I have since grown to love silence — and I need it to be a regular part
of my worship experience.
In the midst
of worship we experience the ambivalence of Christian community: its joy and its agony.
(This is why beauty is an important aspect
of the worship experience.)
For one thing, says Barbara Sholis, the seeker type
of worship experienced during the Alpha class would have ended once the course ended, and, that didn't seem fair to Alpha guests, who sing praise songs during the course.
I have also notice that some African Catholic theologians are calling for liturgical pauses that allow distinctive African forms of worship, which are more demonstrative and include dancing, to become part
of the worship experience.
For, without a knowledge
of the worship experience of the church throughout history, we are left without adequate tools for either critiquing contemporary worship or reconstructing a worship that is faithful to the Christian tradition.
Not exact matches
In my
experience as a
worship leader, there are two kinds
of silence in church.
Large group gatherings or
worship services are the place where the largest number
of people within a church are typically gathered in one place, and yet it's the least relational
experience and environment in a church.
From the opening
worship and other opportunities for
experiencing «aboriginal spirituality» to plenaries where calls for declarations
of «aboriginal sovereignty» over Australia were heard, the efforts to link the Assembly with the aboriginal cause were obvious.
We believe that if the law on collective
worship were repealed schools would risk losing this vital element
of shaping a community that reflects the full breadth
of human
experience.
Honestly, the * last * thing I want to be doing when I'm
experiencing what will be the last waking, conscious moments
of life, is being worried that I didn't
worship some imagined diety enough to buy me a ticket to some la - la land in the clouds.
@fimilleur from time to time mankind
experiences the presence
of God, there have been and continue to be events that testify to the presence
of Him.The multiple gods you continually point to have an unique difference from the God who first revealed His presence to ancient men i.e. the Hebrews.The particular gods you mention roman etc. are all man made and in many instances men themselves i.e. hercules, but even the ancient greeks realized the limitations
of their understanding and included an «unknown» God in their
worship structure.many cultures did likewise, having a glimpse
of God but not the fullness
of understanding that was given to the Jews.Whether or not «we» believe, does not alter the fact that God exists as an unique being, whether or not «we» acknowledge Him «we» will stand before Him.You do not choose to understand, but we are actually standing in His presence right now as He is much bigger than the doctrines and knowledge man ascribes to Him those things you find so questionable are the misconceptions and misrepresentations
of God made by men throughout history.
Religious fanatics are the source
of most evil today, and to use your
experiences as some kind
of support for
worshipping invisible and non-existent deities does a disservice to humanity.
It might not have the powerful, huge
worship moments
of other festivals, or the shared
experience of teaching, but Greenbelt acknowledges that an
experience of the holy is bigger than our expectations.
chris «Personal
experience» has been used over the centuries as evidence for lots
of things including fairies, UFO aliens, leprechauns, mermaids, ghosts, and... yes... all
of the other gods and goddesses we've
worshipped as well.
We were created to
experience the joy
of working and
worshipping alongside God.
Every true believer
of every one
of the thousands
of gods that humanity has
worshiped throughout history «
experienced» the truth about their gods.
It is a convincing testimony to the power
of Grace when someone is able to take criticism as you have; but fear
of such criticism can also have the affect
of making those just learning
of the depth
of Divine Love after years
of being taught to
worship a Cosmic Bully fearful
of sharing their own
experiences and expressions
of faith.
I am looking for authenticity, relevancy, no ovewhelming bands that take away from the
experience of worship, clergy who are willing to answer my hard questions, who understand doubt is a stepping stone to deepening my belief, who accept everyone as Jesus did (and we know Jesus was a rebel who accepted and led all sorts
of people), who don't feel the need to try to be hip, who speak about things without inserting politics, who are wiling to trash the temple to bring us back to the truth, who will step out
of the box
of comfort and be real.
Lynn and shellie... The whole
experience of worship... ie.
It is certainly easy to make ourselves and our interests the focus
of worship — our feelings,
experience, needs, even our growth.
I hadn't intended it to be a comprehensive piece on the faith
of millennials, just a commentary on how — generally, based on multiple surveys and my own
experience — millennials in the U.S. long for change in the Church that goes beyond
worship style and marketing.
Now, I have nothing against a
worship experience, for I have had some
of my most powerful, most moving, most transforming
experiences in the midst
of Christian
worship.
In
worship, we
experience anew the events
of salvation history in terms
of our own lives.
And I think that that's part
of the
experience and what they're looking for and why they're being drawn to more
worship bands and
worship - type events and gatherings.
«
Experience» should not be the aim
of services
of worship.
Robert Burns has a telling picture
of such a nightly
experience in his poem about the Scots peasant on Saturday, preparing for the observance
of the next day as the time for
worship and rest: The Cotter's Saturday Night.
