And We're Off!

We had our first gathering in the Schweitzer chapel last Saturday night. We had a couple technical issues, but overall it went very smoothly. Eric shared a truncated version of the message he shared the following Sunday morning. I played a handful of songs including some Christmas carols.

For me, being a part of a gathering like this is all about the potential for setting something into motion. I don't place a ton of weight on being "in church." I've had a lot of experiences over the years in church gatherings that yielded minimal long-term change, and many experiences outside of church gatherings that have started me down revolutionary paths. The point is simply that I think we need to be on the lookout for truth wherever it shows up.

Generally, people come to church gatherings expecting what they've experienced in church before. We want to experience God and we have ideas about what that means, but what if God is bigger than our expectations? What if we're so comfortable in our perspectives that we're not on our toes to discern where God is moving? For this reason, I feel that the best thing I can do, as a facilitator of church gatherings, is to help people to emerge from the expected, and be vigilant for God's moving hand.

On Saturday evening, my goal as a musician there is to play songs that encourage thought and evoke emotion. I played Where the Streets Have No Name by U2 because it speaks of Heaven in metaphors that are not the typical ones we hear in church. I played August 30th by Delirious because it's filled with a sense of appreciation for God's love.

Come join us, Saturday evenings at 5:30 in the Schweitzer chapel.