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Alan Creech
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January 28, 2010
> 1:39 PM
re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 2 Here's a double-whammy for you. Two posts, one short, one longer, on liturgy itself. This is also something I talked about with the UM Pastors in the UP last week. These things are important, I think. Many who came through the emerging church era, and many who don't even know what that is/was, have come to see how helpful these things are for the Church. Oh - one more general thing: If you didn't know already, Haloscan comments are going the way of the dinosaur in a few weeks. So, I've exported and saved all my old comments (there were around 7,500 of them - wow) and gone to Blogger comments because it's easy and free. ------------------------------------------ Liturgy (from 08/24/2006) The skeleton of a faith community's worship and prayer life. It is the spiritual life's work we do as a community, together, with and in Christ. Should we have one, a skeleton that is? Yes. The question certainly should be asked, but if somehow we come to the answer "no" I'm pretty sure we fell off a cliff somewhere. Should they all be the same in every church? Yeah, hmmm, yes and no. That's right - to a degree, yes, all skeletons in all bodies are the same. You have a humerus, I have a humerus. I have a rib-cage and so do you. If you didn't have a rib-cage, that would not be good. It would mean either something bad happened in your genetic formation or you were in a bad accident - something, but it wouldn't be right. I believe there is a certain core of liturgical worship and prayer that is, let's put it this way, a healthier skeleton to have in your body. It's the one we've basically always had - well, until about 500 years ago. It's way too rigid in some parts of the Church (and non-existent in others = jelly body). There are places that it ends up choking people instead of guiding them or helping them worship and stand in the flow of God's Grace in the community. Choking isn't good. You can die from that. A rigid skeleton will break too easily. So, yes, there is a core that should exist in all places, times, cultures. But no, the exact expression and fleshing out of that skeleton is not, and probably should not, look the same everywhere. People go too far on both ends of this liturgical spectrum. Can we try, please, not to do that? ---------------- The Longhaul Life of The Community (from 03/19/2007)   That's the title of a little break-out session I lead at the thinspace gathering this weekend. It was a good conversation I think. Some of these things are pieces of things I've said in the past, some of it is new. I thought it might be helpful to put it up here as I put it together for the session.But isn't liturgy dead, dry religion? Isn't that what many of us left a long time ago in favor of something more "spirit-lead" and "organic?" Well, I don't know, is it? I think some people think that. I think there are many people who don't really understand what liturgy is or what its purpose is. I'm sure of that. What also seems clear is that there are many in this so-called "emerging church" phenomenon who, after leaving this or that for whatever reasons, are beginning to rediscover liturgy as something good - liturgical prayer, worship, etc. The concept of organic church What about that word - organic? Let's think about that for a minute. Think about the natural world, organic life - how does that work anyway? It's certainly not formless or chaotic. Organic life has rhythm. It's not accidental. It's not wherever, whenever, whatever. That's not organic. I think liturgy is organic. It is a rhythm of activity focused on God, on God in the community of His People the Church. It moves in seasons - like breathing, leaves falling, buds sprouting, freezing and thawing, mating and giving birth, etc. Liturgy as skeleton Think about the human body. Liturgy gives us a skeletal structure to stand with, and it's not just some new made-up thing that hasn't been tested. It is tried and tested and still standing. It has helped in this way since the beginning. It is an ancient Oak. This, I think, is what we're catching hold of. Our eyes are open. Our noses are alert. We see and smell something that will give us what we do not have. A liturgical lifestyle As we re-examine the mode of our active Christian lives, we are discovering, it seems, the real value of a liturgical lifestyle, not only the trappings of liturgical worship. We are finding, once again, the real spiritual formation that happens in the context of close Christian community, and we are finding ways of living that out in the midst of "real life." The monastic life is not merely a life of quiet and solitude, although there are elements of that within it. It is a liturgical lifestyle - a life of "spiritual work" that is done by a community together. We are coming to see "discipleship" as less of an individual "me & Jesus" deal, and more as something that happens in the context of community - a community of those traveling this common journey together, for a long time. And this liturgical lifestyle is being rediscovered as something legitimately formational. So, this is what I mean by the longhaul life of the community. We cannot live as communities of faith who are dependent on the newest, coolest thing that comes down the pike. We can't sustain a transformative life together by merely "hanging out" - doing whatever, whenever, wherever. It has no skeleton. It eventually falls to the ground. Liturgy (and at least to some significant degree I mean the liturgy that is old, which has been lived in since the Church began) is our stable skeletal structure. It is a compass. It acts as a rudder in a vast, open ecclesiastical ocean. It is a pattern of one step after another, together, toward a common goal. It will get boring. It will seem repetitive and sometimes dry to many. And it will form you, straighten your crooked limbs. It will act, spiritually, like physical therapy does for the body. Longhaul. Steady. 2 Comments: Alan, thank you for some new metaphors for liturgical considerations. I wonder what the event was where you presented this recently, and what the reactions were? I would almost assume that most who heard your presentation were in agreement, they probably attended because they already thought along those lines. Hey Richard - glad it was helpful. The event was a United Methodist District Pastors retreat. My friend is a Pastor there. They have the retreat every year and invite different guests in to talk on different subjects. This year it was me. There were about 16-17 of us there.  
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