Unexpected Surprise

Before I get into my unexpected surprise this evening, let me share a couple of thoughts regarding my continued exploration of Michael Walters' book "Can't Wait for Sunday". I spent my time in Walters' book today exploring his chapter titled "Currents: Why Worship Isn't Easy". I'd hope to get further in my explorations of Walters today but that has to do with my unexpected surprise which I'll talk about in a moment. Anyway, once again Walters' words touched a chord with my soul. I loved his discussion of the five cultural factors that affect our ability to lead authentic worship (relativism, ritualism, rationalism, romanticism, and realism). Of these five, I most resonated with ritualism (which he defines on page 53 as "the divorcing of worship from real life"). The effect: "this neatly segmented approach to life produces a ritualistic approach to worship. Worship is [seen as] an event that occupies an hour of time each week. It is a 'nod to God,' not to be confused with 'real life', which takes places outside of church" (53). This attempt to compartmentalize the sacred and secular is exactly what the emerging culture is trying to elimination. Needless to say, I couldn't agree more in Walters' assessment. My favorite sentence in Walters writing today was a challenge to those of us who like to create highly structured, organized worship experience. For those anxiety riddled worship leaders like me - stressing about each and every detail - Walters wrote, "It is impossible for us to lose control of authentic worship becase we never had control to begin with" (54). I definitely should copy that statement on a piece of paper and post it beside my desk when I get back from sabbatical! For those of you wondering what Walters means by authentic worship, he did an amazing job of defining the phrase for us in his third chapter. Authentic worship has three components he suggests: (1) it is worship that will shift our focus away from ourselves and toward God; (2) it is worship that will transport us - both mind & spirit - into [God's] transforming presence; and (3) it is worship that will change us (62). Can't think of a better goal for all of our worshipping communities to pursue. Now, onto my unexpected surprise. As my stack of books was dwindling, I thought I would spend some time at the Tattered Covered Bookstore (an independent bookseller here in Denver). I felt called to look for a resource on praying the hours/daily offices. I felt like this practice was something worth exploring as I considered various direction for spiritual formation opportunities for Mountain View next year. Instead of doing what I expected (purchasing Phyllis Tickle's book The Divine Hours), I found a book that caught my eye: "Prayer & Worship: A Spiritual Formation Guide". When I took the book home, I noticed it was identified as "A Renovare Resource". I jumped on line at http://www.renovare.org/ and found out that Renovare (from the Latin for "to renew") was "an intrachurch movement committed to the renewal of the Church of Jesus Christ in all her multifaceted expressions" and is an entity that "provides individuals and churches with balanced, practical, effective strategies for spiritual growth". There were aspects of the group's identity that I didn't connect with (its theological orientation is more historically orthodox than generously orthodox). Nevertheless, it seems that their resources are very accessible to folks from a variety of spiritual understandings. I was so excited about the possibilities before me that I immediately hopped in the car and found their store (8 Inverness Drive East, Suite 102). There I discovered a wonderful treasure of spiritual formation resources. The folks working there showed a truly unrivaled sense of hospitality. They pointed me toward a treasure trove of materials that I'll spend the better part of the next 7 weeks exploring. I look back now to Jim Kitchen's plea in "The Postmodern Parish" to pursue spiritual formation and realized the book planted a seed in me that time and the Spirit watered and brought to fruition. It looks like a significant emphasis for me in the year ahead will be issues invovling spiritual formation as I move from a ministerial approach that at times stressed INformation (about spirituality) and toward an approach that will stress FORmation. I'm excited to see where this all leads. Tomorrow I'll return to Walters book. Thanks for letting me share a bit of the Spirit's leading. Til next time...