Cross Word Follow-Up: Worship

Why do people come to worship?

People come to a worship service on weekends for all kinds of reasons. Some come from habit or loyalty or guilt or gratitude. Some come to connect with other human beings. Some come because of the music or sermons. Some may even come to be entertained.


In the modern church's quest to "get people to church" the bigger question remains about ways to "get people to worship." Chances are we can get people to come to church for one reason or another. Yet if we seek to find ways to get people to worship, we cannot manufacture such an experience.

The tension between getting people to church and getting people to worship can lead to role reversals in the practice of worship where human beings somehow become the subject and God becomes the object of worship. And so people became shoppers for religious goods and services. People become the Ebert and Roepert of the theater of worship where sermons and prayers and songs are subject to thumbs up or thumbs down depending on the critics choice.

Which begs a question: For whom is worship? Who is worship for?

Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, brought a healthy corrrective when he he wrote an essay that explained the difference between how many of us tend to worship and how we ought to worship God. Kierkegaard said that many people think of the congregation as the audience with the pastor, worship leaders, and choir as the performers.

However, from the Bible's point of view God is the audience in worship, and the people in the congregation are the performers--singing, praying, listening intently as the Word is read and proclaimed, and giving back to the Lord in offering and praise. The pastor, worship leaders, or musicians are merely prompters to the actors on stage, which is every one who shows up for a worship service! Worship is literally and liturgically "the work of the people."

Therefore, when we leave worship, we should not ask, "How good was the sermon?" or "How good was the music?" Rather, we should ask, "How good was I, Lord?"

Each of us plays to an audience of One in worship. The actions and words of worship provide the script for our various parts.

• In what ways do you relate to this way of seeing worship?
  
• Why do you come to worship?
  
• Why don't you come to worship?
  

Lenten Sermon Series Update

Cross Words is the name of this year's Lenten sermon series at Christ Church. The focus of these sermons is on words that bring definition to Christian faith and practice. They are part of a longer list of words that form the Christian vocabulary of faith.

Each week, the sermon explores a key cross word by focusing on a particular biblical text and relates it to ways the word can live and breathe fresh today in our spiritual practice.

Here is the list of the weekly Cross Words:

March 1: Repentance~Mark 1:9-15
March 8: Communion~Mark 8:31-38; I Corinthians 11: 23-26
March 15: Worship~John 2: 13-25
March 22: Forgiveness~Matthew 18: 21-35

Upcoming Cross Words
March 29: Church
April 5: Evangelism

Currently, these six sermons are being recorded and will be available on our website as soon as they are ready.

Christ Church Member on Mission--Post #2

Here is a link to a blog about the Guatemala mission trip that Christ Church member Cynthia Gunter is a part of this week. Here you will find pictures and posts of all the great work she and the team are leading at the malnutrition center there. This week Cynthia is a tangible extension of the ministry we share through Christ Church: being the hands and feet of Christ in caring for the children at the Center .

http://fbchinternationalchildcare.blogspot.com/

Christ Church Member on Mission

Part of the mission of Christ Church is serving others in the spirit of Christ. Serving others can take on many different expressions both locally and globally. We are only limited by our imaginations. Still, we seek to be the kind of church that encourages members to be engaged in doing the kind of work Jesus calls us all to do. Being compassionate means putting flesh and blood on the gospel every chance we get.

Over the next week, our very own Cynthia Gunter will take a pilgrimage to Antigua, Guatemala. Through the Florida Baptist Children's Homes, she will be part of a team working with children and helping with facility projects at a malnutrition center there. The children served by the center range from seven months to seven years of age.

Through our Christ Church Volunteers in Missions fund, we will be supporting Cynthia and the malnutrition center with our financial gifts on this specific project. Please pray for Cynthia this week; for her safe travel and for the vital work she will be doing to help children there.

Trip updates will be posted here as we get them.

Quote of the Week

From last Sunday's sermon on Repentance from the Lenten series, "Cross Words." A quote from author Kathleen Norris:

Repentance is not a popular word these days, but I believe that any of us recognize it when it strikes us in the gut. Repentance is coming to our senses, seeing, suddenly, what we've done that we might not have done, or recognizing … that the problem is not in what we do but in what we become.

• In what ways do you resonate with this understanding of repentance?
  
• Who do you want to become?
  

Lenten Sermon Series

The forty-day long season of Lent has begun. A few of us at Christ Church met for Morning Prayers yesterday to mark the start with ashes, silence, Scriptures, and prayers.

• This Sunday begins a new Lenten sermon series titled, Cross Words, key words that bring definition to Christian faith. Over the next six Sundays during Lent we will explore Cross Words like repentance, forgiveness, worship, Communion, and evangelism. These are words Christian use a lot, but sometimes we use them without realizing the depth and breadth of the meaning they hold.

Unfortunately, some well-intentioned Christians can use cross words over cross words. Meaning, we can use words to hurt others over differences about how to interpret Cross Words; what they mean and how they should be lived out. Some of us can be offensive with the ways we use these words while others become defensive when people seek to grapple honestly with their meanings.

Trying to be both biblical and Christ-like is not as easy as it sounds when it comes to these Cross Words. So, how do we talk about these words passionately yet respectfully in community? How do we handle these words wisely as people who follow after the Cross-bearer?

Join us this Sunday as we begin the journey with Jesus toward the cross with the first Cross Word: repentance. And may you find a full experience of God's grace and mercy during this Lenten season in worship, Bible study, and prayer. Speaking of prayer:

• Join us also for Lenten Sunday evening prayers beginning this Sunday night at 6:00PM. There will be Scripture readings, silence, guided prayers, and art meditations. Evening Prayers will last about 30 minutes. It is meant to be brief, contemplative, and informal.

Ash Wednesday Quote of the Week

Ashes remind us, with a shock, that we are God's creation, made for God, and not the other way around. Ashes remind us of the brevity of the gift of life, and the grace of eternal life in the heart of God. Ashes remind us that we are born to live, really live, before we die. Ashes remind us of a resolve to a Lent, and a lifetime, of a more authentic relationship with Jesus the Christ. For reasons like these it does not occur to us that we participate in a "strange" custom of ashes and dust. To the contrary. With hearts full of awe, we seek gold and God in the dust. --Douglass Bailey

Ash Wednesday thus marks the beginning of Lent. In the Old Testament, people mourned their sin and repented of it in "sackcloth and ashes."

Today is a day that we confront our own mortality when our foreheads are marked with the sign of the cross and we hear the words, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." This can be a painful acknowledgement. There can be a sense of sadness at having to let go of some thing we cling to so closely.

Yet today is also a chance to make a space for God. Lent can help us get in touch with our own brokenness and mortality and sinfulness, so that Christ can make us whole in every way.

• What do you make of the quote above?
• What practices will you be taking up this Lent to help create a space for God?
  
• Is there anything you will be giving up this Lent to help you make a space for God?