It is with great excitement that I announce that Dan Kimball, pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CA, conference speaker, and author of The Emerging Church, Emerging Worship, and , They Like Jesus, But Not the Church and co-author of Listening to the Beliefs of the Emerging Church, has agreed to be our keynote speaker for the Abandoned: Worship As Life Seminar on Saturday, September 27, 2008!
Dan will speak in four sessions on various issues such as the emerging church, emerging worship, the future of worship in the church, etc.
I must say that Kimball’s book, The Emerging Church, absolutely changed my life. It set me on a course of deconstruction and reconstruction in my ecclesiology and Emerging Worship did the same for my worship philosophy. It is an unbelievable honor to have him come.
If you remember, last year Sally Morgenthaler and Shaun Groves were with us. It was a time of great challenge and encouragement.
My vision for Abandoned remains focused on the emerging worship conversation and educating, encouraging, and spurring on MBU Worship Arts students, as well as the local church worship community. The mission for the event is:
1) Simply put, Romans 12:1. We are ‘abandoned to worship as life’ because we have been commanded to offer our bodies of living sacrifices. Living – as in all of the time. That means our spiritual act of worship, or our spiritual lifestyle, never ceases. It’s not a something we clock in to do when we go to church and then clock out. Because of the cross the ‘temple’ of worship is now our own hearts. We don’t go to church, we are the church. And that means worship can and should happen everywhere, including the church.
2) ‘Worship as life’ eludes to the idea that as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices, it impacts the people around us. This is the missional aspect of worship. In other words, as we personally worship God, we have a conversation, a connection, an intimate exchange of love between Father and child. After we’ve experienced this love in a time of worship, how could we not share the love we have been so freely given with others? Why wouldn’t we want those around us to experience what we have? If not, our worship has terminated on ourselves. We have to remember our salvation doesn’t end at the point we receive God’s free gift of grace. We have been saved to continue to redeem the world. So our worship should propel us outside the four walls of the church.
Soon, I will have an announcement regarding the artist[s] that will be here to close the day out on that Saturday evening. Be looking for more information regarding the seminar in the months ahead!
