Worldwide Recap

It was a treat to have HyeRan and David with us on Sunday. The kids' story of SooMee and the fighter planes reminded us of the value of peace in our living, without an active military presence in our background.

HyeRan's sermon about congregations being a "gathering of the flock" that feasts together, rests together in sabbath, and travels together (through songs of worship as well as justice work) showed us what the basic principles of a faith community should be.

In reading the Mandate magazine article of Berlin Guerrero who was recently freed from prison in the Philippines, I was amazed that he managed to continue his theological training in his context. Now, that is making lemonade out of lemons!

"Mass" Confusion

With apologies for the delay in posting these details for this Sunday (car trouble, modem problems and a touch of a summer/autumn illness conspired against me the past few days), here is what's happening.

At Appin, the start of Funday School begins as we trace the journey of Jesus Christ Superstar, beginning with his toddler/newborn exodus into Egypt. This Sunday features a pony ride, my kids are very excited about that!

At Trinity, the Super Sunday School Start-Up Service will begin with the service beginning downstairs of the church where some conversation and nametag-making will happen within the structure of the worship service. A lunch will be provided after worship.

I've been reconsidering the flow of the worship service itself over the summer, and taking to heart the comments that we, as a congregation, don't know each other very well - across the generations, or even across the aisles - I will work to try and build stronger connections through conversation and discussion as part of the worship experience.

It will be rather chaotic at first, but I promise that we'll find a workable routine in due time. Maybe not this month, because it's always hectic in September, but soon. I welcome any concerns or questions that you may have; and thank you for your graciousness and patience as we seek to engage the spiritual needs of today with respect for the traditions of yesterday.

See you tomorrow!?
Kenji

What of Prayer Group?

At the prayer group meeting, we faced some of the same questions that the congregations of the pastoral charge, and the national denomination are facing. Why aren't people coming? Is the time too inconvenient? Are they afraid of prayer? What can we do?

I'm not writing this to send anyone on a guilt trip, just commenting on the parallels that seems to manifest themselves in all aspects of our church.

Clearing Cobwebs

Getting back to the church routine, I was tending to Office Hours and after a month of being away, found myself brushing away cobwebs that had formed in the church.

It's an apt metaphor, personally, as I feel a little foggy and fuzzy-headed coming back to work after a couple weeks of vacation and a week of intense pastoral focus with the people at Kairos 2008.

It's also a telling metaphor for what the church is seeking to do - shake free of dusty, antiquated doctrine that clings like tradition. For this reason, I've been working on a "new" worship format for Sundays that hopes to be more interactive, engaging and less one-directional from the pulpit to the pews. Whether or not this meets a need, flops famously or is totally unnecessary, we'll find out soon enough. When I have a better picture of what all of this entails, I'll be back with a post to introduce the ideas.