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meeting


For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

I am in Beaverton, Ontario at a national leadership gathering for the Vineyard Church of Canada. And doing my homework for Red Essentials. Having discussed where we are going as a church movement and sitting in a lot of meetings in the past 24 hours, I am starting to realise that the word meeting has become a bit of a misrepresented word in our world. Meeting is, at its very basic, a coming together of two or more. I meet with God. I meet with friends. I meet a stranger. I meet with colleagues to get some work done.

A church meeting is simply a coming together of two or more people who are joined to Jesus. This can happen anywhere and anytime and anyplace. This week in the online worship course I am taking, we explored the elements of time and space in regard to encountering God and our subsequent worship of him. It was amazing to read where and how and when people will find God present and near to them. There just are no limits to the experience. God is always present.
My challenge is not as much to get to a meaningful church meeting during the week, but to let a lot of them happen in my life every day. Meeting is not a proper noun. It is a verb. Let us meet with God and with each other often: in person, on the phone, via email and letters, online, in whatever way we can, let us not forget to meet.

Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. - from Hebrews 10 The Message

This is the view of St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. I like to go there alone or with friends.
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