“Worship is primary theology,” writes Kathleen Norris. “It is also home, which is, as the saying goes, the place where they have to take you in. There is no one who is not welcome in God’s house, and nothing can alter that fact. When people come together to worship, they come as God knows them, with their differences, their wildly various experiences and perspectives. And by some miracle they sing and listen and pray as one.” 

It is some miracle, isn’t it? That we gather each week in those pews, and people who prefer one name for God pray with people who would choose another, and people who are moved by one style of music sing with people who gravitate towards a different style, and people whose spirituality is best expressed in silence share hugs and offer praise with people who best love God through dancing.

And it is some miracle that with all the pain in our world, people still gather. In worship we do not always speak or pray or sing the world as it is, but the world we hope for, the world we believe God intended. It is a sign of resistance to violence and hopelessness that we continue to come together and proclaim that world, through our worship and through the work it nourishes us for.

Because of all of this – because we bring our whole selves, and because we come from different places and various experiences and myriad theologies – worship is best reflective of who we are and who we believe God to be and what we hope for when we plan it together. As a staff, we love putting together services. We get to think about what songs and scriptures complement each other, what themes are really on our minds these days, what additional elements might help people experience the sacred in new ways. It’s such good work, we want to extend an invitation for others who are interested to join us.

Would you like to participate? If so, and if you can commit to meeting for two hours every other month, please let us know. We look forward to working with you to create Sunday worship!

Erika (erika.fbcmac@gmail.com)

JP (jpbierly@gmail.com),

Sean (sean.fbcmac@gmail.com)