Monday, November 17, 2003
A friend sent me this quote from C.S Lewis. It came up in a conversation we had last week, where he mentioned that Lewis had written that Jesus' call was to "feed my sheep" not "experiment on my rats".
I thought this was an interesting line in light of my writing a book with the subtitle "A Week in the life of an experimental church".
He sent me quote and I still like that line, but Lewis builds his argument around the notion that our church gathering is to be the place where we interact with God. Many people take this view, but not me. I think our lives are to be with God and our church meetings are part of this interaction with God where we learn how to live in new ways, with new practices and habits. In other words Church meetings are the place to practice that which we hope to live out in all the less structured settings. They are the place of learing new ways, not the primary place of interaction with God. If we can only interact with God in the religious meeting, where it is safe and structured it seems to me we are in trouble. It seems to me that we ought to be thinking about what we are doing at Church and allowing that to shape us and call us to live in worship and harmony with God in all of out settings.
Any way here is the quote from C.S.:
"Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And (believers) don't go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best—if you like, it works best—when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been only on God .
But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping…A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant [worship leader]…. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep', not 'Try experiments on my rats', or even, 'Teach my performing dog new tricks.'" (C.S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.)
I thought this was an interesting line in light of my writing a book with the subtitle "A Week in the life of an experimental church".
He sent me quote and I still like that line, but Lewis builds his argument around the notion that our church gathering is to be the place where we interact with God. Many people take this view, but not me. I think our lives are to be with God and our church meetings are part of this interaction with God where we learn how to live in new ways, with new practices and habits. In other words Church meetings are the place to practice that which we hope to live out in all the less structured settings. They are the place of learing new ways, not the primary place of interaction with God. If we can only interact with God in the religious meeting, where it is safe and structured it seems to me we are in trouble. It seems to me that we ought to be thinking about what we are doing at Church and allowing that to shape us and call us to live in worship and harmony with God in all of out settings.
Any way here is the quote from C.S.:
"Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And (believers) don't go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best—if you like, it works best—when, through long familiarity, we don't have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don't notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been only on God .
But every novelty prevents this. It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping…A still worse thing may happen. Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant [worship leader]…. It lays one's devotion waste. There is really some excuse for the man who said, "I wish they'd remember that the charge to Peter was 'Feed my sheep', not 'Try experiments on my rats', or even, 'Teach my performing dog new tricks.'" (C.S. Lewis. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.)
I returned yesterday from a weekend in San Diego being with my friends Mark Oestreicher and Mark Scandrette and attending Mike Yaconelli’s memorial service.
I am regularly reminded what an honor it is to have friends and to be a friend with such wonderful people.
Shelley was also away for the weekend creating a life book for Taylor’s 13th birthday (March 8). Our children all spent the weekend with different people from our church.
We had a tapestry start on fire a week ago during our worship gathering and spent much of the week being sure we were responding to it with “due diligence”. Last night we had made series of improvements in our setting for fire safety and all the changes really did make the space better.
Mark Scandrette and I are giving leadership to the creation of an emergent, sh’ma-life-style magazine/journal.
It is really feeling like it is coming together. We are partnering with FaithWorks magazine and transitioning it to this new concept. This is going to be interesting.
I am regularly reminded what an honor it is to have friends and to be a friend with such wonderful people.
Shelley was also away for the weekend creating a life book for Taylor’s 13th birthday (March 8). Our children all spent the weekend with different people from our church.
We had a tapestry start on fire a week ago during our worship gathering and spent much of the week being sure we were responding to it with “due diligence”. Last night we had made series of improvements in our setting for fire safety and all the changes really did make the space better.
Mark Scandrette and I are giving leadership to the creation of an emergent, sh’ma-life-style magazine/journal.
It is really feeling like it is coming together. We are partnering with FaithWorks magazine and transitioning it to this new concept. This is going to be interesting.
