I read a book the better part of a decade ago titled Enter The Worship Circle by a guy named Ben Pasley. He’s a creative who is also responsible for some great acoustic worship albums under the same title. The book stretches you out of the typical in an artsy and sometimes jumbled way, reflecting the post-modernistic charged atmosphere of its 2001 publishing.
I recently picked it up again and thought I’d write 4 posts on some of the main themes from this meditation on worship:
- Worship is Connection
- Worship is Conversation
- Worship is Celebration
- Worship is Creativity in Love
1.) Worship is Connection
In different parts of the book Pasley laments that we default toward religion rather than true connection with the supernatural, with God, because it is much more comfortable for us, but far less satisfying.
Religion has attempted to help humanity understand the spiritual, but our real need is not to understand the spiritual, or to categorize it, or to explain it – it is simply to touch it.
One of my favorite pages in the book displays a sketch titled “Religious People Make Terrible Worshipers”.
Bam. Ouch.
Religion = cool
Religion = predictable
Religion = I have a systematic theology that explains this
The complex inner connections that take place within any relationship are anything but dissect-able. And so are the complex inner connections that occur between the human heart and the divine.
Do we anticipate and pursue connection with God?
That we have spoken to and been spoken to by God.
That we have expressed our hearts and sensed the heart of God for us and the world.
That we have reached out to and known God’s reaching toward us.
Maybe as sound and media techs, pastors, leaders, worshipers, and church-ees, we should consider what Pasley explains: that all God offers us is Himself – no product, no gimmick, no how-to-be-successful books. He gives Himself, and that is what – or rather, Who, we all really need.
Worship is Connection.
Check out http://www.entertheworshipcircle.com for more on Ben and what’s going on in the mystical realm of the circle.Or follow on twitter @benpasley @worshipcircle
Cheers
Do you think the people coming to church on Sundays expect or desire this kind of connection? Are we doing a good job of facilitating and encouraging God-connection as a part of our gathered worship? As a part of the regular week? How do we avoid becoming religiously patterned with what and how we do things?
chadlangerud 