So I'm under a moderate amount of stress right now and it's 10:45 at night! I've got Vox Church on the brain, so I'm going to rant. You've been warned.
As I've been wrestling through current issues, I'm feeling a bit stuck on worship gatherings. I'm dealing with two immovable objects.
ROCK: My desire to not put on a show and further add gasoline to the consumerism fire that exists in American culture.
HARD PLACE: My desire to inspire, lead, rally, celebrate with everyone else in Vox Church. It seems like in order to do that, we need coordinated effort and common experiences.
Dallas and I are having more and more conversations where our clashing leadership styles come into play, and I think it's due, in part, to issues like these that we're wrestling through. We're getting a little bigger and more are collectively growing deeper, so the playing field has changed since it was 10 people in a living room.
Secondarily, I have this question in my head: what can a church do with a larger group of people [20-200] that it cannot do with a small group [5-20]? It's a pretty important question.
So, I threw it all to the side and closed my eyes with one thing in mind...
Everyone would come in, and feel welcomed beyond belief, like Cheers only more loving. There would be art on the walls to look at, music to listen to, incense and food to smell, and a warm feeling about the whole environment.
As we'd all sit down, we would pray together for our time to bless God and for us to collectively feel His presence. The conversation over communion breakfast is interesting and we're blessed to get to know each other a little better: making connections over common interests and experiences.
The music starts and we're invited to kneel at the presence of God, there's all the time in world for this. No hurry, just time to worship God however we desire to. The teacher comes in the same Spirit as the music that just ended to inspire, lead. He communicates as if we're all going somewhere together- somewhere towards a deeper obedience in Christ.
Jesus, how can we do this? Is this even something you want? Didn't it inspire me? It wasn't fake. It wasn't something I regret or look back at with contempt. I felt YOU there. I want to do the same thing with Vox Church gatherings.
All that's in my head is in Your hands...
gatherings...
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1 comments:
Drew...glad you are back:)
I cannot speak for Jesus obviously....but I think the biggest missing ingredient I have seen/felt is a true inspiration for each individual to come away from the experience of a group gathering with the renewed a feeling that the group/leaders are united in helping them follow the Spirit and be who God made them to be...even if it is inconvenient, does not fit a mold or plan, heck, maybe it is not easy or *pretty* either.
It is very good to feel welcome...feeling encouraged is not even *too* hard to achieve...but to feel accepted, empowered, trusted, and simuntaneously connected and released...that's the hard thing!
Those deeper connections is what we cannot find sadly...hard not to feel ultimately rejected and then give up.
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