Interactive Worship Service Update

The larger part of our interactive service yesterday was a conversation where we decided on an approach for the coming months.  We decided that we'd do this project that revolves around Mary Oliver's poetry for Lent and then decide what to do from Easter to Pentecost.

We've been trying to do an interactive, multigenerational approach to worship for a long time now, as have some other pastors and churches. Many of us have changed our approach:  children grow up, families move away, and worship often changes in response to these realities.

Plus, this kind of service takes a lot more effort.  There are resources out there, but it's easy to work our way through them rather quickly.

Next week, we'll do the Ash Wednesday art project that I've been thinking about for awhile.  In this blog post, I wrote about whether or not we need a new set of metaphors for Ash Wednesday.  This coming Sunday, we'll see if we can develop any.

I have a vision for the drawer from a ruined chest of drawers as a sort of Cornell box.  Can I find enough wreckage to make an interesting display?  Will others bring some stuff?  We'll see.

It was good to sit with this group of regular worshippers and sort out what we still like about the service and what we don't.  We don't care about having a PowerPoint to work our way through.  We do want to begin our service with songs that we sing together.  We do want to do the Faith 5:  to talk about our highs and lows, to tie the Word into our weekly activities, to pray, and to bless each other.

I feel lucky that we have a group who is so willing to be involved, rather than passively watching a service (which is often how I perceive the traditional worship at our church).  We're lucky that we have a pastor who lets us be involved in this way.