Continuing the Triangle

I also wanted to highlight an e-mail that I recieved from my Grandma regarding worship... Her thoughts are always well stated...

My opinion: There is a stiffness or rigidity to the common format of worship that seems to leave so many (especially the relatively new or the self obsorbed old believer) with a longing for more. An hour of hymn, message, and communion can be very uninspiring when we focus on the ritual. If that is the only contact with our Lord it is surely insuffiecient. However we may consider that there is more to many believers "ritual" than the Sunday (or rFri-Sat-Wed) service.
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>How can the current church satisfy all the differing attitudes and still convey the importance of community? That seems to be my most current concern.
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>We focus on specific aspects of our worship experience BUT perhaps that is where the difficulty originates. If we FOCUS of the living GOD--present in ALL our worship experience--and do not feel it important to "entertain" perhaps the "new and self obsorbed old" could learn from us.
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>Think about it. Would a symbol of the trinity, or the chalice and loaf, or a combination of the symbols and the songs really make a difference?
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>Christ is either known to be present OR NOT. We need to give the worshipping throng a sense of the glory of God. Therein lies the challenge. Weekly breaking bread is a place to begin as long as it is a fresh >experience and the one taken with us as we leave the hall.
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>Perhaps serving at the door as the communicants leave would add a sense of "take me (JESUS) with you.
>Why do we think that the table needs to be at the front? OR
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>Perhaps rearranging the sanctuary so that communicants sit around the table would give a deeper meaning to the "broken bread and cup".
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>All these things have been tried over and over. As I see it the most conspicuous problem is understanding discipleship. We must learn to extend a greater challenge to LEARN the WAY of JESUS... so that the scripture in Acts 17: 26 ---and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation.
>17:27--that they should seek GOD, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, "For we also are His offspring."
>17:28---for in Him we live and move and exist as even some of your own poets have said, "For we also are His offspring."
>17: 29---- Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of by man. but
>17:30----Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.
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>(gold-silver- stone--art--thought of by man---= idols
>overlooked the times of ignorance------------= being able to go past our errors in thinking, our tendency to >want to raise graniose edifices and beautiful images--- ) my >interpretation.
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>I truly love beauty--art--banners--edifices that still stand from days of yore BUT they are not vital to faith.
>I truly believe that the poets pen has created beautiful songs of praise to our Lord God--BUT-- if we had never heard one hymn, we would still sing praises to the God of our heart, when we come to know he is Real.
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>Part of our real problem is that so many come to Christ and do not experience any real follow through with the need to learn what being a disciple really means. Therefore the rituals seem dry and useless and less >than stimulating. The idea of breaking bread with an "unseen" host is so commonly under estimated that the believer goes thru the ritual as tho' it were a tradition ONLY---completely missing the importance of the command to "Do this in Remembrance of ME".
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>I have no idea what you are struggling with as you visit various traditions BUT I do know that the importance of making that triangle of Word-Chalice--and Presense real is not a new dilemma within the confines of organized church. Christ MUST be REAL to the participant for the "ritual" to have any significance.
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>I believe for the "emerging" church, or whatever preference to LABEL comes along, the real work lies in giving Jesus a commanding relevance to any who wish to be considered disciples--followers--workers--believers.
>We must learn to walk close by the newly baptised or converted being well versed in our faith and the WORD so that we can answer with some authority and admit when we do not know--what God asks of us. As we grow in the personal committment to justice, kindness and love--we are then faithful disciples.
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>Well you can see why this came in e-mail form rather than blog.
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>I love you very much and am so delighted that you chose to follow our Lord who is the center of my life. I do pray you through it all---earnestly--to the end that your ministry will be most gratifying and your life (with all it's ups and downs--and there will be plenty) is truly blessed. Love Gramma

A Comment Response

My good friend Caleb Youngblood (I would recommend checking ou his blog and the thinking that he is doing. There is a lin to his page under my friends section.) left a comment on the post that I did regarding the worship triangle. I copied his comment and pasted it below. My response is the following paragraph.

Nick...I liked your post. However, can I ask a question about what you are saying? Is the center of the triangle where we need to be? I remember having a similar conversation about this a while back. Not everyone prefers the center of all of those three elements, but rather, lean towards better worship with one or two sides weighted heavier. So, how do we address that issue. I don't mean to disagree with you just wanted your insight about this question!

