Creative worship at Change Agents 2007

The committee asked me to be in charge of the creative worship stuff - something which took lots of work to set up (especially by Jean and T) and also to plan (thanks Jean, Bert, Warren, Avril and others), but which was an absolute pleasure to be a part of. We wanted to make available some things which would allow people to engage God in new ways, especially considering our guiding theme: "Think new, act new."

We wanted to explore worship outside of meeting times and create space for people to meet with God. We decided to go with inviting everyone into silence not least due to the influence of "Noise" (Nooma) and the emphasis of silence, solitude and meditation from the spiritual disciplines (Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline" is an excellent resource - a book that cannot be merely read but which must be practised).

We were concerned that we'd be forcing people into doing things that were outside of their tradition (for many people "meditation" is a dirty word, conjuring up images of demons at worst and dodgy spirituality at best -> it's actually simply taking something and repeatedly thinking upon it, just like the Psalmist says about God's word when he says he will "meditate upon your word day and night" - not that we pushed the concept of meditation, just that it was a dynamic we had to be aware of). And we knew that silence was going to be a completely new experience for most people (interestingly, the emphasis on silence as a spiritual discipline has only recently been lost - perhaps one result of living in a fast-paced world?) and so we'd have to introduce it in a way which would draw people in - even if it was just as an experiment - as a chance to do something new.

In all things we tried to treat people with respect. In other words, not forcing them into an experience but saying, "Here are some things - try them. If they help you move closer to God, great. If not, then move on." So, for instance, I think about 2 people actually used the prayer stones in the coffee shop and no-one wrote any Psalms. And that's fine.

One implicit challenge given for people to think about once they've returned home is, "How can we create space for our community to worship
 outside of structured worship times?" Rosebank Union has done an excellent job with this with their prayer room (under the main flight of stairs). It is a a quiet space with many helpful materials letting people engage with God. It's prayer both as a "God meeting with me" and as an outward praying for others and the world. I'd highly recommend a visit there - and allow yourself to linger (we can too easily become consumers of worship experiences). I'd love to hear how you've answered this question in your context.

Over the next few days I'll be uploading as much of the creative worship materials as possible. Please leave a comment to let us know where you'll be using it - that would be much appreciated!