What follows are my thoughts about worship and spiritual practice at Mosaic Life as we continue to explore what that looks like in a multi-racial, multi layered faith community.
Mosaic Life is moving into ultra-emergent worship. I was listening to a feature on the ultra marathoner on NPR and he defined the meaning of ultra as "beyond" so I’m using that as my reference point. By that I mean that what we are doing in worship doesn’t easily fit into either the modern contemporary worship format or what has been come to be defined as emergent worship. It is amazing to me how disconnected
the contemporary and modern church is from the roots of worship practices. In they view if it doesn’t have scripture being read from the platform and preached from the platform it isn’t worship. This problem is compounded by thinking that emerging worship is a generational thing. Case in point the prayer path labyrinth that we step up for holy week in our space is marketed under
youth ministry by group publishing. The ancient rituals and practices of the early church and following have been discarded in favor of an exclusively upfront driven worship
"service". Meaningful rituals that have served the church well in the past have been abandoned in favor of consumer driven corporate worship practices that have no connection to what has come before historically. Now I believe worship should be relevant and engaging so the task is not to leave all ancient practices behind but to reclaim, refresh and renew them in ways that are relevant and engaging to the context.
On the other hand much of emerging worship is anti modern eschewing the possibility that anything good can come from up front or on the platform and acting as if that never occurred in ancient worship forms. In reclaiming ancient worship practices emerging worship also tends to draw to draw more from the European pool than other diverse worship pools. This effectively leads to what I call retro worship which does hymns from the European past but not hymns or songs from the African American or other non Anglo cultures. Diverse here means adding a djembe playing (truth in advertising we have and use a djembe in our worship). Because many of those practicing emerging worship discount and discredit up front leadership almost completely in favor of communal dialog and interaction, they fail to recognize the varying ways that dialog and interaction are expressed in different cultures. When it is is done well the call and response of of Afro Christian worship is an interactive dialog that is culturally shaped, with the preacher (performing almost like the cantor in Jewish worship) leading the gathered body into dialog with the scripture text. It has always struck me as strange that we talk more about teaching in emerging worship that preaching. I may be wrong but preaching tends to feel less interactive ( more big jug pouring to little mugs) than preaching. I really value the alt worship stuff especially what is coming out of the UK. But I wonder if we would fit their definition.
Here is an example of how we are moving to ultra-emergent worship
Good Friday worship gathering
Video- Palm Sunday to Easter (Work of the People)
Song - Here I am to worship
Scripture reading - Matt 26:17-18Matt 26:17-18
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Jesus Eats the Passover Meal with His Disciples
17 On the first day of the Festival of Thin Bread, Jesus' disciples came to him and asked,
Video
Scripture reading - John 13:3-15John 13:3-15
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
3 Jesus knew that he had come from God and would go back to God. He also knew that the Father had given him complete power.
4 So during the meal Jesus got up, removed his outer garment, and wrapped a towel around his waist.
5 He put some water into a large bowl. Then he began washing his disciples' feet and drying them with the towel he was wearing.
6 But when he came to Simon Peter, that disciple asked,
Video - Foot washing (Highway Video)
Song O the deep deep love of Jesus (arrangement by Reformed University Fellowship)
Scripture reading - Matt 20, 26-28Matt 20, 26-28
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
26 ; ; . But don't act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others.
27 And if you want to be first, you must be the slave of the rest.
28 The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue x rescue: The Greek word often, though not always, means the payment of a price to free a slave or a prisoner. many people.
Communion - by intinction (rip & dip) in a circle
Scripture reading - Matt 26:36-46Matt 26:36-46
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Jesus Prays
36 Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane. When they got there, he told them,
Video clip - Gethsemane (Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ)
Scripture reading - Matt 26:57-68Matt 26:57-68
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Jesus Is Questioned by the Council
57 After Jesus had been arrested, he was led off to the house of Caiaphas the high priest. The nation's leaders and the teachers of the Law of Moses were meeting there.
58 But Peter followed along at a distance and came to the courtyard of the high priest's palace. He went in and sat down with the guards to see what was going to happen.
59 The chief priests and the whole council wanted to put Jesus to death. So they tried to find some people who would tell lies about him in court. e some people who would tell lies about him in court: The Law of Moses taught that two witnesses were necessary before a person could be put to death .
60 But they could not find any, even though many did come and tell lies. At last, two men came forward
61 . and said,
O Sacred head Now wounded (arrangement by Reformed University Fellowship)
Scripture reading - Matt 26:69-75Matt 26:69-75
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Peter Says He Doesn't Know Jesus
69 While Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, a servant girl came up to him and said,
Video clip - Peter’s denial (Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ)
Scripture reading - Matt 27:1-10Matt 27:1-10
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Jesus Is Taken to Pilate
27
1 Early the next morning all the chief priests and the nation's leaders met and decided that Jesus should be put to death.
2 They tied him up and led him away to Pilate the governor.
The Death of Judas
3 . Judas had betrayed Jesus, but when he learned that Jesus had been sentenced to death, he was sorry for what he had done. He returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and leaders
4 and said,
Video - Passion Flash - the passion story, arrest to Pilate told hip hop style(Highway video )
Scripture reading - Matt 27:11-14Matt 27:11-14
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Pilate Questions Jesus
11 Jesus was brought before Pilate the governor, who asked him,
Video -
Scripture reading - Luke 23:1-12Luke 23:1-12
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Pilate Questions Jesus
23
1 Everyone in the council got up and led Jesus off to Pilate.
2 They started accusing him and said,
Scripture reading - Matt 27:15-26Matt 27:15-26
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
The Death Sentence
15 During Passover the governor always freed a prisoner chosen by the people.
16 At that time a well-known terrorist named Jesus Barabbas i Jesus Barabbas: Here and in verse 17 many manuscripts have
Song Were you there (Traditional gospel)
Scripture reading - Matt 27:27-32Matt 27:27-32
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
Soldiers Make Fun of Jesus
27 The governor's soldiers led Jesus into the fortress k fortress: The place where the Roman governor stayed. It was probably at Herod's palace west of Jerusalem, though it may have been Fortress Antonia north of the temple, where the Roman troops were stationed. and brought together the rest of the troops.
28 They stripped off Jesus' clothes and put a scarlet robe l scarlet robe: This was probably a Roman soldier's robe. on him.
29 They made a crown out of thorn branches and placed it on his head, and they put a stick in his right hand. The soldiers knelt down and pretended to worship him. They made fun of him and shouted,
Video -
Scripture reading - Matt 27:33-49Matt 27:33-49
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
33 They came to a place named Golgotha, which means
Video -
Scripture reading - Matt 27:50-56Matt 27:50-56
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
50 Once again Jesus shouted, and then he died.
51 At once the curtain in the temple q curtain in the temple: There were two curtains in the temple. One was at the entrance, and the other separated the holy place from the most holy place that the Jewish people thought of as God's home on earth. The second curtain is probably the one that is meant. was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and rocks split apart.
52 Graves opened, and many of God's people were raised to life.
53 Then after Jesus had risen to life, they came out of their graves and went into the holy city, where they were seen by many people.
54 The officer and the soldiers guarding Jesus felt the earthquake and saw everything else that happened. They were frightened and said,
Song - Wonderful cross (arrangement Chris Tomlin)
Video - It’s Friday but Sunday’s coming - Igniter Media
The worship space was created with chairs setup in a u shape on top of the labyrinth lit mostly by candles with enough light for reading. All scripture was read by those participating in worship from around the room. We celebrated communion by gathering in a circle and passing the cup to each other.
That is one example of our ultra-emergent, contextual, missional multi-sensory worship.
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