Photo by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/pepel
I was catching up on some blog reading and was intrigued by a post by Skye Jethani called Worship Through A Child’s Eyes.
In short, Skye noticed his daughter was taking notes while visiting other churches. She later shared with him the following observations which he posted in their unedited form.
CHURCH A
1. When you are singing the first song the pastors walk down the isle and the first is holding a gold cross that is placed on a wooden stick thingy.
2. One of the pastors walking down the isle and close to the end is holding a very pretty looking bible. When she gets to the stage she places it on a wooden table.
3. The pastors are dressed in decrotive robes.
4. The church does not have a screen that has the words of the songs and passeges and prayers. instead they have a little books that has all the songs and prayer in them.
5. The pastors sit on little wooden chairs and listen to who is talking.
5. They have time to confess their sins and the pastors sit on their knees.
6. One of the pastors prepares the table for cumuan.
During cumun someone in a plain white robe holds the bible.
7. They say this during cumuan “Christ has died and Christ has risen Christ will come again”
8. The pastors bow after they finish talking during cumuan.
9. When you are taking cumuan there is one cup that the adults drink from and after the person that is holding the cup wipes it.
10. When church is almost over one of the people in the plain white robes holds the gold cross and when it goes down the isle you have to bow.
CHURCH B
1. They have 3 screens
2. In the back there is a little station that does the lights and screens
3. There are 2 girls singing. And when you sing the lights turn off and these cool lights go on. The music is really loud.
4. In the seat in front of you their is a poket and in that poket their is a welcom thingy and an evolope wich you can give money with
5. There is no cross in the front
6. Their are cool but weird things on the walls
7. Very cool set up
8. There is a coffee shop
It’s really interesting to see how differently she captured the two church services. How she recorded the two worship environments. How in the case of the first, and obviously traditional church, she show a strong interest in the movements in the service of both the worship leader and elements. In the second, more modern church, she recorded more details about the building itself.
To me, and I could be way off since I don’t know this girl, but it sounds to me like she was intrigued by the “holy mystery” of the traditional service.
This fall I am making some changes to our church service. I’m trying out some new things, rearranging some others, in hopes of making people think a little differently about their own worship experience. To hopefully invoke some interest in the holy mystery of worship where maybe we realize that God isn’t actually who we might think He is and to re-evaluate our own understanding of how we relate to God through Jesus Christ.
It may work. It may not. We shall see.
But as I think about going forward, I’m thinking about what this girl captured, and how people might be similarly brought into an awe-filled relationship with our Lord.