Community of Hope, United Church of Christ

“They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.” Acts 2

With the launch of our new 8:30am Sunday breakfast and “emerging church” worship experience, I’ve received numerous inquiries about what we mean by “emerging church” worship. As you would expect, that phrase has different meanings in different contexts.

Generally speaking, “emerging church” comes from a desire to re-connect with the worship styles used by the church that emerged after the death of Jesus. For some, it is a connection to ancient spiritual practices (labyrinths, chants, ‘mystery’ etc.), while, for others, it is an attempt to re-create the sense of community that is referenced in Acts 2:42-47. At Community of Hope, we fall into that latter category. With, of course, variations that make it uniquely Community of Hope.

Some of those variations come from the business world, while others come from the world of education. Two of the primary theories that affect our “emerging church” worship here are the “open meeting” model, and the Sudbury education model.

In the “open meeting” model, there are two main agreements that we choose to copy into our worship format. The first agreement is that everyone who needs to be present, IS present. We find this in total agreement with a central Christian belief from Paul that the Spirit is constantly bringing together the gifts of the community to address the needs of the community, all with the aim of furthering the kin-dom of God.

The second agreement is that it is your responsibility, as a participant, to engage in activities as long as they are adding value to your life, or you are adding value to the discussion. Once neither of those is true, it is your responsibility to find another outlet for your creativity and desires. Therefore, we offer multiple, simultaneous ways for people to encounter the Divine in our gatherings. Again, this has its roots in our Christian understanding that not only has the Spirit granted individuals with gifts, but, more to the point, again according to Paul, the Spirit calls us to use those gifts in a responsible fashion to build up the community.

From the Sudbury education model, we get ideas on how to incorporate an understanding that we have different learning styles and different ways of experiencing the world. Specifically, we use our “emerging church” worship to encourage people to find their own unique way to encounter God by engaging in different options during worship. If you need to sit in a corner and pray, or stand up and walk around a bit, or work at a table full of craft supplies, go right ahead! If there is a way you need to experience the Divine and we don’t offer it, then we encourage you to find someone else to join you in creating something new.

Our typical “emerging worship” service at Community of Hope has a very broad over-arching format which allows for weekly variations:

Breakfast
Quiet time of transitioning into worship
Presentation of topic
“Table time” (share our stories and thoughts on the topic)
Each table shares a summary of their conversations
Closing comments

Our topics are suggested by those in attendance. Ideally, the topics will be suggested in advance, and whoever is leading the presentation that week (usually our pastor) will take some time to research the theological and scriptural underpinnings for the discussion and share them as part of the presentation. After the presentation, people gather into smaller discussion (or action) groups around the same tables where we shared breakfast and discuss that day’s topic (or “do” something in response to the topic). Then, we gather together again and each table shares the highlights of how they shared or experienced the topic. The presenter then uses the results from each of the discussions, as well as the theological basis of the topic, to provide some brief summary commentary and then dismisses the gathered community to go practice living what we have been discussing.

For example, at our first gathering, the topic was “what do we want to do each week during our ‘emerging church’ worship?” I spoke about the early church (Acts 2) and encouraged people to think about specific ways we could do that each week. Groups chatted among themselves and one group spent the time wandering around our Neighborhood Garden. We came back together and people shared what they envisioned in our time together. I took the highlights from each group’s discussion and drew parallels back to what the early church did in Acts 2 and asked people to keep thinking about ways in which we can live into that model.

The goal of our gathering is to be always changing, deeply organic, and responsive to the specific needs of those gathered. This means that there is no detailed planning for our worship, no specific points to be made, no pre-selected learning objectives; the people that gather that day set the agenda and, depending on the gifts the Spirit has brought together that day, also determine how we will address our individual and communal spiritual needs.

So, if you’re interested in a new and yet ancient way of being and building community; a new and ancient way of living into an understanding of the Divine; a new and ancient way of being “companions on a journey,” then we invite you join us on Sunday mornings at 8:30am.