Mark Pierson
Mark Pierson is the Executive Director of Urban Seed (otherwise known as the Receptionist).
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An intuitive introverts guide...14 World Vision Staff Day Worship
October 05, 2005
This was the other event that brought me back early from Blackstump. A couple of months ago I was asked to put together worship for 350 World Vision Australia staff at their annual Staff Day. This is part of an international day of prayer by the World Vision Partnership.
I don’t like doing ‘exhibition’ worship and would normally have declined this kind of invitation, but a friend asked me to do it, and the resourcing was unusually good!
It was obvious that some kind of stations based worship was what I would do. Some parameters arose early on in the planning – the venue wouldn’t allow use of any candles or flames, so no incense either, and it was too small to get all 350 staff in at one time so two ‘sittings’ would be necessary.
I couldn’t have put it together without outside help. I tossed around my ideas for stations with Pete in Christchurch and Cheryl in Melbourne. Anne drove me around Melbourne picking up gear too big to take on trams (I don’t have a car here due to nowhere to park in the inner city where I live). Then they all turned up to set up and pack out (packing out is when you discover who your friends really are). World Vision staff were excellent in helping to get gear together.
While it was a huge amount of work, it was also (in retrospect) a lot of fun. The responses from punters (probably 348 of them had never experienced anything like it) were very positive, tears flowed for some and significant encounters with God were had by many. So that made it worthwhile.
The stations list went something like this:-
Sacred Space: Welcome Home
World Vision Australia Staff Day 2005.
Overall Theme: God cares for all people regardless of their situation, ethnicity, history. World Vision staff are the agents of Gods care and concern and work with God to bring about God’s purposes in a diverse world. We need to be travelling close to God to do this work.
Aim: to have all participants reflect on and interact with issues relating to their work and personal spirituality and sense of mission.
Stations List:
1. Communion Bread Station:
Concept: self serve bread stations, low so people are encouraged to kneel. Cushions around. Use trestle top with paper cloth over.
Instructions:
On the night he was betrayed, Jesus was eating a meal with his close followers when he took the bread that they were eating, gave thanks for it, broke it and said, ‘This is my body given for you; eat it and remember me.’
Remember what Jesus has done out of love for you, be thankful and encounter the risen, transforming Christ.
Reflect on Jesus’ betrayal by Judas, by those he was helping, by the community that didn’t understand who he was and what he was doing…
Have you ever felt betrayed? Have you been a betrayer? Do you know of someone somewhere in the world who has been betrayed? Use a lipstick to comment or draw on the tablecloth if you want to.
What do you want to say to betrayers? Use a lipstick to comment or draw on the tablecloth if you want to.
Know that your are forgiven by God if you have betrayed.
2. Communion Cup Station:
Concept: self-served water station.
Instructions:
Water is life and death. Christ is death and life.
“In the same way that he had taken the bread, after the meal with his close followers, Jesus took what they had been drinking and said, ‘This is my life-blood, given for you. A symbol of the new relationship I’m making possible between you and God.’“ Drink and encounter the risen Christ. Be refreshed and renewed.
When you have emptied your cup fill it with potting mix and plant a seed. Take this away with you as a reminder of the new life that Christ is growing in you.
3. Anger Station:
Concept: Tall 3 sided plinth/s that people write on with big felt pens, or spray stencil.
Instructions: What in your world, or the world around you, makes you angry?
Write, draw, make a stencil and spray, words or images that describe what you want to say to God at this time, or what God might want to say to you.
4. Confession Station:
Concept: Table running multiple small televisions with loop from Piano movie. Tvs in ‘campfire’ circle. 3-4 large black plastic bins water filled. People drop stones in as symbol of letting go and moving on.
Instructions: Pick up a stone and hold it tight in your hand. Watch the video loop for a while – at least once through the sequence. Reflect on what you might have to let go of or reduce in priority in order to move forward in your relationship with Jesus.
Drop your stone into the bucket as a symbol of your resolve to move forward. Walk away.
5. Frustration Station:
Concept: large bowls of water with different coloured corks floating. More corks around. Corks painted variety of colours on one end.
Instructions: Try to hold the corks down under the water with your hands. Reflect on how difficult this is to do. One always pops out somewhere. Working to overcome poverty and abuse, to deal with crises, is a relentless, often thankless, seemingly impossible task. Give thanks for the people who ‘hold down the corks’ with you.
Choose a cork that describes how you feel about the work that you do and place it on the large letters ‘WVA’. (Maybe in chalk on low platform nearby?)
