Exciting little life bits

[nova617]

Life has been good this past week. I've been getting really worn down by people usually by the time Sunday comes around...new relationships are exhausting...but I am learning how wonderful the concept of having a Sabbath is. My Sabbath is Monday because it is my day off and the beginning of a new week. I am not allowed to do anything with people on

Comments

[ninaviolle]

I think I understand your difficulty focusing on God and leadership at the same time. I used to love being in choirs that would provide all the music for services (such as Evensong), but it was always hard to feel really worshipful while doing it because we were so concerned with starting on time, concentrating on the music, and what was coming next. It really is a challenge, and it is important for leaders to have break so they can just worship sometimes.

from Mom

[anonymous]

I think that leadership is very much a servant role. It is very fortunate when there are people to share that role. It becomes easier to understand Jesus trying to rest from the crowds, doesn't it? I wonder how much of the liturgy and structure of worship services, in various traditions, have been a responce to this issue of focus.

Re: from Mom

[nova617]

Hee...I've never struggled with Jesus resting from the crowds. That just makes sense. What sorts of liturgy and worship service traditions are you thinking about?

Re: from Mom

[anonymous]

You have sometimes commented about the importance of having flexibility in worship. It is always more interesting when the spirit has some room to lead, when worship can be new and exciting and inspired. I think the level of energy it takes for innovation in worship might be a barrier to such flexibilty. So maybe structure develops naturally. We end up with an order of doing things; the confesion, Lord's prayer, creed, communion with associated liturgy, the announcements. Into the framework we insert things which change each Sunday like the sermon, prayer concerns, and the given hymns for that day. It makes it easier for people up front as well as those in the general congregation to be able to think about God instead of focusing on what comes next. The danger is when there is so much repetition that we take worship for granted, become bored and lose interest. I suppose there is a happy medium in which enough changes to keep one alert.

Re: from Mom

[nova617]

Huh...I never would have thought about it that way. Innovative worship takes equal concentration as structured worship to me. Though it's true that when I try something new I must take more energy to be very tuned in to how people are reacting to it. I would like to point out that giving the Spirit some room to lead actually makes for *less* leadership than when a leader tries to do it all themselves. This is why I love my English Bible Study...all I have to do is choose a text. The danger in this is that the group will get "out of my control", but that's a good place for them to be anyway. The challenge as a leader is to keep God as much in control as the people in the group will allow him to be.