we are on the eve of something new at walt's house. the new wed night immersion service is only 1 week away. i have been meaning to journal my experiences and now i am going to start. i must confess a multitude of emotions. i am excited, anxious, fearful, timid, confused and really impatient for the 12th to come. it has been a journey to get here and i am thrilled by the people that have started to come along for the ride.
when i originally sat down to see what could be done at the "house" for all the people who seemed to be responding to something within them that told them that church should be something more, something more participatory, something less passive i thought i had some pretty good ideas. i was wrong.
the only good idea that came to me was to gather other like-minded people and see what we could come up with together. i approached a group of young people in the church and told them about the chance to do something else here at the house. they were all excited and the ideas began to flow. then i told them about a planning meeting two weeks from that date. and i did not remind them to come. i prayed instead.
of that original group marina, teija, ethan, lara, cam, jeremiah and i showed up. i knew god had brought the right people. later beth came into the pic and has been nothing but a blessing ever since.
so, we have planned and executed strategies and prayed and had communion and gave up sunny summer afternoons and we finally decided on every service until the end of november. and then something strange happened. we began to realize that we were doing the very thing the people we are trying to reach wanted to avoid. we were telling them how to worship. sure, we found new and exciting ways of doing it but that only made us "cool" and "hip" and "edgy" the very things that make a divine calling into a gimmick.
so then it happened, the group decided to scrap our plans, we planned only 2 services and decided to let the community do the rest. that is where our littl experiment stands. underplanned and utterly dependent on the people that show up.
i am freaking out and i am tempted to make some back up plans. what if no one comes? what if no one has anything to say? what if this is a colossal failure? and then i remember...people don't plant churches, god does. we ar simply called to echo out in praise the praises that pour forth like a stream a clear water from the throne of god. whether or not this immersion is successful or not is of no consequence. the only thing that will make it swim is how faithfully we cry holy, holy, holy. and that is much simpler (yet somehow harder) than planning a service.
immersion...jump on in
when i originally sat down to see what could be done at the "house" for all the people who seemed to be responding to something within them that told them that church should be something more, something more participatory, something less passive i thought i had some pretty good ideas. i was wrong.
the only good idea that came to me was to gather other like-minded people and see what we could come up with together. i approached a group of young people in the church and told them about the chance to do something else here at the house. they were all excited and the ideas began to flow. then i told them about a planning meeting two weeks from that date. and i did not remind them to come. i prayed instead.
of that original group marina, teija, ethan, lara, cam, jeremiah and i showed up. i knew god had brought the right people. later beth came into the pic and has been nothing but a blessing ever since.
so, we have planned and executed strategies and prayed and had communion and gave up sunny summer afternoons and we finally decided on every service until the end of november. and then something strange happened. we began to realize that we were doing the very thing the people we are trying to reach wanted to avoid. we were telling them how to worship. sure, we found new and exciting ways of doing it but that only made us "cool" and "hip" and "edgy" the very things that make a divine calling into a gimmick.
so then it happened, the group decided to scrap our plans, we planned only 2 services and decided to let the community do the rest. that is where our littl experiment stands. underplanned and utterly dependent on the people that show up.
i am freaking out and i am tempted to make some back up plans. what if no one comes? what if no one has anything to say? what if this is a colossal failure? and then i remember...people don't plant churches, god does. we ar simply called to echo out in praise the praises that pour forth like a stream a clear water from the throne of god. whether or not this immersion is successful or not is of no consequence. the only thing that will make it swim is how faithfully we cry holy, holy, holy. and that is much simpler (yet somehow harder) than planning a service.
immersion...jump on in
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