Practice

ANCIENT-FUTURE PRACTICE-CENTERED WORSHIP EXPRESSION

“Stop complaining about the church we’ve inherited and work on becoming the church we dream of” ~Shane Claiborne

Looking for a worship expression that is more practice-centered and community focused? Pilgrimage UCC is partnering with the Cobb Emergent Cohort to present a worship gathering on the second Saturday evening of each month. Our “formation families” agreed that these gatherings will include an Agape feast (potluck), followed by a worship service that will explore ancient Christian worship practices (lectio divina, centering prayer, labyrinth walking) combined with new worship practices (preaching as dialogue, Taize and other music, dance, poetry, painting, sculpting, body prayers, exploring Divine Awareness in the broader context of spirituality). Each service will conclude using the Eucharist Communion as put forward in the Didache (one of the oldest known documents of Christian practice that predates our New Testament Gospels).

This experience will be free of “theological discourse” and simply focus on connecting/awakening to God (we can use our cohort gatherings to do the “heavy thinking”)! It is space to let go of the Known, and to fall into the Unknown. It is not pastor led, but COMMUNITY led – a flat, non-hierarchical, co-operative structure where shared leadership is allowed to creatively bubble up to the surface as the Spirit leads. There will be no set worship “checklist” or “bulletin” to hinder this pnuema-movement! This is no “membership” or “belief statement” to sign on to – just come!

Children will be intentionally included in our practices and most will readily embrace practices that involve body movement (body prayer, labyrinth, dance, song) and art-based practices (“praying in color“, “circle painting“, clay sculpting). Children should not EVER be “bored” when worshiping God (nor should we)!