Staying in Style!

Last updated on: March 13, 2009 at 3:14 pm by David Hayward

Staying in Style! 2009-03-13T15:14:23-04:00 David Hayward

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I want to talk a bit about the subject of this morning’s cartoon. Some people think, because of the nature of my blog, some of the ideas I have and things I write about, that I am one who is totally into innovation. People assume I harbor radical ideas about where we should hold our services, whether or not we should even have them, and if we do, how we should conduct these services. I don’t. The truth is I don’t care how we do these things.

The obsessive concern over songs (how the are sung, how many, instrumentation, music or not, old or new, etc.); messages (length, style, powerpoint, dialogue, conversational, etc.); order (low or high, relaxed or structured, predictable or not, traditional or modern, emergent or submergent, etc.); buildings (owned or rented, house or building, coffee shop or pub, or no meeting at all, etc.)… I could go on… these things I consider stage props. The real action is what is going on between us as a community. The play is the deal, not the staging. To me, rearranging the style is like rearranging the furniture. It’s fine to do but it isn’t going to save the world.

Of course, I think that it is totally appropriate for a community to be self-governing and self-determining. It is healthy for a community to have grassroots, indigenous expressions of its identity, even if it is along with the traditional, universal expressions. Every community has the right to express it’s own style. And every person has the right to decide what he or she prefers. All the recent hype about style is just sizzle. For me, the steak is the relationship between us and the Absolute, and our relationships that spawn from that. Once we have that focus, style is secondary.

Check out my tees HERE and my art HERE.

Previous Post

March 13, 2009

cartoon: innovation

Next Post

March 15, 2009 iPhone invocation: direct communication

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category art cartoons cartoons 2 freebie music one minute message podcast Sophia teaching technology thought

Select a Month February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 March 2006 February 2006

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What famous prophecy is given in Isaiah 53?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Destruction of Edom The suffering servant Messiah Plague in Egypt Cyrus the Great's reign