abbotsford.org.uk

When there is no big idea

A group of us have just come back from Greenbelt which for me has always been the leading edge of the church. It is where I'm most comfortable within the church because ideas area allowed, radical thinking is encouraged, questions are there to be asked and followed through and worship isn't predictable.

But this year, none of that seemed to happen. Perhaps I went to all the wrong things but in worship we were doing the same things we did 10 years ago, there was nothing fresh. Even at the morning eucharist we sang the same hymns we did last year. The only place I was encouraged and got new ideas was Wild Goose.

Very few of the speakers had any big new idea, there wasn't a lot of new radical thinking, no new example of faith communities. Everything was safe and pedestrian.

But then maybe that is where the whole church is at the moment, even Greenbelt: there is no new big idea. Maybe we're all so scared of the future none of us are daring to dream a new dream when this is just the time to dream such a dream. Is this really where we are?

Here is...

...a small thing for a call to worship on Sunday. For us it is communion Sunday as well as a day where we welcome back folk who are returning after some away from the weekly ritual of worship. Clearly as each stanza is spoken the item referred to is set on the table

Here is:
a table for the hungry (table cloth)
waiting to feed those starved of righteousness

Here is:
bread for the broken (bread)
a banquet for those whose hunger is real

Here is:
wine for the doubter (goblet)
to taste and see the journeys God sets free in every question

Here is:
a word for the silenced (bible)
that proclaims a place by the right hand of God

Here is:
a light for the imprisoned (candle)
that streaks through the darkness and can never be put out

Here is:
a place for everyone (cross)
a welcome that says, “You have come home.”