At our church service tonight we were looking at what Christian community might look like in the 21st Century… We decided for a change not to go with our normal liturgy, but to have a fairly sparse, simple service. We also decided not to have any songs – just some soft djembe drumming from Neil before the service started. We wanted to give a bit of a sense that we were taking some time to rethink how we do church, with a clean slate – not having to do things the way we’ve always done them.
To kick off the service I read about Paul’s body of Christ parable from 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. (I posted briefly about 1 Cor 12 last night.) We projected this animation, of the body of Christ:
(My intention was to draw a fat body of Christ, with lots of room for more people…)
And I invited the congregation to think about what were bringing to our discussion about community:
- what previous experiences they have had of community (at CSBC or elsewhere)
- what hopes they were bringing with regards to community
I invited them to write or draw what they were bringing onto a post-it and stick it onto the body, and to shares with the congregation what they were bringing to the discussion.
After Carolyn’s sermon (which was very conversational) we had a bit of time for silent prayer and reflection, then we also had some opportunities to respond to the discussion actively. I had been thinking about Paul saying that we have all been baptised in the same Spirit and we all drink of the same Spirit. (1 Cor 12:13) So I had some water at each end of the communion table, and I invited participants to
- wash their hands (some chose to wash each other’s hands) and think about what it might mean to be baptised in the same Spirit
- drink some water and think about what it might mean to drink of the same Spirit
We also had our standard candles for people to light, representing prayers.
Discussion
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