Sacramental Living

I read “Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy” by Mark Galli yesterday. Quick read. This slim volume would be a great primer for discussion and understanding in local churches that are reclaiming a sense of mystery and wonder through the Christian liturgy.

I especially think of my vocational setting. Individualistic, consumeristic America; specifically a bit south of “Bible Belt” territory (and closer to the ocean). For those in a parish who might ask “Why do we receive Holy Communion every week?”, or “Why do we stand for the reading of the Gospel text?”, or “Why do we light so many candles?”, or “Why do we extend our hands for the Blessing?”, etc., this book is a good starting place for conversation.

In my faith community, we are attempting to reclaim corporate worship as the place and time we simply worship God and are shaped, formed to go about loving and serving. We believe the work of the people gathered is to let the liturgy (gathering, word, sacrament, sending) be the shaping and forming means.

If you use a liturgical format in your worship (for example: God calls, we gather; God speaks, we listen and respond; God acts, we give thanks; God sends, we go) this book should serve as a necessary touchstone for reaching some sense of communal understanding and appreciation.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
How do you experience the liturgy in your local church worship?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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Couple days ago I read “Selling Out the Church: The Dangers of Church Marketing” by Philip D. Kenneson and James L. Street.

I highly recommend this book for any pastor with the firm conviction that form and content cannot be separated, who is also struggling with the outside pressures of church growth marketing agendas.

The authors pose the question “Can the market-driven church remain Christ’s church?” The answer comes scripturally and theologically as a resounding “No.”

The reason is that marketing is a concept of self-interested exchange, but Christianity is a concept of gift.

This book elucidates my belief that the ideology of “responsiveness” to felt needs (aka, church marketing) essentially reduces the church to a quivering mass of availability. Yet, Christ in scripture clearly intends the church to be a journey of people embodying Christ’s Gospel and the kingdom of God.

One of the gems from the book:

“You can’t market a community that is called to engage in such things as truth-telling, forgiveness, hospitality to strangers, self-sacrifice, and love of one’s enemies.”

It is a rule of life for my faith community that our vocation is to live in a way that demands our peculiar way of being be understood through experience. As in the book, marketing the church wholly undercuts and sidesteps this mission.

SO TELL ME SOMETHING:
Have you read the book?  What are your thoughts on church marketing?

——

Brian Niece
www.brianniece.com
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