• Our annual meeting creates a space to speak to things that have no other venue: the associate pastor search, strategic thinking about finances, new missionaries, current initiatives in the congregation, overall vision for our character and ministries. The meeting will start around 10:00 am this Sunday and run for about 45 minutes. This is your church. Please join us.
• It’s a busy week so rather than write a note, I’ll share a favorite quote. This is James K.A. Smith on worship. He’s describing how Christian worship is antithetical to “secular liturgies” — meaning the daily/weekly rituals that people observe, whether they’re religious or not.
“Christian worship should be seen as ‘counter-formation’. A tactile vision of the kingdom of God is embodied in Christian worship in a way that can’t be otherwise expressed. There is an understanding of God, the world, and our salvation in the rhythms of Christian worship that is irreducible. And so Christian worship should be seen as ‘counter-formation’ to ‘secular liturgies’. Now, not all that currently passes for Christian worship will do that. Because here’s the problem: if our worship has just become some Jesus-fied version of secular liturgies then we have lost the counter-formative power… If you’ve just turned Christian worship into a Jesus-fied version of the shopping-mall, don’t be surprised if your worship doesn’t actually function as a counter to consumerism. You’ve just made Jesus another commodity. Or if you turn worship into some version of the Bohemian hipster coffee shop, don’t be surprised it doesn’t have counter-formative power. A big part of what I’m concerned about is that form matters. The way we do this matters.”