Monday, April 04, 2011

can mission be embedded into the worship DNA? a worship treat

Scattered and gathered, outward and inward, sending and receiving, mission and worship – I have been pondering the relationships for the last few weeks.

  • I had a general introduction – can mission be embedded into the worship DNA – here.
  • I had a followup – a possible worship pattern – here.

Today in chapel we trialled a very practical beginning. We began outdoors (scattered). We invited people to use their outside environment as the starting point for reflection. For 10 minutes, to wander. And in particular to consider

  • bitumen – what has been hard?
  • sky – where have we found joy?
  • windows – who, what, have we walked past?
  • grass – what of God’s breath in creation have we missed?

We gave out a card as an aid (very simple, used an apple Pages business template and just rolled text and picture in).

And then we gathered to continue in worship – to hear Scripture, to have communion, to pray for God’s world, before being benedicted back into the places of bitumen, sky, windows and grass.

I loved seeing people wander, reflecting on God in our scatteredness and then having that woven into our gathering. So there you are, some thinking about mission and worship, a possible worship pattern and now here, a practical worship treat that might encourage and inspire you to do better.

Do let me know how you improve it 🙂

Posted by steve at 02:49 PM

3 Comments

  1. nice.

    Comment by craig mitchell — April 4, 2011 @ 2:59 pm

  2. What a simple but profound approach to worship – scattered and gathered.

    Comment by Sandy — April 4, 2011 @ 10:22 pm

  3. Thanks Sandy and Craig. It was simply lovely, being outside on a beautiful autumn adelaide day, worshipping in the world in which I walk, yet connected with others also walking, engaging, enjoying God.

    steve

    Comment by steve — April 5, 2011 @ 10:03 am

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