DIVINEY FAMILY: Cascadia Worship and the Arts

Nat and the family came over this weekend. We had a Friday evening/ Saturday conference on worship and the arts. Or should I say art as worship? Or maybe worship as life? It gave me a lot to think about and I think there was at least a small takeaway from every session I sat through. Some speakers will have me pondering through the spring. First of all, the real draw for Nat and I was when we saw that Sara Groves would be the worship leader for the event. She is a gifted songwriter that knows how to exhort in the gentlest most beautiful way. It was a VERY small group compared to most conferences I've attended and probably the most interesting thing about it was the complete open-endedness of it. For example the first evening the gentleman that spoke did a wonderful job of talking about how liturgy is formative to who you are as a person and how architecture, art, worship and other aspects of church affect how you can "close down" or "open" the style and flow of worship. But then he didn't tell you what to do with it. Most events I attend for worship have a pretty specific game plan and way to implement said plan. This was more like take whatever you wanted, be inspired or not, and act or not in whatever way seems appropriate to you. It was actually very nice to be challenged to do the actual thikning. "How do I want to apply this?" I kept asking myself.
Something else unique about this event was the lack of the standard worship team. It was just Sara on the piano and a friend of hers singing with her. In a church designed for accoustics I was a little bit in heaven as we sang old hymns and quiet contemporary choruses in beautiful harmony. There was obviously many musicians in the room and there was no lack for parts. It reminded me of my youth at Grace Bible when there was no fear to stop playing, indeed the playing of instruments was always secondary to the voices. My how times have changed. Over all, much of the things shared were beyond the scope of my current church. Things like hosting Art Galleries, etc. I still came away with a lot of ideas and best of all I came away thinking about where I fit in the scheme of things. As I sat in the audience of contemplatives and listened to the academics use their big church words while still showing very sincere hearts I realized that I don't quite fit in their realm. Maybe someday but not yet. On the other hand even though I know that facilitating is a gift of mine I don't see myself being the "people person" at my church as far as standard organizing of ministries is concerned. It occurred to me that I could help Lucas and other people involved in anything that touches on art life at church. Maybe I could share ideas that are a little outside the box that bring the church together. An example that I thought was so great that was given was the idea of blowing up a local map of the greater Seattle area. Many small churches in the area do not feel they have much impact and most people have a disconnect about their place of work being somewhere they experience worship but isn't worship a way of life? So the idea is that everyone puts a pin in their homes and their places of work and the main roads it takes to get there. Then you step back and you suddenly realize what a huge impact your church is having as people go out on a weekly basis to jobs, schools, etc. and live lives of worship that have an impact on the community. Suddenly it's not just the one dot located at I-90 Community Church but an entire urban and suburban area.
Something else I will be prayerfully considering is what we can accomplish in the new church build that is planned. Right now, BEFORE the walls are changed and the building is added on is the time to consider what the artisans in our congregation can bring to the table to enhance our worship space and bring glory to God through the visual arts. Things that bring life and unity to the body that meets within it's walls. I love the idea of a massive chalk-board wall that has different prompts each week like "this week God has done for me ___________" or "This week God wants me to _________" , or "I see God in ____________" and then see the testimonies and thoughts that come from the people I sit by but don't really know. I want to know and love my church more and more but there is precious little ways to do that outside of a small group which in and of itself only helps me know a few families at a time. I see so much potential but the scariest part is probably that it requires the people at my church to participate! I'm not particularly artsy, though I am musical, but I am an extrovert and I find myself game to try things that others might not be. Is that a good excuse though not to broaden our perspective of the possibilities available on a given Sunday morning? Simple things like serving someone communion could be a way to overcome what we call the "Seattle Chill" factor. I am looking forward to prayerfully putting forward some ideas like this in the future. One of the things that stood out to me that was shared at the conference was that we MUST get congregations to do more of the heavy lifting. Yes Lord! I so agree with this.
Since we all had some free time Friday morning I decided we would take Benjo down to The Old Cannery before he was too old to enjoy the trains. I've posted on The Old Cannery before, it's one of my favorite places in the Seattle Area. A massive furniture store filled with trains and quirky history and taxidermied animals, what more could you want? A candy counter with homemade fudge you say? Well you're in luck they have that too. I wasn't sure how Daniel liked the idea but I think he liked the trains and he was totally checking out some of the pieces to see how they were made. The wheels were turning, maybe Nat has some new furniture in her future. Of course I fell in love with some of the most expensive dining chairs they had. Thanks Old Cannery. . . . . .

This was actually at a store called Lucky Home, Nat was trying to talk me into these bookshelves because she knows that I am dying for them to go on either side of my fireplace.