Canticles of the Unhomed
Monday, March 14, 2005
The Hizzle fo Shizzle
So we went and looked at another house in the Hardisty region of Edmonton. I must say that it was pretty near perfect. Chuck, Erica and I spent the evening with the owners of the house, and we got on very well, I thought. The house was extrememly spacious and modern. The main meeting area on the main floor was large enough for our purposes and there was a room near the front door to be used as a chapel/sanctuary/spiritual airlock. There was a number of large bedrooms, and the downstairs (basement) level was extremely large. I think it will service our needs very well. The neighborhood is great, and it has a huge backyard. The location is not what we were hoping for, but is not too bad. We are all very excited about this house and plan this week to get as many people out to look at it as possible, since we want this to be a decision that everyone is behind.
We had our second gathering as the House. There was a good number of people there, and it was a good gathering, though I think it was pretty heavy. We took sort of a relaxed pace through the service, and just prayed where we wanted to pray, talk where we wanted to talk and so on. It was not as polished or atmospheric as alot of Emergent churches probably are, but I liked it. One of our core beliefs is that we want the nature of our community, the personalities and natures of the people there to shape what we do, so I think it will take us a few weeks of trying different things and evaluating. This past Sunday we opened with about twenty minutes or so of conversation, did a written prayer for about fifteen minutes, shared about our weeks for about forty minutes or so, which included a couple of verbal prayer times, then we read the first seven chapters of Genesis out loud which took about thirty minutes, then had a bit of a converstaion about Genesis for about twenty minutes, then we studied 1 Corinthians 1 together for about an hour then we took some time to talk about joining the E Free denomination, and about the house we were looking at. We also took time to talk about the philosophy behind a number of things that we do. All in all, it was formitive, not exactly what we invisioned, and probably way too heavy for most people right off the bat. I think until we get into our own facility, and out of Chuck's tiny apartment living room that we are going to have to simplfy. Our original idea was that if during the service, you started to get stir crazy, or was losing focus, or whatever, you could get up, go to a different part of the house or room and switch activities; go paint, or sketch, pick up a guitar and start playing, go play some pool, or just sit in a corner and ignore us. However, in Chuck's admittedly small apartment that is not possible, so we have to adapt our practise to our facility. The idea is that we find our own rythyms, and not have to be creative in some spontaneous way every week. Variety is great, but there is something to be said for consistency and rythym. I am not trying to lets structure our gatherings to death so that the same things happen every week and there is no life or variety. Its like in jazz; there is a lead sheet that lists the chords for the song, and everytime you play that song you play those chords; however, because of the nature of jazz, the song may never sound the same twice, but you always know what song it is because those chords are the same; you may use different intonations, rythyms, and solos, which totally change the sound of the song, but because you always play the same chords from the lead sheet the song retains its familiarity and recongizability. (Thanks to Rach for the jazz analogy) However, I think there should a consistency to the components of our service that focuses people on the rythym of the gathering. I am using this word rythym alot, meaning literally, " movement or fluctuation marked by the regular recurrence or natural flow of related elements." I appreciate that definition, because it denotes the dynamic nature of our relationship with God, but at the same time helps us to appreciate the sameness inherent in God. I resist the idea that every week needs to be different just for the sake of being creative. I think there are more ways to be creative while respecting these rythyhms
So, our journey is not yet over; hell, it hasn't even really begun. One of the best things about this is that we are approaching this with almost NO previous church growth/planting baggage. All of us have baggage from other churches, but I am the only one that has been damaged by Hybels, Warren and the rest of them. Its great, because we are free to find our own path. Maybe it will look like Hybels or Warren (not if I have anything to say about it.) but at least if it does, it will because that is where we find our expression, not because it happens to be the "in" model. I know that everyone says that. I know, I know. But it is the journey that is important.
One thing we want to make sure we do is avoid as many of the post modern pitfalls as possible. We want to avoid deconstruction. We have no desire to define ourselves by what we are not. As well, deconstruction is, by definition, destructive - it begins with the assumption that the concept is flawed, and thus must be deconstructed to uncover the nature of those flaws. Overall, though, it just seems bleak. As well, we want to avoid relativism - we think there are absolute truths, and that bible does speak definitively on several issues, and we want to be definitive as well. I guess I just feel that the whole post modernist view seems angry, for the sake of being angry. Personally, I am tired of being angry. I want to create something new; thus, the House.
I'm beginning to think that frequent, smaller posts are better than long infrequent ones, right?
