the truth for me. I’d rather pretend that tasty bit of meat I’ve just eaten came off my fork, not off some animal’s bone. Gnawing on bones makes me feel like a wild dog, and believe me, no woman wants to feel like a dog.
And that’s not even including the fact that I’m about as Texan as they come these days. My grandfather’s grandparents—both sets—immigrated into Texas from Germany back in the 1850s and 60s. My grandmother’s grandfather was a nineteenth-century frontier Disciples preacher serving several Texas country churches including North Texas’ own Pilot Point Christian Church. On my father’s side, my grandfather’s grandfather relocated the family to Texas after shooting a man in Alabama. Family lore also tells it that as the wagons made their way into West Texas, Native American scouts watched my family from the bluffs above the trail. Shoot-outs and Native Americans…does it get any more Texan than that? I don’t know anything about my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, but haven’t I proved my point? Please don’t try to argue I’m not Texan simply because I choose not to gnaw on a bone. I just ignored the woman and kept eating.
I share all of this with you not to complain—well, maybe I’m complaining a little bit. But the message I really want to convey is how very hard it is to be a stranger. How very hard it is to walk into a room full of other people who seem to know each other and who don’t seem all that interested in getting to know me. This experience has made me realize how visitors to our church must sometimes feel—like true outsiders or true strangers rather than honored guests or, more accurately, brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is not easy to find that right balance between warm welcome and off-putting forwardness. I recognize that. And I also recognize that maybe I was a little too defensive in both cases. But I consider this experience to be a significant lesson in hospitality. I now know what it’s like to be on the other side of hospitality, and I want to make sure no one I come in contact with on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening feels the way I felt that day.
We’re going to be hearing a lot about hospitality in the next few weeks at Northway, and I’m grateful for that. I consider hospitality to be one of the most important spiritual disciplines we can share together as a community. I hope every member of Northway and The Way takes advantage of this time—with its sermons, seminars, and studies—to focus on the true meaning of hospitality and how we can live it out every single day. But I also wish every member of Northway and The Way could have the same experience I had that Saturday in Fort Worth. In my opinion, there is no better way to learn about hospitality. Become a stranger, and then you’ll know how important hospitality really is.
Copyright 2008
Walking into the gathering place alone was a little intimidating, but I tend to be an out-going person so I didn’t let it bother me that much. Because the room was already crowded with volunteers, I staked out a portion of the wall near the door to lean against as I waited with the others to receive our day’s work assignments. One older man came into the room, looked all around, sighed exasperatedly and said, “It’s the same group of people it always is.” I immediately felt defensive. What was I, chopped liver? We couldn’t have been standing any closer together without touching. I mean, I could see his pores! Could he not see me? What a way to make me feel valued and welcomed. I thought about letting it pass but instead said as cheerily as I could, “I’ve never been here before.”
At the lunch break, I had another moment of feeling like a true outsider, or rather, another moment of being put on the defensive for seeming like an outsider. Lunch was blackened pork chops with all the trimmings. It was excellent. I was happily eating my pork chop making small talk with the man next to me when a woman across the way interrupted me to say, “This is Texas. We don’t eat it like that. We pick it up and use our fingers.” First of all, I had been doing dirty, sweaty work all morning, and while I had washed my hands, I still didn’t feel like eating with them. A knife and fork suited me just fine. Second of all, I don’t like to gnaw on bones. I don’t eat ribs for the same reason. It grosses me out—that’s a little too close to the truth for me. I’d rather pretend that tasty bit of meat I’ve just eaten came off my fork, not off some animal’s bone. Gnawing on bones makes me feel like a wild dog, and believe me, no woman wants to feel like a dog.
And that’s not even including the fact that I’m about as Texan as they come these days. My grandfather’s grandparents—both sets—immigrated into Texas from Germany back in the 1850s and 60s. My grandmother’s grandfather was a nineteenth-century frontier Disciples preacher serving several Texas country churches including North Texas’ own Pilot Point Christian Church. On my father’s side, my grandfather’s grandfather relocated the family to Texas after shooting a man in Alabama. Family lore also tells it that as the wagons made their way into West Texas, Native American scouts watched my family from the bluffs above the trail. Shoot-outs and Native Americans…does it get any more Texan than that? I don’t know anything about my paternal grandmother’s side of the family, but haven’t I proved my point? Please don’t try to argue I’m not Texan simply because I choose not to gnaw on a bone. I just ignored the woman and kept eating.
I share all of this with you not to complain—well, maybe I’m complaining a little bit. But the message I really want to convey is how very hard it is to be a stranger. How very hard it is to walk into a room full of other people who seem to know each other and who don’t seem all that interested in getting to know me. This experience has made me realize how visitors to our church must sometimes feel—like true outsiders or true strangers rather than honored guests or, more accurately, brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is not easy to find that right balance between warm welcome and off-putting forwardness. I recognize that. And I also recognize that maybe I was a little too defensive in both cases. But I consider this experience to be a significant lesson in hospitality. I now know what it’s like to be on the other side of hospitality, and I want to make sure no one I come in contact with on a Sunday morning or a Sunday evening feels the way I felt that day.