Caleb... As we look historically at "the triangle" I feel like different traditions at different times have been good at at least one of the points of the triangle. Sometimes, a tradition will take seriously two of the points of the triangle. And sometimes they will "do" two points of the triangle well. However, rarely has there been a centeredness within a tradition, and maybe this is another item to add to the conversation as we move ahead in the way in which we worship God. Maybe for people like me who have had such an emphasis on Word in worship, and such a lack of art and sacrament, could be more holistic worshippers if we were to move more towards the center. So is centeredness the point? A good conversation for us to have. I don't know if the point is the center, but maybe movement towards the center would be helpful for all. My gut intially thinks that centeredness in this narrow fashion is not THE point... but it may be A point in a long series of points that need to be discussed within the catholic church. Also, I feel like Word and Sacrament have often been mutually exlusive in the climax of the ritual and I feel like they don't need to be. Why does it need to be word or wine? Could it be word and wine? I would love to hear the stories of the past regarding these questions...

The Center of the Triangle

As I continue to feel blessed to have this opportunity to learn, I found myself engaged in a marvelous lecture yesterday given by Dr. Todd Johnson. Basically Todd lectured on the importance of the history of the power of the words in which we choose. He has set up this lecture with a simple diagram that consists of a triangle. Each point of the triangle represents the emphasis in which we put on the climax of our communal worship services. The three points are Word, Sacrament, and Art (typically in the form of music). We are then to plot a point within the triangle to catch a glimpse of the way that we worship. Being a part of the RCA for the past three years, the clear emphasis was been on the written Word. The point would probably lie towards the word side of the triangle, with more music than sacrament. Whitney and I have recently engaged in an Episcopal time of worship and the clear climax within this tradition is sacrament. There was a five minute homily, and everything in the service pointed towards the celebration of the communion table. It was a wonderful time of celebration, and there was something mysteriously beautiful about the Episcopal ritual that the RCA seems to miss. The point within the triangle would probably lie towards the sacrament, with more emphasis on art than Word. Whitney and I have also had the chance to go the Mosaic... A well known, multi site, young, artful, "emerging" but doesn't want to be labeled emerging kind of church. In this service the focus was clearly on the art. An artist painted while the teacher preached, there was a ton of music, and dance was also a part of the worship. At Mosaic, I would guess that the emphasis is on art, with a balance between Word and sacrament. Since Zwingli there has been a clear shift away from emphasis on sacraments, more towards the word. With megachurch world, there seems to have been quite the shift towards the climax of worship being in music. I am excited to engage in conversations that start to move the direction and the momentum of our worship towards the center of this "worship triangle." I think that the ethos of my generation longs for the center and is capturing the center in the midst of some positive dialogue, but there is more to do, to say and to write. I actually never got to the thoughts from Dr. Johnson's lecture yesterday... I will try to get those out by tomorrow. Have a great Wednesday in pursuing the center of the triangle!

Surrender

After some wonderful conversations with my friend Mark Frens, I have officially become a part of both the facebook and myspace communities. At first I felt like I was selling out (especially to my fellow blogspot folks!), but desiring to network within online communities in order to create synergy has taken priority. (Also, many people from GPC use mspace!)I'm not really sure how these other sites work yet but you can look them up at...

www.myspace.com/nickwarnes and I'm not really sure how the facebook one works... sorry, trying to learn this new stuff!

Transitions

The transitions continue... Just a quick update... I have been crazy busy this week working, going to classes and spending time getting our car back up and running. I had been tutoring Biology and Chemistry at a nice place called Stepping Stones for the past three months down in San Marino. Because the buisness was only 5 miles away, Whitney and I have gone without a car since September 17th and we have been ridign our bikes... Since before Christmas, I have been praying, thinking, and having conversations with people about a position that I was offered at Glendale Presbyterion Church (GPC). The position is an internship at the church in helping the high school student ministry program. (Also fulfilling the necessary credits that I need at Fuller for an internship.) This past Saturday I decided to accept the job and move forward with more transitions. I will be joining two other Fuller interns (one music guy and one middle school person still not hired) in loving the community of people involved with GPC. I am so pumped for the oppertunity to work with these new friends! So with all that in mind, the last 5 days have been filled with finsihing up work at the tutoring place, getting set up at the new church, getting our car going again, and oh yeah, classes. It has been crazy... Reminds me of our days back in the GRap! I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel of these transitions and I am very much looking forward to helping to realize potential within people at this new job. I would totally appreciate prayers and insight for these new relationships that I will be stepping into. Have a great end of the week! PEACE!