We had our second gathering as the House. There was a good number of people there, and it was a good gathering, though I think it was pretty heavy. We took sort of a relaxed pace through the service, and just prayed where we wanted to pray, talk where we wanted to talk and so on. It was not as polished or atmospheric as alot of Emergent churches probably are, but I liked it. One of our core beliefs is that we want the nature of our community, the personalities and natures of the people there to shape what we do, so I think it will take us a few weeks of trying different things and evaluating. This past Sunday we opened with about twenty minutes or so of conversation, did a written prayer for about fifteen minutes, shared about our weeks for about forty minutes or so, which included a couple of verbal prayer times, then we read the first seven chapters of Genesis out loud which took about thirty minutes, then had a bit of a converstaion about Genesis for about twenty minutes, then we studied 1 Corinthians 1 together for about an hour then we took some time to talk about joining the E Free denomination, and about the house we were looking at. We also took time to talk about the philosophy behind a number of things that we do. All in all, it was formitive, not exactly what we invisioned, and probably way too heavy for most people right off the bat. I think until we get into our own facility, and out of Chuck's tiny apartment living room that we are going to have to simplfy. Our original idea was that if during the service, you started to get stir crazy, or was losing focus, or whatever, you could get up, go to a different part of the house or room and switch activities; go paint, or sketch, pick up a guitar and start playing, go play some pool, or just sit in a corner and ignore us. However, in Chuck's admittedly small apartment that is not possible, so we have to adapt our practise to our facility. The idea is that we find our own rythyms, and not have to be creative in some spontaneous way every week. Variety is great, but there is something to be said for consistency and rythym. I am not trying to lets structure our gatherings to death so that the same things happen every week and there is no life or variety. Its like in jazz; there is a lead sheet that lists the chords for the song, and everytime you play that song you play those chords; however, because of the nature of jazz, the song may never sound the same twice, but you always know what song it is because those chords are the same; you may use different intonations, rythyms, and solos, which totally change the sound of the song, but because you always play the same chords from the lead sheet the song retains its familiarity and recongizability. (Thanks to Rach for the jazz analogy) However, I think there should a consistency to the components of our service that focuses people on the rythym of the gathering. I am using this word rythym alot, meaning literally, " movement or fluctuation marked by the regular recurrence or natural flow of related elements." I appreciate that definition, because it denotes the dynamic nature of our relationship with God, but at the same time helps us to appreciate the sameness inherent in God. I resist the idea that every week needs to be different just for the sake of being creative. I think there are more ways to be creative while respecting these rythyhms
So, our journey is not yet over; hell, it hasn't even really begun. One of the best things about this is that we are approaching this with almost NO previous church growth/planting baggage. All of us have baggage from other churches, but I am the only one that has been damaged by Hybels, Warren and the rest of them. Its great, because we are free to find our own path. Maybe it will look like Hybels or Warren (not if I have anything to say about it.) but at least if it does, it will because that is where we find our expression, not because it happens to be the "in" model. I know that everyone says that. I know, I know. But it is the journey that is important.
One thing we want to make sure we do is avoid as many of the post modern pitfalls as possible. We want to avoid deconstruction. We have no desire to define ourselves by what we are not. As well, deconstruction is, by definition, destructive - it begins with the assumption that the concept is flawed, and thus must be deconstructed to uncover the nature of those flaws. Overall, though, it just seems bleak. As well, we want to avoid relativism - we think there are absolute truths, and that bible does speak definitively on several issues, and we want to be definitive as well. I guess I just feel that the whole post modernist view seems angry, for the sake of being angry. Personally, I am tired of being angry. I want to create something new; thus, the House.
I'm beginning to think that frequent, smaller posts are better than long infrequent ones, right?
:: written by Matt Thompson, 2:03 PM
3 Comments:
ahhh...the journey continues. sounds like a good beginning. I will have to knock on the door of the house once or twice and see if an old pilgrim can get victuals and shelter...
The reading of many chapters of Scripture is such a formative thing. Reminds me that I now need to logout and go do likewise...
blessings
The reading of many chapters of Scripture is such a formative thing. Reminds me that I now need to logout and go do likewise...
blessings
Sounds cool. I especially appreciated your commonents on some of your intentional un-postmodern values.
I look forward to when we get to kick-it again, I'm talking old school Bushido blade craziness!
I look forward to when we get to kick-it again, I'm talking old school Bushido blade craziness!
Mmmm... Bashida... ahhh yeah. I long for some old-school slash mode sweetness.
