A bit like buses…

One of the things that we talked about over the weekend and one of the reasons we started BCLC was that there is very little scope for participation in ‘traditional’ worship. In fact the tutor on the session on reformed traditions (which in effect was just a couple of hours on worship) suggested that hymn singing was the point at which everyone could participate in the service.
I guess that you can’t argue with that on a certain level (if you don’t like hymns ‘join the quakers’) it doesn’t seem like an appropriate level of participation to me. I would personally like to see more interaction and I am guessing that so would a lot of other people.

A good analogy would be to look at the way television has evolved over the past 40 or 50 years. At the start there was one channel, then 2, 3, 4 until, if you lived in the right part of the country, terrestially you could get the full 5 channels of TV. You still had to watch what they gave you but you had some degree of choice.

Then along came Sky with their satellite service and suddenly you had masses of choice but still you sat in your chair and received their transmissions, it was a one-way street. Now we have digital telly and we can press our red buttons and go interactive. Suddenly this becomes a more dynamic experience, a two way street, a chance to have your say or see things from a different angle.

In church over he same period we have been expected to sit and receive the words and wisdom of the person in the pulpit. In the past 20 years or so there has been more variety on offer but still essentiually the same experience for the punter sat in the pew. It still happens at the same time in the same place (and everyone sits in the same seats:-).

I, for one though, don’t think that is what people want now (as evidenced by declining attendances) I think they want to interact more, I think they want to do things at different times of the day or on different days of the week. This for me is a good description of how BCLC works, we still have a long way to go to offer the full digitally enhanced 24×7 experience but it’s a start.

So go on, press your red button.

Long Time no Blog….

Apologies my many readers, well Anne and perhaps Geoffrey, I have been away. Away in both a physical sense (a trip to Nigeria no less) and away with the fairies, my heads been all over the place. Anyway I am back.
I will try to keep this brief if I can as I want to try to get a few entries in over the next couple of weeks.
More of Nigeria another time I think, it was a great place but I didn’t get to see enough to really do it justice so I will wait and see if get an opportunity to go again and will say more then.

Today I want to talk a abit about what I have been doing this weekend as that has more relevance to the way we do BCLC.

I was at a Local Leaders weekend in Whalley Bridge. Lovely place we stayed in, Whalley Hall, great food, crap beds and no bar… I know it doesn’t sound my kind of place but it was ok because some people had the foresight to bring some wine and then we nipped to the offy to get some more on the Sat, so it wasn’t a totally dry weekend you’ll be pleased to know.

This local leaders malarky is described here: http://www.nwsynod.org.uk/resources/resfiles/LocalLeadersOutline.doc http://www.nwsynod.org.uk/resources/resfiles/CouldYouBeALocalLeader.doc http://www.nwsynod.org.uk/resources/resfiles/LeadersFAQ.pdf
check it out when you get a chance.

Anyway off I trotted with Wendy and Elaine to become a local leader. 1st night the usual gubbins about leadership, a few fun exercises then then next morning we looked at the Elders meeting (you think this sounds dull in the telling, you should have been there) then in afternoon and evening we had some brilliant sessions with John Campbell – top bloke and principal of Northern College (where they train ministers) – on using the Bible. I have to say that I am no Biblical scholar but when you hear someone talk so well on something they feel a lot for then it draws you in. I was drawn.

Unlike Sunday where we had Robin Brunskill to talk about Reformed Traditions. I struggled with this one I have to say. He basically proceded to tell us that the hymn sandwich is a good thing because people know exactly what is going to happen and when. They can get all the participation they need by singing hymns and if the don’t like singing then tough titty.
The one good thing that came out this charade was to endorse the work we are doing with BCLC, well not exactly endorse it but it is clear that we follow something of the reformed tradition though not in a traditional reformed way. I sought no approval for what we did and received none. Interestingly though when Mike brought up all his objections to BCLC he was pretty much quoting what he had heard from Robin on his TLS gateway to worship course.
This is the really worrying thing, we are training our lay preachers to think that the state of our worhip format is not just expedient (in that it is familliar to a lot of people and therefore doesn’t rock the boat) it is in fact the ideal way to do worship. Oh yeah you can innovate a bit if you like but make sure that old Mrs whatsername gets out on time to tuck into her roasties and doesn’t lose her appetite by have to swallow anything approaching a contentious idea.

It was quite saddening.

Anyway I must go. I did meet some really nice people this weekend though that I am sure will turn out to be friends, I hope so anyway. And I get the chance to subvert their thinking another 3 times.

Until next time then.