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.

How do you cast a vision? Why don’t people catch a vision once it’s been cast? Do people not get inspired anymore?For those of us that do get inspired, for me it’s daily, what can be done to share this great experience with those around us? For me as part of the staff of a church I deal daily with vision casting and trying to get people to care about the things that God cares about. This is an up hill battle for sure and it is very discouraging sometimes.

Imagine if you will a place where you have friends, friends so close you could call them family. These people love and accept you for who you are, where you are, and what you are, right now. These people may or may not care about the environment, politics, social injustice or religion but that’s ok because they love each other for the simple fact that they exist and what they believe doesn’t matter to receive and give that love.

Sounds pretty good to me. How about you? This is part the vision of Real Life Community Church, but getting people to actually live this vision out in their lives is harder than it seems. With an idea (it’s Christs’ idea) as good as this why don’t people want to live it? Here are a couple easy ways to join in.

1. This Blog. I spend time and energy on this blog every week. I enjoy it. I could enjoy it more if people would read it and leave comments. I have publicized it at church, on the website, and in the weekly email but to no avail. This blog is for you. It is here so we can have a discussion and share ideas, concerns and to celebrate life and beauty. This is an easy way for you to start giving and receiving the love I spoke of earlier.

2. Real Groups. At Real Life Community Church we are a church of small groups and not a church with small groups. I am a group “leader”. I hate that term. I don’t want to lead why does a group of friends getting together to “do” life together need a leader? I’ve been inviting several people to our group and they just don’t seem interested. Some attend Real Life and some don’t. Those that don’t I can understand but those that do attend Real Life really don’t have a excuse (unless they just don’t like me, and that is very possible). They attend a church thats vision is to share life together in community but these people don’t join in a community (real group) to do this. They come every week to a Sunday service but don’t understand the vision of the church. Why? I hear it preached from the pulpit (music stand) every week. I don’t think it could be any clearer. So why attend a church were you don’t even buy into the vision. If you just want to sit there then do it somewhere else.

This may sound mean, like I don’t have this love that I talk about but that is not the case. I say these things because I do love you, I don’t even know who if anyone reads this, but I love you. I want the best for you I want you to live you life to the fullest and experience things beyond you imagination. I think this is possible by living the way Christ exemplified. That’s the driving force behind everything we do at Real Life.

But…I could be wrong.