Over the past few weeks and particularly last Sunday we have really begun to see some of our goals for our community worship gatherings come into being. I wanted to pass along a couple of thoughts that, because they’re happening are easier to point out and define.

First, our format is very participatory… Dan O’brien mentioned, “when you walk in on a Sunday, everyone is on stage”. I watched a documentary on the Burning Man Festival where one reporter spoke of the annual art event as, “a festival created by it’s participants”. One of the festival coordinators commented that, “It’s not created for you to consume, it’s created for you to a part of, so what’s your contribution?” At the Burning Man Festival, the goal is to create something that was not made for the purpose of getting anything out of it. Many of the pieces of art are burned at the end of the festival… The whole thing reminds me of the women who broke the alabaster jar of perfume over Jesus feet. Many people thought it was a waste, but Jesus considered it genuine worship. This is exactly what we are hoping for in our weekly gatherings, and is especially the point of the Divine in the Daily. How could you waste some time creating something to bring as offering for God?

Secondly, our conversations have begun to go somewhere. It’s not hard to see the parallel between our format for the weekly teaching conversations and an online blog. In fact, the goal is to pretty much create a blog and threaded discussion in a face to face setting (Of coarse it’s easier to comment via alias than face to face, but learning to be honest and extend the love and grace of God to one another is a big part of what it means to follow Jesus). One of the major down sides of blog threads is that they can be a place where people only air their opinion, rather than a place to listen and allow conversation to progress. Sometimes that happens in our gatherings, but the goal is that we would all learn to listen, respond, and grow. Being affected by others doesn’t mean we are easily swayed, but that we are aware that our perspectives are constantly in need of fine-tuning. The reality is that when you are in conversation with someone, your thoughts naturally move and morph in response to the thoughts and ideas you are hearing. This is brilliant and often causes people (I assume this doesn’t just happen for me) to connect and articulate something in a way that never would have come out without the input of others. The dialogue and the thought progresses into something that is bigger than any one person. One of the more powerful and important things about this style of growing as a community, is that it frees the Bible to become an authoritative member of our community. What I mean by this, is that all of us who have read the Bible hear references, stories, and sometimes paradoxes from our reading history resonating as a teaching is being presented. No matter how prepared a speaker is, they have an angle, a perspective, and will at times use just the right scriptures to support the point they are trying to make, to the neglect of other relevant passages. Very rarely is this done intentionally, however, when all of us are able to bring up things from the Bible that are resonating with us concerning the topic, we enable the Holy Spirit to work through the priesthood of all believers, drawing our attention to a more full and mature understanding of God and His way. This validates the truth that God is at work in each of us, allows a pastor to be a part of the learning and growing process with the community, allows God more control over what is taught, and shifts a pastors teaching role from trying to convince people of how they should live, to assisting the community in our work of interpreting and applying the Bible by clarifying (to the extent that it is possible) the historical, cultural, and language context of the Book God has given to initiate us into our role as members of his family.

May we waste more time so we can bring good gifts of worship to our most deserving God and may we grow in our ability to listen and participate in progressive dialogue that honors God and makes room for the Sprit of God to speak to us through the Bible.