6. Prayer Station:
Concept: people make prayer sticks (black with uv sensitive powder on end) as symbols of their prayers for self or others or a situation. Have a large pile of sand eg 2.5 x .75 metre ellipse 40mm deep, on stage at front edge so people can access it from the hall floor. Uv lamps.
Instructions: Take a stick and write on it what or who you wish to pray for. Dip the end in glue then roll that end in the powder. Plant your prayer stick in the sand as a symbol of your prayer for yourself, another person, or a situation.
7. Silent-Speaking God Station: (done in seats)
Concept: see below.
Instructions: Read through the text several times and listen for what God might be saying to you. Write that down.
I Kings 19/11-13 (New International Version) plus additions.
The Lord said (to Elijah), "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.
After the fire came an atomic bomb, but the Lord was not in the atomic bomb.
After the atomic bomb came a tsunami, but the Lord was not in the tsunami.
After the tsunami came a terrorist attack, but the Lord was not in the terrorist attack.
After the terrorist attack came a war on terror, but the Lord was not in the war on terror.
And after all this came a gentle whisper.
When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.
Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
8. Barbed Wire Fence Station:
Concept: A barbed wire fence section in centre of the space. Say 4 strands running 5 metres long and 2 metres high. News and magazine photos and articles about refugees, detention, imprisonment etc are attached to both sides of the fence by cable ties.
Instructions: Read an article or study a picture that attracts your attention in some way. Think about the circumstances of the people involved. Feel any injustice. What is needed to make a difference in this situation? Offer your prayers.
Cable ties are used as handcuffs in many parts of the world. Attach your cable tie to the fence as a symbol of your prayer and identification with the suffering of those detained falsely and unjustly.
Take away a barbed wire off-cut ‘cross’ to remind you that Jesus has shared that suffering and gives the promise that ultimately fences and barbed wire will be torn down. Carry the ‘cross’ in your hand.
9. Scent of Gratitude Station:
Concept: People contribute the elements of pot pourri to a central bowl as a symbol of their desire to thank God for something that has happened or is happening to them personally or through a work project. Ring of fairy lights around central bowl.
Instructions: Psalm 141/1,2 says ‘O Lord, I call to you; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to you. May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.’ Drop a handful of one or more elements of the pot pourri into the central bowl. As you do, reflect on something that you’re grateful for. Give thanks to God for that.
I have some good pix but no idea how to upload them. Maybe later.
Mark Pierson October 05, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com )
Posted by markp at 06:56 AM | Comments (2)
An intuitive introverts guide...13 Blackstump Music and Arts Festival.
Six Urban Seeders went up to Campbelltown for this gig. We did six events between us and spent a lot of time talking with people about Urban Seed, mission, spirituality, emerging church and so on.
I led my usual seminar on the labyrinth (surely after five years of my doing it someone else should be able to by now?) which was well attended. I enjoyed doing it. I also curated one of the seven Sunday morning worship choices. Having done your typical alt. worship for the last six or seven years this time I stripped it right back and used elements of Urban Seed worship from the various gatherings we have through each week.
The only tech stuff was use of a data projector to deliver readings and songs. Full daylight. No video or ambient music. We were in a large corrugated iron shed that had the Mars Hill Café at one end. This would normally be closed during worship by decree of the festival organisers, but we asked the staff to stay open as part of our worship and hospitality.
Order of Service
1. Welcome and intro – This = combination of style of Monday morning Credo Gathering with people from the street, Tuesday evening Staff Prayers, and Sunday evening Urban Seed:church. Many of elements are common to all we do. Usually use printed words, or from memory, today for convenience we will use data projector.
2. Candle Lighting Ritual. (Text on screen.)
3. Songs: (No Intro – lyrics on screen) Gathering Song, Slow Down. accapella/hand drums/body percussion.
4. Bible Reading. (Text on screen.)
5. Credo Beatitudes ex Marcus PowerPoint
6. Discussion.
7. Communion – water/bread.
8. Prayers – candles and responsive ‘Lord Hear Us…’ (On screen) Use heating candles on the concrete floor)
9. Songs: Do Not Be Afraid, Heaven is My Home.
10. Benediction – ‘You are God’s servants…’ (Words on screen)
Very, very nice. Small group of people, mainly due to the other six worship events being promoted in the program and ours not!
Not much chance to reflect on what we had done, or to enjoy the company of others after as Ed picked me up to begin the journey back to Melbourne. I was disappointed to leave the sunshine and conversations behind, especially for more work.
Mark Pierson October 05, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com )
Posted by markp at 06:53 AM | Comments (1)
An intuitive introverts guide...12 What’s in a name?
