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When many in faith communities refer to worship, their thoughts turn to organized gatherings and programs. We might say, "Are you attending worship today?" Christian pastors are among the most common to use this terminology. Like spiritual leaders of every faith, we carry the responsibility of planning and leading worship gatherings. Often our lives are framed and weeks dominated by "worship" preparations.
But worship is truly much, much broader. Worship is a posture of living with a perpetual awareness of God's presence as a gracious Creator and sustainer of life. We like to describe worship as rhythm, rule, and practice.
As rhythm and rule, an attitude of worship defines all aspects of our living from the most mundane to the great moments of sacred experience. Worship shapes our daily decisions (like how we manage our time or what we purchase and where these purchases are made), our conversations and relationships, and critical life choices (Where will l live? What is my vocation? Who is my essential community?).
Worship as practice embraces all practices that support this meta-view of worship. Our community seeks to explore many diverse practices that draw us into greater understanding of our finite nature and the gracious and loving infinitude of God. We, like most Christian communities, do have regular worship events. But we hope that the events are just a component of our communities' effort to live in a posture of worship.
We are a sacramental community, eagerly worshipping with the Eucharist and baptism. These historical, Christian rituals connect us to the historical narrative of Christianity and build a community element to worship that is created by Jesus' agenda rather than our own construction, vision, or creativity. Since the Christian church has never reached consensus on the practice of the sacraments, our celebrations of these sacraments will also be diverse. Worship, broadly defined, has an intimate connection with community formation and mission. We hope that our acts of community formation will reflect that we are a worshipping community and that our worship is guided by the passions and characteristics of God. Missional activity is in itself a form of worship. Our worship of discerning the purposes of God, embracing our created status, and accepting our role as God's community in creation should guide our missional expressions.
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