Planting Seeds

When I read the lists of "seedlings" for radical hospitality and passionate worship I am pleasantly surprised at how many of these ideas are already in place at our church. We are actively working on welcome, our worship services seem to be touching people given the numbers of folks in worship every week and the numbers of visitors that return week after week. Of course there are areas that we could be doing better at...

I am curious what you have identified on the lists of "seedlings" that we might want to focus on. What thoughts do you have about welcome and worship for the next three to six months? What seeds might you be interested in planting in the days ahead?

As I look out into the Sunday morning congregation I feel a bit overwhelmed. Mostly because it is very hard to keep up with all the new faces. I generally am able to keep peoples names and faces in my little brain but lately I feel less able to keep up. I wish and pray for us a more streamline way of tracking visitors, getting contact information, following up, and helping folks get involved. Also, helping connect older and newer members or guests. Let's think through what are our next steps....

Yes this is an amazing journey. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Rev. Patty

Finally another post! Worship Week (and then some)

It is interesting to me that almost universally folks have had a harder time putting into words their thoughts about worship. It is much easier to discuss the how's and why's of making a person feel welcome at church but I think it can be more difficult for us to put into words what makes worship important, meaningful or even transformational. I have also been less verbal. Perhaps it is hard for me as well ... hmmm... could it be that something special happens during worship and if we talk about it, it somehow diminishes it or our experiences. It is hard to talk about - let's call it - the "God" moments we have had, during worship or otherwise.

I think for the sake of our deepening conversations I would ask a few questions for you to ponder.

Are there parts of the service that feel more meaningful to you than others? Do some elements help you feel closer to God or one another? What parts of the service are we as a church most successful at? What parts could we work on? Share a meaningful time in a worship service.

My hope for worship is that somehow, through the music, spoken word, quiet time, people's hearts are touched, moved; they are inspired, find hope, find forgiveness, find renewal,they leave feeling different (in a good way), more alive, more joy-filled, more comforted, more able to endure...

So often worship is left to the pastor to figure out. After all they have the degrees and all... but I need your help. We need to work together to understand the worship needs/life of this congregation.

Don't hold back, let's share!!!!

Rev. Patty

More on Worship

Please don't wait for me to post!!!! It has been an incredibly hectic week and it appears that I have dropped the blog ball! Never fear, I, like you, are reading. There is so much to thing about when we consider worship. Thoughts on the readings?

I will catch us up Tomorrow!

Still getting ready for worship at this late hour.

Rev. P

Passionate Worship - A New Week - Day 1

All right folks lets get back in the saddle as they say!!! Today I am inviting us to begin our second week of "Cultivating Fruitfulness" together. We begin the section on "passionate worship". For a while now we have been discussing welcoming people in to the church. That is all well and good, but what are we welcoming them to. For most folks it is Sunday morning worship. We hope that it will be a good experience. If they are going to sit in a pew for an hour (+ or -), they need to feel like it has some meaning for them and for their lives. This becomes our responsibility.

Our mission statement puts forth that we believe in "transforming worship". Simply put, we want to offer worship experiences that transform or change people's lives. Change "from what" ~ "to what" may be different for every person. Ideally folks may transform from hopeless to hopeful, purposeless to purposeful, etc.etc. How does worship do that???? Great question, glad you asked. I am not sure worship does the transforming, I believe God does the transforming. We just create the forum for the transformation to take place.

It is an important job. We need to take our responsibility seriously. We need to do our job with excellence so God can do the work of transforming.

But first, let's back up for a moment .... How do you feel about the experience of worship? The questions posed by today's readings invite your thoughts: What is your earliest positive memory of worship? What made it positive or memorable? What did you learn? ... I would include the question: What is positive or memorable about your worship experience today? What have you learned?

I look forward to your thoughts on these questions or any reflections about today's readings!

Great journey huh!

Rev. P