I had an interesting and stimulating email from a friend in the USA today. He wanted to talk about the value or not of having a name for a new community of faith that he is part of.
John wrote…
“One discussion we’ve had (and are still having) is what to call our church. Just because churches ALWAYS have names, I suggested we DON’T have a name. (at least not until we’ve examined what interests a name serves).
What is the purpose of a name for a church? It certainly helps if you want to ‘market’ your church – but should we market it? It helps if you want a yellow page listing – but do you want a yellow page listing? It helps to have a name if you want to put a sign out front or a newspaper ad with service times – but do we want to put a sign out front? It strikes me that signs and yellow pages are all the trappings of the business world...and what do we communicate by appropriating those tools and that model into church? Does that tend to undermine or to honor our message?
If you want to boast about starting a church, it helps to have a name. If you want status because you belong to a cool church, it helps to have a name. If you want to develop an ego about being pastor of a certain church, the church will need a name.
With all these bad reasons to get a name, are there any good reasons?
Some say you need a name to reach people, to get people to come. After all, without a name, how do people find about the church and attend? The answer: they are invited. Personally. Its not a closed club or cliché. Everyone is invited. To “church.” Without a name, the invitation would tend to be a longer, more meaningful conversation. You would have to describe what you are inviting them to in a descriptive sentence, instead of with use of an arcane or trendy name. Most important, without a name, a sign and listing, the invitation could only be personal, which could actually be cool.
Here’s why: over time, our church members will grow more connected, intimate, and vulnerable. Shared trust will develop, and this level of trust will enrich the times of worship and fellowship. Brand new people showing up will tend to lower the trust/vulnerability level, because they are unknowns. Especially brand new people who are just dropping in because they saw a sign, or a newspaper ad. But a new person who was personally invited by another member is a totally different dynamic. There is some transfer of trust, since people know that the new person was invited by John, and that invitation came out of a relationship with me, and that can be trusted.
It seems that every concern about having a name can be reduced to an interest in ‘growing’ the numbers of the church, but at a certain cost. You may grow, but you’ve already started acting a little like a business. You may grow, but you will tend toward an audience of superficial consumers.
All this led me to ask what they called churches in the very beginning. Did they come up with cool names like ‘QUEST’ ?
I’m not a scholar on these matters, but I think they just called themselves the church at Ephesus or the church at Phillipi, etc. etc.
So we could call ourselves ‘the church in Blacktown’ but that might sound incredibly pretentious and self-righteous. There are lots of churches in Bl;acktown. (when every church has its own distinct name even within one city, does that help us think of the church as unified or fractured?)
So what do I call it when I personally invite someone? I would say “we’re part of the church in Blacktown.”
So there you have it. What do you see as pros and cons of name or no-name?
Me? I’m still thinking about it.
Mark Pierson October 05, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com )
Posted by markp at 06:51 AM | Comments (2)
An intuitive introverts guide to starting a church 11.
25 September, 2005.
This has been a big month for us. Dave Tomlinson (The Post-evangelical, Holy Joe’s, Vicar, London) was with us tonight. He spoke gorgeously about meeting God in the ordinary things of life. 27 adult punters turned up. While Urban Seed church will never be about having a succession of high profile preachers advertised to pull in the crowds, the advantage of us having people like Dave through is that it gives us something to promote on the back of. It’s a bit more difficult to advertise an ‘ordinary Sunday’, although we do.
Having stuff like we have this month (SONAR, Dave, Tim Costello next Sunday) also helps to create ‘the vibe’ we want around Urban Seed church (that name is a mouthful. It may have to go.) It is much easier to create an ethos by doing particular things that support that ethos than it is by just talking about it.
02 October, 2005.
A killer service for me. I flew back early from the Blackstump Festival out of Sydney in order to put it together. Marcus was at Stump with several other Urban Seeders so we were always going to be a bit thin on the ground anyway. So I finished curating worship at Stump, trained to the airport, flew to Melbourne, taxi-ed direct to the venue and set up for worship.
Virginia did an excellent call to worship using headlines from magazines that we selected and lay at the foot of the cross. Tim Costello talked with us about the ‘love your enemies’ passage. Particularly poignant in the light of further Bali bombings the day before. Surprisingly, with four regulars at Stump, 13 people turned up, including a couple of new people.
I’m heading away on holiday for a couple of weeks tomorrow.
Mark Pierson October 05, 2005. www.urbanseed.org
(This column also appears at www.sacramentis.com )
Posted by markp at 06:48 AM | Comments (0)
