A tale of two Sundays

A week ago I visited another church in the area (probably not the one that you might be thinking of). I had just spent a week at high school work camp and wanted to be fed spiritually with no responsibilities in an casual environment. A lot of my friends go to this church and God is doing great things there. I don't agree with a couple of their denomination's teaching, but I still do agree with most everything that they do. Their service was possibly the most creative worship service that I have ever been to. I wore a t-shirt and shorts because that is more of what is the norm there. I sat on a stool eating popcorn (that the church had provided) during the service. There was the first good use of a beach ball in a spiritual event that I had ever seen. The theme of the service was joy. The beach ball was tossed around while a secular song (with words slightly changed to tie into the message) was played. There were banners that expressed the theme of joy on the walls all around the room. There was a great discussion that the senior Pastor had with the kids that tied into the theme. The children were given the opportunity to blow bubbles. I love blowing bubbles! Instead of a full length sermon at the end, there were two Pastors taking turns making points. It was like mini tag team sermons separated by God songs, a video, a prayer exercise and talk with the children. The prayer exercise was very cool. Along the wall at the front of the sanctuary were banners that had the word joy on it in huge bubble letters. Near it was a bowl full of crayons. We were encouraged to grab a crayon and talk to God as we wrote or drew on the sign. I grabbed a red crayon and drew fire on the inside of the letter J, telling God that I wanted to be spiritually on fire for Him. I drew a trinity symbol on the outside of the letters, telling God that I wanted to lead people in creative ways that are "outside the box." I want to learn about creativity from the author of Creativity-God Himself. The Pastors of that church were speaking about how God has expressed joy in creating. The way that they explained it was that God has child-like joy. Children often times when they are getting tossed up in the air say, "do it again!" Children can enjoy the same video over and over. As we get older often times we enjoy life less and get frustrated with the monotony of life. Our sin "ages us" and we enjoy life less that what God intends us to do. One of the amazing things about God is that He can clean us up and make us new again. The Psalms say, "restore to me the joy of your salvation (51:12a)" I don't believe that God thinks, "I have already made millions of dandelions and I am annoyed to make one more." I believe that it is the opposite-that God takes joy in creating. I think we could learn so much in creativity and joy from seeing how God works. I want to help people experience God in creative ways.

I went to second service at Fairhaven Church yesterday. I was unfamiliar with many of the songs, but the words were still good. The songs tied in well with what we were doing and the flow of the worship experience. We took communion which is always powerful. The message from Kirk had a video, a personal story, great Biblical insight, and practical truths. It was not as creative as the church service I went to the week before(but neither had any other worship service I had ever been to), but it was still creative. I left not feeling like I had really worshiped. I began to think about why I was feeling this way. Our service was well put together and truth was proclaimed. The difference was that the week before I was not distracted and I came expecting God to teach me and to connect with Him way more than I did yesterday. Sometimes it becomes natural because of the rest of culture influencing us to come to church with a consumer mentality, asking"what will they do to meet my needs?" I believe that instead we should come to church with an attitude that says, "God I want to praise you, focus on you, learn about you, serve you, and glorify you." God is speaking all of the time, but we are not already ready to listen. Today God is still speaking and still inviting us to listen to Him.