« Ongoing debate.... | Main | Inviting Jesus into our presence/place....really? »
January 30, 2006
"community killers", and the space between planning and spontaneity in worrship...
Chris Gonzalez, a friend of mine, and college pastor in Arizona, has a good post about Community Killers. I haven't thought too much on that topic Chris, but I like what you have to say.
I will be thinking about these things when I am with my group.
I think that one of the best things for our community, and what has really made it thrive is not only the honesty and vulnerability that I think the college community brings to the places they are a part of.....but somehow being able to thread the line between overplanning, and chaos. What do I mean by that? I think that as a college community we do a good job of being organized, efficient, thinking and planning for short and long term....but we have also somehow avoided overplanning every little detail during our Wednesday night services, retreats, socials, etc.....A little chaos on the fringes has been healthy for us in developing leadership, maintaining creativity, authenticity, and making sure that the Holy Spirit has a place in our worship, rather than our dictating and controlling of every little minute. And trust me, I don't think it is really anything that we do ourselves, or can take responsibility for. We do what we can, and we leave the rest in God's hands.....that seems to work out well :-)
Sorry...just had to get that off my chest.
Wondering about that space between planning and spontaneity in Christian community and worship. Anyone else wrestle with this?
Posted by rhett at January 30, 2006 09:36 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.rhettsmith.com/blog/mt-tb.cgi/315
Comments
Absolutely, Rhett. I don't know if it's possible to achieve any sort of perfect balance in those things, but as pastors, i think it's something that we always should be mindful of. Sometimes (for me and the teams I've worked with) that means that God was profoundly present in the planning and we didn't stray much from what we had. Other times, it means we scrapped what we had planned (to various degrees) and tried to be more sensitive to how God was at work.
I like the balance in your approach though, in planning responsibly, but leaving room for the Holy Spirit to have influence in pre-made plans.
I can't help but think of what Jesus said time and time again, particularly in the Gospel of John. Essentially, He kept saying in a variety of ways, "I do what my Father tells me to do and I say what my Father tells me to say." (5:19, 30; 7:16-18; 8:26-28; 12:49-50; 15:15) However, this begs the question, can we (and even SHOULD we) attempt to follow Jesus' example in this, or was it a result of His unique connection with the Father as God the Son? Given His full humanity, I think it's an appropriate objective for us as His followers to pursue.
Posted by: brandon at February 1, 2006 05:50 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
