Absentee Monday

Yesterday our whole family was absent from New Life and present with Common Church in Boston.  It was  a little odd for each of us in our own right to be away from our physical and spiritual home.  And yet it was a powerful reminder to me that, as much as I love what God is doing at New Life, he is also at work in other places, with other people who are doing the same work of creating community and advancing the message of the gospel into the world.

Rather than giving a long discourse on the differences between New Life and Common Church, I'll just bullet point some observations I made before, during, and after my time there that may (or may not) shape some of what we do in the future.  These are in no particular order, and none of them should be taken as criticism of either church or its people :)

• Everyone who had a part in the service - announcements, closing prayer, music team, preacher - had a "walk through" of the service before hand.  They practiced making the transitions, made sure mics were live when they needed to be, music was playing when it was supposed to be, videos were done at the right time.  They were very thorough and, as a guest walking into the situation, it made me feel very comfortable that I would know what to do and when to do it.  I think that probably translates over into how a guest of the church itself would feel. 
• They started on time.  For those of you who have been living on "New Life" time for the last umpteen years, you know that this is distinctly different from us.  I'm considering a "New Year's resolution" churchwide that we'll start when we say we're starting.  But, that may change.
• They had a time of greeting and welcoming similar to what we do - lasting about 5 minutes.  It was friendly and warm and I enjoyed saying "hi" to different people.  It was nothing like our greeting time in that it was much quieter and more subdued however :)  I personally think a big part of the difference is that we have had so many years of building community that it's now a natural overflow of who we are as a church, and they just haven't had the time to build all of that up yet, being just a year old.
• Their order of service put one song up front, followed by greeting time, announcements and right into the message.  They saved the bulk of singing (another 3 songs) for after the message.  It felt odd to go right into the message for me - we were maybe 15 minutes into the whole service at that point, if that - but I did like the extended time of worship after.  I felt like it set a great tone for reflecting on the Scriptures and the music was done in such a way that you felt you had the time and space there to respond to what God was speaking to your own heart.
• All of their communication was simple and clean - no clutter anywhere.  Connection cards were very basic and to the point - just a name and email address.  I liked it and think it probably fits perfectly with their culture.  I personally think it's valuable for us to get the mailing address because it allows us to send our guests a personal note at the beginning of the week, and in an age of virtual communication, I think a handwritten card means more than ever.
• Teaching to a group of people that you don't know very well is very, very hard!  I take for granted that I'm so familiar with our crowd that I know the way the sermon is going to flow, how they'll respond (for the most part) and how I can connect with them.  I felt like I spent 10-15 minutes yesterday just figuring out how to connect, and hopefully was able to do it well enough that the message spoke to someone's heart there.
• Last note.  Last night as I laid in bed with each of my kids to talk about the day and pray for them I asked each of them what they thought of the service, and what they remembered of the message.  I was shocked when Jacob essentially repeated the flow of the conversation back to me, even remembering that there were 6 commandments Jesus talked to the young man about (Matthew 19:16-22 if you want to read my text).  Aislinn had it nailed as well, and it just reminded me that kids can probably absorb more than we think they can, and even if we don't think they're paying close attention - they're probably getting more than we imagine!

I'll be back at Common Church next week, so Jason Ferando will be teaching one more Sunday at New Life.  I'll finish up Conversations with Jesus on the last Sunday of November, and then we're diving right into a four week Christmas series.  This year we're going to talk about the idea that in Christmas we hear the promise that everything changes, but the reality is that everything changes in very, very small ways.  It's my hope that we'll see this Christmas season as preparation for personal and congregational change, and focus on the small ways that change happens in us every day.