We’re going to be hearing a lot about hospitality in the next few weeks at Northway, and I’m grateful for that. I consider hospitality to be one of the most important spiritual disciplines we can share together as a community. I hope every member of Northway and The Way takes advantage of this time—with its sermons, seminars, and studies—to focus on the true meaning of hospitality and how we can live it out every single day. But I also wish every member of Northway and The Way could have the same experience I had that Saturday in Fort Worth. In my opinion, there is no better way to learn about hospitality. Become a stranger, and then you’ll know how important hospitality really is.
Copyright 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
The Association of Disciples Musicians Meets The Way
By Greg Nunn and Chrissy Bird
The Way was privileged to be part of this year’s gathering of the Association of Disciples Musicians (ADM) in Tulsa. Our experience there was fantastic—inspiring, life-giving, challenging, reinvigorating—as we taught several workshops and led one worship service. Below are two reflections on The Way’s participation at ADM. Greg Nunn, ADM’s current president, wrote the first one about the worship service we led. Our own Chrissy Bird wrote the second.
By Greg Nunn
Using a guitar acoustical accompaniment to “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” brought the congregation easily into the spirit of the worship service. Then, I stood to share in the several unique worship experiences offered to us. I had a lump in my throat wondering if these diverse, respectable, educated, veteran worship planners would embrace the opportunities provided. Lighting candles? Certainly. Meditation while prostrate on a pillow? Possibly. Creating art? Maybe.
I decided I would be the lone dancer leaping with streamer sticks across the narthex. I slowly cracked the door to accept my fate and had to dodge a leaping ADM'er and felt streamers gracefully brushing across my forehead. Then another dancer twirled passed with joy painted on her face. I had to pirouette while grabbing for my streamers to keep myself—and several others—on our feet! I found myself actually rejoicing in dance! Soon I returned to the sanctuary where people were in worship; quietly moving between stations, sitting in reflection and prayer with crayons in hand, building stained glass, lighting candles, all sharing a smile and a nod as they passed.
I had comments from several people about how nice the worship experience was that Tuesday. I had several friends come to me and tell my they were surprised by how personally moving Tuesday's Emerging Worship experiences were. It surprised me too. The evaluation sheets have circles around 'emerging worship' with short phrases applauding the experience—lots of nice responses. One person expressed concern that ADM will continue to address contemporary music. There was however, one critique: the person liked the emerging worship, but said the crayons had to go. Personally, I was too busy dancing to notice.
By Chrissy Bird
Question or Statement: How Great Is Our God
“How Great Is Our God” was one of the songs that we sang as we led Tuesday’s worship for the Association of Disciples Musicians Convention. Wow – a room full of musicians praising God with their gift of song. The Way was honored to receive an invitation by the ADM to come join them to teach and lead this amazing group in a style new to most of them. The weekend was filled with incredible workshops teaching about Choral singing and music, Handbell ringing, Organ playing, leading youth in music, and also about the new comers – those of us bringing “Emerging” Worship.
Our own, Jennie Churchman and Kristal Seid, led many workshops covering the gamut of, what we prefer to call, Experiential Worship. Bringing Back the Easter Vigil, Special Liturgical Worship, Enhancing Worship with Technology – these are some of the 17 workshops that Jennie and Kristal prepared and presented during the weekend. I watched them in action as I participated in their classes – I cannot adequately express with words how proud I am to be associated with people of their caliber. It was truly a blessing to be able to say, “Yes, I am with them.”
After learning about Emerging Worship, 150 music and worship leaders came together to experience worship and as Jennie did what Jennie does best, the Holy Spirit was clearly present in that room. Some of the attendees were apprehensive, as the majority had never experienced this type worship before, and we weren’t sure exactly how it would be received. But we gave them a full-on The Way worship experience. Wow – did I say wow, ‘cause I meant WOW!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! We sang songs – traditional, contemporary, and blended, we had a sermon on Getting Lost in Worship and then we did just that – with 6 prayer stations to get Lost in God’s Wonder, God’s Love, and in Praise.
We prayed by watching images of His creation and creating for Him a graffiti wall of images and words that came to us to thank Him for this gift. We prayed with Acrostics – writing a prayer to thank God for his Grace. We prayed with joyous music and dance. We prayed with traditional candles and silence. We prayed with the scents of anointing oil, reading the story of Mary washing his feet, preparing him for what was to come and thanking God for His willingness to give the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be forgiven. We prayed with mandalas, an ancient form of worship where a circle representing our whole self is colored and designed as we were by our creator.
The sanctuary was covered by grown men and women draped on the chancel and sitting on the floor – coloring! Opening themselves to God in ways they may not have done since they were children! But one of the most incredible experiences of all was the joint formation of our community mandala. When we planned out our service of senses and experiences, none of us could have imagined how beautiful this creation would turn out. Together we designed a tangible symbol of our community – a circle representing all of us, separately and collectively.
