Current Book Study

Currently on Tuesday nights a group of guys are meeting to talk about Parker Palmer's "Let Your Life Speak." It is a book full of wisdom about finding one's true calling.

Beyond economic ups and downs, many of us seek to have careers and jobs that give us a sense of purpose and that expresses something significant about who we are. When our "role" matches up with our "soul," we can move from simple having a job to finding our vocation (our true callings).

Here is a snippet for you today:

"I first learned about vocation growing up in the church...But the idea of vocation I picked up in those circles created distortion until I grew strong enough to discard it. I mean the idea that vocation, or calling, comes from a voice external to ourselves, a voice of moral demand that asks us to become someone we are not yet--someone different, someone better, someone just beyond our reach.

It is a notion that made me feel inadequate to the tak of living my own life, creating guilt about the distance between who I was and who I was supposed to be. Today, I understand vocation quite differently--not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received. Vocation does not come from a voice 'out there' calling me to become something I am not. It comes from a voice 'in here' calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God."

• In what ways is Palmer's insight about vocation similar or different to ways you understand vocation?

Serving Others at Rockwall Boys and Girls Club

Last month (April 18) a group from Christ Church volunteered at the Rockwall Boys and Girls Club's Spring Carnival. We weeded flower beds, planted fresh flowers, and mulched.

We were invited by Common Art to help beautify the Club grounds. Common Art is a partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Rockwall. Common Art exists to promote arts through a safe and loving environment in the Rockwall community. Many volunteer opportunities are available now, so be sure to go to their website and find out how you can be involved in the lives of local youth in Rockwall. Christ Church members are welcomed and encouraged to become regular volunteers through Common Art.

Thanks to Carol, Pat, Alison, Pete, Jolene, James, Sharon, and Andrew for representing Christ Church on this special day.

Sermon Audio Posts

Two recent sermons from Christ Church have been posted in the Sermon Archives on our website. To access them, click the links below. More sermon audio coming soon.

3.8.2009 - 2nd Sunday of Lent
Mark 8:31-38
Dr. George Mason
Cross Words: Communion
http://www.christchurchrockwall.org/resources/CrossWords.mp3

1.11.2009 - Baptism of our Lord Sunday
Mark 1:7-11
Pastor Andrew Daugherty
Watermark
http://www.christchurchrockwall.org/resources/Watermark.mp3

Easter Song

This morning's Resurrection Sunday sermon included a reference to a new Easter song written and recorded by Athens, Georgia singer-songwriter Bill Mallonee. The title is "Coming Out of Hiding." If you'd like to take a listen, follow the link.

HTTP://WWW.MYSPACE.COM/WORKSPROGRESSADMINISTRATION

Cross Word Follow-Up: Church

The Lenten sermon series Cross Words is now a wrap, but we wanted to post a nugget from another one for reflection and feedback.

Part of this Lenten sermon focused on what we mean when we say and use the word Church? It is a really important word for practicing Christians, because one of the hallmarks of following God in the way of Jesus is being in a community.

Sometimes it might be easier to say what Church is not rather than what it is. Of course the church is not even so much a place or a thing at all. The church is people.

And when you measure the vitality of a church, more factors must be considered than the size of membership or the annual budget. The "business metaphor" of the church can often become the dominant way people define Church.

Spiritually speaking, when we are being who Jesus calls us to be as a community, this is what it looks like: Galatians 5. This is it. We bear this kind of fruit, Paul says: we become people who make up a human version of a mixed fruit salad: the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control.

Do we love well because we are part of Christ Church? Are we more peaceful, patient and kind? Are we following Jesus for any other reason except that we want our lives to bear this sort of fruit?

Which leads to a working definition of Church offered in the sermon. Church is:

A spiritual community of human beings delighting in the mystery of God and following the way of Jesus through worshiping, learning and serving together.

This definition puts the emphasis on church as a spiritual community first: we are being formed spiritually in the image of Jesus. And that we are human beings: we are sinful and broken people and so this is a community of imperfect people. And we are delighting (seeking joy) in the mystery of God (realizing God is always so much more than we could ever imagine) and we seek that mystery through Jesus (the One who reveals the nature of God as love) through worshiping, learning, and serving together (it just so happens that this is the mission statement of Christ Church!).

• What is your definition of Church?
  

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.