You guys are going to love this. . . . . .

By now, you should have received our Worship Design Team Summer Reader. This fantastic collection of articles and essays captures the conversation we are attempting to incarnate through our worship design work. I know you may be a bit fatigued in the reading department--- but I promise---- this is stuff you want to read. Please engage with it and lets enage on the ideas through this venue.

Some Guidance for our Summer Worship Design Reader (i.e. Rules of Engagement)

1. Think of this reader as an artists palate for worship design. There are three primary colors: red, yellow and blue—Story, Trinity, World. It’s not paint by numbers. The articles will cross the boundaries of the subject headings. It’s going to be a messy read. Colors are going to get mixed up and blended, but that’s the point. Don’t feel like you have to read this in order. In fact, if you don't connect with an article within the first two hours of reading-- skip to another. ;-)

2. Read with a highlighter and a pen. Mark it up. Engage it. Write in the margins. Often in reading something your mind is stirred to make other connections. Capture those immediately by writing them down. It will be useful in coming back to it later.

3. Blog some of your more developed thoughts. Start your own blog and use it as space to work out some of your less developed ones. Tell us the web address and we’ll have fun getting involved with you in this way. Try www.blogspot.com It’s free and can be done in 3 quick steps. We in the Chapel office are a “blogging” culture—which is to say we look for every possible way to grow meaningful relationships. You can see those of us who have blogs by looking at www.asburyblog.net year.

4. Immerse yourself in the Story of Scripture this summer. This is the primary text. Ask the Spirit to take what may have become a “work-place” and make it a home for you again. Camp out in our Hebrews 11 project-- day and night.

5. Spend time in prayer for one another, for the seminary community and for our worship work in the coming school year. As Paul says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (eph 6:18) Don’t you love the freedom Paul inspires with respect to prayer here!

6. Enjoy God this summer. Get lost in His love and remember that the more you enjoy Him—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the more He enjoys you. Is that true? It sounded good. Give it a think and a try.

Now-- go back to the prior post on the "Lewis Admonition" and get involved in the conversation.

Let's Get this Party Started: The Lewis Admonition

Team

As we embark together on the work of worship design, I want to begin with what I call the Lewis Admonition. The quote below is from C.S. Lewis and struck a chord with me when I read it. In attempting to make worship what it ought to be, we can easily miss it altogether.


A worship service works best when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. . . . The perfect church service would be the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God. But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping. . . . Tis mad idolatry that makes the service greater than the god. A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. . . . There is really some excuse for the man who said, ‘I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was’Feed my sheep’; not ‘Try experiments on my rats’, or even ‘Teach my performing dogs new tricks.’”

C.S. Lewis.

I have worked with enough teams now to know that people inherently want to do it differently than it has been done before-- to make a new mark for God's glory. At the same time, I've worked with others whose insistence on a defined way of doing things can squelch creativity and even grieve the Holy Spirit. Both errors result in making worship an occasion for distraction. The nerve of worship is attention to the point of self abandonment.

One way we are finding helpful is to utilize the ancient Four-fold pattern of worship. Gathering--Word--Table (or Response)--Sending. These four big movements provide a large, generous framework on which a cathedral may be fashioned. At the same time, there is significant flexibility to allow room for creative expressions--even spontaneous ones. You may read a short article that gets more at this idea HERE.

So are you familiar with this ancient Four-Fold pattern of worship? What do you know about it? If possible, do a bit of google research and see what you can contribute to the conversation. Take a look at the And what are your thoughts about the "Lewis Admonition?"

Hey guys,

We are getting the kinks worked out around here and Anna is sending you a summer reader. This is something that we would really like the team to blog through.

We also (JD, Anna, and I)have talked about making this a bit more public than earlier years. So if you have a blog, think about linking here. I may be making a button to spread around as well. If you don't blog, this may be a great time to think about starting one.