Traditional vs. Emerging Worship – Mindy Cunningham said it best when addressing our Christian Women’s Fellowship – neither is better… they’re just different. Both offer an experience with our Lord and I am so thankful that we were given the chance to offer an additional approach to enhance each one’s journey to the heart of God.
So, the answer is yes. How Great is Our God… it is both a question and a statement.
It is a question that we are asked by a world of believers and non-believers and a statement that we must show the world everyday.
The Way was privileged to be part of this year’s gathering of the Association of Disciples Musicians (ADM) in Tulsa. Our experience there was fantastic—inspiring, life-giving, challenging, reinvigorating—as we taught several workshops and led one worship service. Below are two reflections on The Way’s participation at ADM. Greg Nunn, ADM’s current president, wrote the first one about the worship service we led. Our own Chrissy Bird wrote the second.
By Greg Nunn
Using a guitar acoustical accompaniment to “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” brought the congregation easily into the spirit of the worship service. Then, I stood to share in the several unique worship experiences offered to us. I had a lump in my throat wondering if these diverse, respectable, educated, veteran worship planners would embrace the opportunities provided. Lighting candles? Certainly. Meditation while prostrate on a pillow? Possibly. Creating art? Maybe.
I decided I would be the lone dancer leaping with streamer sticks across the narthex. I slowly cracked the door to accept my fate and had to dodge a leaping ADM'er and felt streamers gracefully brushing across my forehead. Then another dancer twirled passed with joy painted on her face. I had to pirouette while grabbing for my streamers to keep myself—and several others—on our feet! I found myself actually rejoicing in dance! Soon I returned to the sanctuary where people were in worship; quietly moving between stations, sitting in reflection and prayer with crayons in hand, building stained glass, lighting candles, all sharing a smile and a nod as they passed.
I had comments from several people about how nice the worship experience was that Tuesday. I had several friends come to me and tell my they were surprised by how personally moving Tuesday's Emerging Worship experiences were. It surprised me too. The evaluation sheets have circles around 'emerging worship' with short phrases applauding the experience—lots of nice responses. One person expressed concern that ADM will continue to address contemporary music. There was however, one critique: the person liked the emerging worship, but said the crayons had to go. Personally, I was too busy dancing to notice.
By Chrissy Bird
Question or Statement: How Great Is Our God
“How Great Is Our God” was one of the songs that we sang as we led Tuesday’s worship for the Association of Disciples Musicians Convention. Wow – a room full of musicians praising God with their gift of song. The Way was honored to receive an invitation by the ADM to come join them to teach and lead this amazing group in a style new to most of them. The weekend was filled with incredible workshops teaching about Choral singing and music, Handbell ringing, Organ playing, leading youth in music, and also about the new comers – those of us bringing “Emerging” Worship.
Our own, Jennie Churchman and Kristal Seid, led many workshops covering the gamut of, what we prefer to call, Experiential Worship. Bringing Back the Easter Vigil, Special Liturgical Worship, Enhancing Worship with Technology – these are some of the 17 workshops that Jennie and Kristal prepared and presented during the weekend. I watched them in action as I participated in their classes – I cannot adequately express with words how proud I am to be associated with people of their caliber. It was truly a blessing to be able to say, “Yes, I am with them.”
After learning about Emerging Worship, 150 music and worship leaders came together to experience worship and as Jennie did what Jennie does best, the Holy Spirit was clearly present in that room. Some of the attendees were apprehensive, as the majority had never experienced this type worship before, and we weren’t sure exactly how it would be received. But we gave them a full-on The Way worship experience. Wow – did I say wow, ‘cause I meant WOW!!! IT WAS AMAZING!!! We sang songs – traditional, contemporary, and blended, we had a sermon on Getting Lost in Worship and then we did just that – with 6 prayer stations to get Lost in God’s Wonder, God’s Love, and in Praise.
We prayed by watching images of His creation and creating for Him a graffiti wall of images and words that came to us to thank Him for this gift. We prayed with Acrostics – writing a prayer to thank God for his Grace. We prayed with joyous music and dance. We prayed with traditional candles and silence. We prayed with the scents of anointing oil, reading the story of Mary washing his feet, preparing him for what was to come and thanking God for His willingness to give the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be forgiven. We prayed with mandalas, an ancient form of worship where a circle representing our whole self is colored and designed as we were by our creator.
The sanctuary was covered by grown men and women draped on the chancel and sitting on the floor – coloring! Opening themselves to God in ways they may not have done since they were children! But one of the most incredible experiences of all was the joint formation of our community mandala. When we planned out our service of senses and experiences, none of us could have imagined how beautiful this creation would turn out. Together we designed a tangible symbol of our community – a circle representing all of us, separately and collectively.
Traditional vs. Emerging Worship – Mindy Cunningham said it best when addressing our Christian Women’s Fellowship – neither is better… they’re just different. Both offer an experience with our Lord and I am so thankful that we were given the chance to offer an additional approach to enhance each one’s journey to the heart of God.
So, the answer is yes. How Great is Our God… it is both a question and a statement.
It is a question that we are asked by a world of believers and non-believers and a statement that we must show the world everyday.
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