yes, but is it worship?
Job Title: (suggestion please based on the description below)
Job Description: To help the local church to move from being a Sunday-centric worship-based organisation to one that provides a space in which people can make connections with themselves, with each other and with God at all times of the week.
I do like to introduce a little music to the blog where I can and this is a fine track, takes me all the way back to Rosie's Bar in Manchester and some fantastic nights out with me old mates from the gas…
But that's not why I have started this entry with that song. I am back to talking about bclc once more after a few rogue entries about beer and such like. This month we are looking at the 'spirit'. As usual we started with the worlds view and, again as usual, this lead to a really interesting discussion. We started with some Tai Chi (or Twit-chy as it was coined owing to the effect it had on Charis' hand). Bob lead us in something about moving energy between heaven and earth, it probably had a catchier title than that but that was the essence of what we did. Any local leaders reading this be warned, this will come up over the weekend when I am down to do the prayers.
Following that we looked at popular depictions of 'spirit' in TV and film. I chose a cartoon called the 'Avatar' and Star Wars. The former because it is about a child that can bend air and the latter because of the 'force'. My hypothesis, if you like, is that all these are different ways of describing the same thing. I went on to describe how I saw prayer as a way of channeling the spirit or energy or chi through ourselves or from ourselves to somewhere or someone else.
It was interesting to hear how other people saw the spirit as a personal thing. A part of us that guides us, like a conscience might, and has an inherent moral element in the way the force, or chi, doesn't. This differs greatly from the Eastern religions and their view of the spirit. They see it more as a force or energy that can be both good or bad (these are subjective terms and depend much on your perspecive) that is both within us and without.
This is the point that I really want to pick up on and develop if I may. Bob then suggested that what religions are trying to do is to enable us to make a connection between our spirit and the eternal spirit, or God. I would like to take that one step further. I now believe that as people look for a spiritual dimension to their lives they are seeking to make connections with themselves, with each other and with an 'other' that they have little or no knowledge of.
This sort of follows on from what we have discussed in the past few weeks. look at the breakdown of communal services like the park. People have lost contact with who they are – their worth is defined by economics, with the people around them – the end of society as defined by Thatcher and with God – the massive decline in church attendance over the past few decades.
This is where churches need to be (I think I may have used that phrase before, forgive me) helping people make connections.
As a coincidence this has lead me to a) thinking of a new name for bclc (not telling yet) and b) thinking of a job title and description for my local leaders role. Actually that is no coincidence, it is a direct result of my thinking about these things, discussing them at bclc and writing about them here. How did I stick sitting in church for so long?
