Church anyone?

So, we had another Taize service and this time potluck to follow. So far, this thing is going well and it has really been a beautiful service each time. We are getting this thing streamlined and we want to keep food a part of it. In fact, partly due to the holiday weekend preceding everything we had a lot of food to share which pleased me greatly because I had no idea what was going to show up on the table.
Because it is so lovely, I can see this taize service working as a attractive invitation to people to stop by and check us out. Still, is it church? Everyone there seems to understand it as a church service, but how is it connecting with them--particularly since we've only done two of these things. The last thing I want to see is another pretty church service unattached to anything in the outside world. We need more, but what and how to introduce it? Bible study as it was is over, and that's ok--we aren't supposed to be "bible study;" we are supposed to be "church" but I get the sense that church still means the institution for many people. As my friend Chad told me, this sort of thing is easier to do with non-Christians than with those who have grown up in the church. I have to say that in my limited experience, I have to agree. The one individual I have been working with who comes from no church background whatsoever has really embraced this somewhat emergent model of church. He immediately thinks "outside of the box" because he was never in a box to begin with.
And I do think that much of this actually requires us to think outside of all boxes. Otherwise, how are we owing our faith, how our we living out our baptisms? Everyone I talk to has some opinion as to what is wrong with the church, but they don't seem to have much of an imagination when it comes to what might be a new way of envisioning church. I repeatedly tell people that it is not about being right, but rather it is about being faithful. So much of what I come across when it comes to people's church baggage has to do with doctrine, or dogma as they usually put it. But while they can articulate this displeasures they have no language for doing things otherwise (perhaps its because its easy to bitch?) And I think it is more simple than they believe.
James Alison has put it well and put it simply when he writes: the really hard work in Christian theological discourse lies in the ecclesiological sphere: creating Church with those who we don't like. Or, to put it another way; as a Catholic, the only way I could conceivably be right in what is recognizably a new theological and moral position is if I show that being right is nothing to do with me, and how it includes an account of how we have all been wrong together in which I too am on the side of those with whom I disagree as someone undergoing a change of heart along with them.
We aren't "right;" we are striving for something beyond ourselves (like, God)--that is what it means to be church. This is what I'm trying to get across to people.

Another thought...

With the Taize, this little group seems to be going through some changes. What we've been doing so far we've been referring to as bible study and we've been meeting for a while now and we've seen various people come and go. Over the last several months we have been simply getting together for dinner and discussion of the bible. Now, though we are still tiny (very tiny) I think we are ready to be something a bit more and I think we have come to a place to see ourselves as a kind of community. Bible study is over (at least as it has been happening) and we have decided to stop calling it "bible study." While a name for the group is a little beyond us right now, we may be at the beginning of moving in a specific direction, and a different kind of energy may be emerging.

I can't really say where we are heading yet, how long it will take, and what it will look like in the end. I have some ideas of where I'd like it to go, but it isn't all up to me either. But, it is going somewhere and I'm excited to see where exactly. As one person said, "We've birthed this baby, now lets christen it."

Sounds good to me.

One More Taize Picture

Steve with violin in the dark. Not the best picture, but kinda fun.

Taize

Well, at the end of April we had our first Taize worship experience and it was lovely. We again used the empty storefront on Hamilton Street and had about 12 people attend. We did this at 9:30 at night and lit the place up with candles. Lots of candles. We had a small altar set up against the wall and inserted Holy Communion in the middle of the service. For those of you who aren't familiar with Taize, check it outhere.

Basically, this is a contemplative prayer service that is sung. You sing each prayer slowly and you repeat them in order to center, to open yourself up to an experience of God. We sung a few prayers, had a reading from the gospel, a sung psalm and then communion--and the prayers here were also sung. We had some silence and continued singing with the Lord's prayer. Steve, our musician, lead us with his violin and did a marvelous Job. We, as a group, had never sung together and I didn't know everyone in the room even. We did a wonderful job so, we're going to do it again.

Here's a picture of Julie, who is now off in Vietnam serving the world, lighting the candles.