Imagine..

I read an article this week on using imagination in worship. Now there's a concept very alien and, I fear, very unwelcome for many folk. Worship is that passive, safe option that we plug into on Sunday mornings. A few years ago, for a special anniversary, we held an open air communion service. What a new experience of worship, to be immersed in the sounds and smells normally left outside. Passers by could see what we normally get up to hidden away in our sanctuary. That seemed like imaginative worship. But so too is sharing God conversations over bacon rolls or experiencing God in candles and Taize chants. Even a lively discussion in the village pub. There's room and, I would contend, a need for all of these complementary ways of worship, using not just imagination but perhaps even innovation. If you weren't alarmed beforehand, you should be now. Imagination and innovation - in the church? Things really are getting out of control. Thanks be to God!