First Visit to Another Worship Site

After arriving in Spokane late last night, I had the chance to worship at the church I was baptised and raised in (Deer Park United Methodist Church). It was interesting to experience a service whose liturgy had not changed during my lifetime. The structure and elements of the service had not changed during my 40 years! While I could take some degree of comfort in the familiarity of the service, the service reminded me of the the many elements of worship that I have come to embrace over the years that were entirely absent in my formative worshipping years (i.e. inclusive language, variety in music/music styles, participatory worship elements, etc). I enjoyed the opportunity to play the piano for the service since their organist was gone. This was special to me since that very same keyboard set me on the path to ministry when I began to play for services there at the age of 12. Tomorrow I'll start exploring the work of Dianne Butler-Bass through her work "Practicing Congregations" & "Christianity for the Rest of Us". These books don't deal specifically with worship issues. They do deal with larger church culture issues that inform the worship life of a community. Look for my initial thoughts on her books here tomorrow. Til next time...