Matt and I have made a pact to let ourselves be influenced by more churches, worship experiences, and service styles as we prepare for the Town Center launch. Not because we don't trust our instincts. But Matt and I are both PKs (preachers kids). We grew up in the church. When I speak on Sundays, I often quote scriptures that I memorized in elementary school. Matt probably has worship in auto-pilot some of the time too. Along with that wonderful heritage comes habitual ways of doing things, routine thinking, repetition of style...
I love the story in Joshua 22, where the Israelites get ready to throw down on 3 tribes who have built what looks-to-be a pagan altar on the other side of the Jordan. They send over a priest and 10 hit men to whack the rogue tribes... when the altar-builders respond by saying, "What are you talking about? This is our altar of worship to the one true God!" They showed a devoted heart behind this creative, unfamiliar altar.
I wonder if when the Israelite leaders returned to Canaan, they said to themselves... "I didn't know we were allowed to build altars like that!" I'll bet this encounter with an unfamiliar expression of worship influenced the kind of altars they built from that day on...
Ben,
Good point. I think you and Matt are on the right path. My worship guy Rob and I meet regularly to try to find better ways to do things. We don't always implement but the idea to be creative is paramount. Form is different from function and we shouldn't be afraid to mess with the Form a little bit if we can find a creative way to improve it and thus, magnify the impact of our function!
BTW...books arrived safe! Thanks.
Posted by: Scott | February 15, 2007 at 04:20 PM
glad they made it scott...
Posted by: Ben | February 15, 2007 at 06:40 PM