Wednesday, September 16, 2009
pastoral worship curators
Probably the deepest longing in our cultures today is for fulfilling relationships and community. To know and be known. To love and be loved. The Church owns that space. We have neglected it. Let our title lapse. Sold our birthright. I know it’s not easy to build community when most of the congregation don’t want it. In fact it may be impossible. (In which case you should probably leave and start something new). But that’s not an excuse to let your worship curating drop to the lowest common denominator. Curate with heart. With passion. A heart for God, a heart for people, and a heart to see those people encounter God in life transforming ways. Relationships will flow from that. Any other motivation is unworthy of the title “worship curator”.
Mark Pierson holding the mirror to his own gift mix, because he’s one of the best pastors I know.
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Amen, Amen, Amen
Comment by kerry — September 16, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
I enjoyed meeting Mark and hearing some of his story at [re]generate Monday night here in Adelaide … love the way he connects alt worship to community in the passage you quote. Thanks for sharing it.
Comment by Michelle — September 17, 2009 @ 1:30 am
thank you for this wonderful quote and celebration of the pastoral gifts and of the work of building community – so invisble, so essential …
Comment by jane — September 17, 2009 @ 6:08 am
Thanks Steve. Great quote. Thanks too for directing me to Mark’s blog. He’d talked about it when I saw him a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn’t gotten around to looking it up…
I hope all is going well for you
Comment by Paul Fromont — September 17, 2009 @ 7:55 am