Ben Harper

I have really connected with this Ben Harper song for a long time... Thought that I would share the lyrics with you. I encourage you to read the lyrics while you listen/watch the video...



POWER OF THE GOSPEL

It will make a weak man mighty
It will make a mighty man fall
It will fill your heart and hands
Or leave you with nothing at all
Its the eyes for the blind
And legs for the lame
It is love for hate
And pride for shame

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

Gospel on the water
Gospel on the land
The gospel in every woman
The gospel in every man
Gospel in the garden
Gospel in the trees
The gospel thats inside of you
The gospel inside of me

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

In the hour of richness
In the hour of need
For all of creation
Comes from the gospel seed
Now you may leave tomorrow
And you may leave today
But youve got to have the gospel
When you start out on your way

Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the gospel
Thats the power of the mighty power
Thats the power of the gospel

The Scapegoats of Systematic Cancer

How often has a problem, so intertwined in a mesh of broken networks, come and left a sense of despair in life? As I continue to encounter places where there is no answer... Where there is only confusion and a loss of direction, my frustration mounts. Many will say, Just live the question... Embrace the process... You need to have more faith… You need to be more focused on the Word… And so on... And this lingo has its place... But... What do we do when we have done these things and despair continues to be the most dominate force? This seems to happen not only on an individual level, but also on a community, national, and even global level. We get confused by a broken network of thoughts and actions and get left without direction or ideas. (A horrible place to be.) I think that I am learning that when these sorts of feelings arise, the problem is on a systemic level. There is something wrong with the system. Often, we humans try to solve systemic cancer with a scapegoat. (A person or two in which to place the blame.) Well, scapegoat syndrome seems to only put a band-aid on a broken femur. (Yeah Arnold… My governor!) (To take the idea of scapegoat to another level takes us to the question of how we make ourselves the scapegoats in various different contexts in order to avoid dealing with larger systemic brokenness. But this is another subject for another day!) Back to the broken femur… Why do we insist on scapegoating when we feel despair, lose direction, and have a lack of ideas? To avoid the essential pain that needs to occur when systemic cancer is addressed. Pain is necessary when entire systems change. Most humans will do anything to avoid pain.
I am confused about some realities that surround me on different levels. War. Money. Relationships. I feel despair. I have few or no ideas. I don’t know which direction I/we are going. Could it be that a portion of the reason that I am confused is because broken systems are involved? Have there been scapegoats? Have I made scapegoats? Have I been a scapegoat? Have a made myself a scapegoat? Do I make scapegoats to avoid the pain that comes with actually dealing with deep, dark, systemic brokenness? Many questions… We’ll see.

An Immanent Freak

Look out Cali, Mark Frens is here and he is taking over! He also started a new blog... Be sure to check him out at www.mfrens.blogspot.com.

A Potential Shallow Peace

With the assitance of a book called The Openness of God (a book that makes Fuller, for the conservative, too liberal), I have been reflecting on the potential unhealthy overlap that followers of Jesus have constructed regarding faith, peace, and the sovereignty of God. In my personal experience, when life has brought forth difficult tangents, I have often rested on the foundation of the sovereignty of God. I have also seen many people in the communities that have directly surrounded me take this same foundation as their "deepest level of peace". The question that continues to bombard my head is... What if sovereignty isn't the trump card called to bring the deepest levels of peace and health to humanity? What if finding our deepest levels of centeredness in the sovereignty of God actually leads to a shallow level of peace, or an "uncenteredness"? Where does Jesus fit into these questions? I don't know the answers, but if these questions have any truth to them, then a lot of unhealthiness that I have seen over the past years within myself and people who wear the sovereignty of God marker on their forhead sure makes a lot of sense.

Michigan

Whitney and I also had a blast while we were in Michigan. While Texas was filled with relaxation, Michigan seemed to be filled with action. (And both were very appreciated!) Most of that action came through visiting with different family and friends in different parts of the GRap. Some highlights of the 5 days in Michigan consisted of surprising Lindsay and Justin, more great food, Yesterdogs, conversations, good beverages, cards, a visit to the old church, and catching up with friends. Here are some more pics that will aid in sharing our vacation.