I find the work of Hong Yi amazing. The Shanghai-based artist uses coffee cups to create portraits that are both true and beautiful. She’s a beautiful  young woman whose blog also shows her creating art with a basketball, with sunflower seeds, and with chili paste on a plate.

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

The current piece, Sleep, is written by Whitacre.

I’m not complaining. I like predictability myself, and I enjoy the style of worship that we have adopted. But I’ve worshiped in other settings during my lifetime, some that felt less comfortable and more edgy; some wholly unpredictable. I’ve been in churches that have auditoriums with screens and bands rather than stately sanctuaries with a robed choir and a pipe organ. I’ve worshiped in storefront meeting places, in a family’s home, around a campfire, in a nursing home, and at sports stadiums. I’ve waved my arms and (meekly) shouted praise, but I know that’s not really my style. It’s too “out there”. It seems too base for my Anglo sensibilities.

My Catholic and Anglican friends involve more of the senses in worship with smells and bells (incense and all), and that seems good. Charismatics speak in tongues, dance, hug, and seem to worship more physically. I’m not suggesting those things for our congregation, but I wish we could be a little more balanced and open to the Spirit in new ways. As long as it’s within MY comfort zone.

Rod Dreher wrote an interesting blog post and shared a YouTube video on a charismatic congregation that offers the “Holy Ghost Hokey-Pokey”–the children’s dance song–for adults in worship. Some come forward to give testimony to healing after the Hokey-Pokey.  I’m at once put-off and fascinated by it. His post is here. The video is priceless.

I talked with a couple recently that is wondering how to deal with her preference for traditional, mainline Protestant worship and his need for a more energized, evangelical form. We talked about finding a way to celebrate and enjoy both styles, and to do it together. But I suspect that will find them either straddling two churches, or–more likely–not going at all.

I hate that we feel a need to draw lines among us Christians and label ourselves or each other as we do: Protestant, Catholic, liberal, evangelical, charismatic, spirit-filled. A church-shopping woman stopped by the office recently to ask if ours is a “Bible-believing” church. Well, of course it is! But she had clear ideas in mind of what that meant, and it was equally clear that we don’t fit her prescribed categories. She left with a disgusted look on her face. I’m sure she’s praying for us right now, which can only be a good thing, right?

Different styles of worship meet different spiritual needs, I suppose. Even the first century church struggled with finding orthodoxy within the diversity of traditions that were represented among the first Christians. Perhaps the message of the New Testament church is that there’s no single right way to praise, to confess, to thank, to give, to listen. It’s more important that we just do it in a way that connects us, as individuals, to the Holy One.

[via Rod Dreher's blog at Beliefnet.com]

The earth is the Lord’s and all that’s in it,

the world, and those who live in it;

for God has founded it on the seas,

and established it on the rivers.

–Psalm 24

It’s the 40th anniversary of Earth Day today. If you’ve been enjoying the “Life” series on cable as I have, you’ll like this short film, beautifully produced by Mirko Faienza, called “My Father’s Garden.”   To see the beauty of the natural world so close-up, it reminds me that I need to give more care and attention to God’s creation.

My Father’s Garden from Mirko Faienza on Vimeo.

Background here.

[via Daily Dish]