Essentials Red – Final Project

majesty-presentation

I’ve Been Thinking About History (Essentials Red)

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

 Thinking through all the content from this week I have been slowly becoming aware of how the languages of worship are likened to the learning experience. The whole experience of worship reinforces our understanding of God’s design for us and the sense of knowing God in all his majesty, gives us the desire to glorify him, and this in turn can be used by God to teach us more of himself. 

Listening to Dan talking about  worship history and how past generations have expressed themselves using the languages of worship. I started to see a pattern emerging. For the past couple of years I have been in the classroom, as a parent helper, assisting  the children as they learn the basics for reading and writing. English is not an easy language,  of which you don’t realise how much you know until you have to help a five year old, whose knowledge and preconceived notions are non existent!  Many of the methods for teaching it are tried and tested, sight/auditory recognition, repetition, doing something with it like coloring it, connecting the[being learnt] symbol to something you already know of it –  like a picture.

We learn through our senses and mental patterning. How much of this is in the worship experience? Think about it…we sing songs that repeat the story of salvation, repentance, our relationship with God etc. Partaking of bread and wine involves taste and smell in remembering Christ’s death for us. Baptism is a sensory experience washing our sins away. Dedicating time in personal devotions or coming together for fellowship. I could go on….

Then you start thinking about what previous generations have formed to endeavour to add to this . I think of monastries set out in the desert in the middle east where people go to live [time] and dwell[space]. Or of amazingly intricate stone, carved till it looks like lace, forming a staircase in a cathedral. Pictures by artists, for example, Michelangelo and the Sistine chapel.

Learning to appreciate what previous generations were trying to achieve in their efforts to get closer to God, like the spiritual challenge behind the christian calender, has been an inspiring start to Essentials Red. It leaves me wondering….who gets the most out of worship us or God!

Hello world!

This is me….slowly entering the world of blog! A learning curve like no other, with little basic computer knowledge.