Part
of our problem with
worship is that we ask for a particular
experience to designate as the «
worship experience.»
The factors
of chief importance in the development
of this theology were: (a) the Old Testament — and Judaism --(b) the tradition
of religious thought in the Hellenistic world, (c) the earliest Christian
experience of Christ and conviction about his person, mission, and nature — this soon became the tradition
of the faith or the «true doctrine» — and (d) the living, continuous, ongoing
experience of Christ — only in theory to be distinguished from the preceding — in
worship, in preaching, in teaching, in open proclamation and confession, as the manifestation
of the present Spiritual Christ within his church.
The new disciples, whether with Jewish or Gentile backgrounds, found in the Christian community not only a transforming
experience of divine grace but a sustaining
experience of human fellowship, and, in whatever other ways this fellowship functioned, it was bound to express itself in corporate
worship.
We have had theologies
of liberation,
of women's
experience,
of Judaism,
of culture,
of religion,
of the body,
of worship,
of humor,
of play,
of work,
of institutions,
of the church,
of the world, and so on, and so on.
We may not
worship the same gods, and we may have different concepts
of what deity is, but as a community we don't invalidate someone else's religious
experience.
Sunday
worship is also an event for those making a transition to life in the Spirit, since the trinitarian liturgy invites and provides for an explicit
experience of the presence
of the Godhead in the Spirit.
Much
of its recent membership gains have been drawn from charismatics who have left their former churches to find a place
of worship more compatible with their new
experience.
The Fourth Gospel offers, in my view, a most profound and moving meditation on the traditions used by the Synoptists, in the light
of the
experience of Christian believers who truly encountered the risen Lord in the
worship and witness
of the Church.
Like a groggy - eyed Jonah waking up from a nap in the dark hull
of a boat and giving incoherent answers to questions from desperate sailors caught in a life - threatening storm, we step out
of our churches still tingling from the goose - bump
worship experience, and give incoherent answers to our neighbors about the problems with their marriage, their wayward pregnant daughter, their drug - abusing son, and what God wants from them to fix it all.
Essentially the orthodox Church wanted to defend its conviction that in the person
of Jesus Christ and in the
experience of God present in Christian life and
worship, the believer was met by very God.
Worship services were designed to permit intense
experiences and expressions
of faith, even those that seem wild and unruly to outsiders.
Directly relating my Bible reading with my longing for relationship with Him... sitting alone in my living room, no
worship music, no lights, no bulletin, no 3 points... it was really a blessing, and felt a lot more like
worship than most
of my Sunday morning
experiences.
The prophetic inspiration flowed and it was one
of the best times
of worship I'd ever
experienced.
Hartshorne is able to unite thought and
experience for the believer because he has largely succeeded in developing a concept
of God that is internally coherent and externally adequate to religious faith in God as the proper object
of worship.
Murray shows that if people at the bottom
of the economic ladder have high work satisfaction, are married,
experience levels
of social trust, and engage in weekly
worship, they have exactly the same self - reported happiness as Belmont types who have the same qualities.
They offer the
experience of vital
worship, which draws people together into the praise
of God.
The longing to belong in some ultimate sense, to feel an at - homeness in the universe is satisfied for many in
worship which reawakens the awareness
of «the mystical unity which underlies all human life» (Cyril Richardson) This
experience is energizing, feeding, and healing; it overcomes the sense
of cosmic loneliness, the feeling expressed by a mental hospital patient: «I'm an orphan in the universe.»
God invented
worship and
experienced every form
of worship ad infinitum.
Worship space should make us aware of our senses, remove us from the ordinary experiences of life, and prepare us for worship and fell
Worship space should make us aware
of our senses, remove us from the ordinary
experiences of life, and prepare us for
worship and fell
worship and fellowship.
During this flight
of imagination he finds himself in the grips
of an inexplicable religious
experience, praising and
worshipping the maker
of the stars above.
To talk in that fashion is not to speak
of a kind
of meaningless re-enactment
of what went on in the creation; it is to speak
of a vital, living, and ongoing movement, where God knows and
experiences (if that word is, as I believe, appropriate to the divine life) that which has taken place, but knows it and
experiences it with a continuing freshness and delight — and, if what has taken place has been evil, with a continuing tinge
of sadness and regret — such as must be proper to the chief creative and chief receptive agency who is
worshiped and served by God's human children.
It concerns
worship, beliefs in the supernatural, prayer, the ecstasy
of religious
experience, and the escape
of meditative withdrawal.
As far as the former is concerned we find a considerable amount
of variableness in the nature, intensity, and color
of the unifying, basic religious
experience, shades or differences in theoretical (belief, myth, doctrine) and practical (
worship, activities) expression.