Worship in the context of the Christian faith has very little imagination, we all basically do the same thing and no one ever comes up with a new idea. I know there are a few smaller churches that are trying to do things differently but as a majority Christian worship is the same.

For example: This past week the staff of Real Life attended a leadership conference that was being held in Chicago but broadcast live by satelite to places all over the world. We attended a venue over in Boise. They began the conference by singing worship songs. Everyone in the auditorium in Boise stood up and were singing toward the screen as if there was a real person on the stage in front of them. This struck me as odd. As I looked around in curiosity at our trained response to “Worship time” I asked the question “Why do we stand in rows and sing as our worship?” Who decided that this was the best way to worship the God of all creation? Why are Churches set up so the congregation sits in rows? Are we missing some opportunities to worship God in new and creative ways? Again, I ask more questions than I have answers, but I think worship is important and I don’t think we have it all figured out yet.

I like how Real Life has phrased it’s core practice of worship; “Bringing to light God’s activity in the world through the corporate expressions of beauty and art.” Do we actually practice this? I would say…no. I don’t blame anyone at least not anymore than I blame myself. What are beauty and art? How do we corporately express them? I don’t even know what worship like that looks like. I agree with it whole heartedly but I just don’t know how to do it. My rough idea of how this looks is as follows:

We as a community of believers are so in touch with our community, town, nation, and world that we see God working in amazing beautiful ways every day. We are so infatuated with God’s grace and love that we have to express our love for Him through song, poetry, dance, photography, painting, sculpture, and literature.

I don’t know how we get from here to there but I would love to try.

Why can’t life be more like Paris traffic? When we arrived here I was scared to death to even think about driving here. Luckily we didn’t have to. In the city of paris there are very few driving lanes and it seems to be every car, truck, motorcycle, scooter, bike and person for themselves. This is very scary from the point of view of an american driver that has been taught to drive defensively.
After a couple days here I’ve noticed something interesting. The drivers here have an understanding. They realize they are all in this thing together. They give and take space and share the road because they all have places to go. No one is more important than the others.
There are about 11 million people in paris yet I have seen any road rage, obscene gestures and amazingly not a single fender bender. I’m sure there are but I haven’t seen any. Compared to 1 week in the small town of nampa where I see 1 of each of these things daily it seems. Traffic is part of life the people of Paris. These drivers have accepted traffic/life as is it comes and they respect the other drivers just because they are on the road/journey with them.
It this not a beautiful image of how life should be? We are all in this thing together, why not work together and help each other out. We can live a better life letting others in and slowing down for those around us than we ever could if we all go as fast as we want in any direction without concern for the person on our right and left. You may get some scratches along the way and sometimes a big truck will double park in front of you but be patient someone will slow up and let you get around.

That’s what I think anyway.