I am home from an amazing week in Baltimore, Maryland at the It’s All About Love: A Festival for the Jesus Movement. This was a revival gathering of the Episcopal Church and people who love the work and people of the Episcopal church like Presiding Bishop Michael Curry . If you aren’t Episcopal you might know him from the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle because he preached the wedding sermon and told the entire world that it’s ALL ABOUT LOVE or it isnt’t Christianity. The focus this festival gathering was threefold, three tents: Evangelism, Creation Care, and Racial Justice and Reconciliation. I was invited to create a Sacred Space prayer experience for the gathering under the Evangelism Tent and led a workshop on how to begin to host Sacred Spaces and make church. bit less boring by using Experiential Worship and teaching to all our learning styles not just to our ears.
A Sacred Space Prayer Experience is an interactive, multi sensory way to pray. If you know about Montessori School, this is like Montessori Church! It’s a station based way to pray. A prayer experience is a series of prayer stations created around a theme, sermon series or a scripture passage. A Sacred Space can be set up for a special event like a conference or a retreat, or it can be set up in a church or a coffee shop as an outreach event. Sacred Spaces are a great way to invite people to experience God who might not ever attend a regular worship gathering. Sacred Spaces are great inter-generational worship experiences too. Sacred Space is about participation! You actually do an action at each of the stations.
The theme for this Sacred Space came from reading the First Nations Version New Testament and thinking about Jesus’s invitation to us to Follow Him. Jesus invites each of us to join him on a journey, on a pilgrimage of love and justice. We are invited join him on the Road of Love.
Love is patient and kind. Love is never jealous. It does not brag or boast, It is not puffed up or big-headed. Love does not act in shameful ways, nor does it care only about itself.
It is not hot headed, nor does it keep track of wrongs done to it.
Love is not happy with lies and injustice, but truth makes its heart glad.Love keeps walking even when carrying a heavy load.
Love keeps trusting, never loses hope, and stands firm in hard times.
The road of love has no end. “
I Corinthians 13:4-8 First Nations Version
I loved this last verse: Love keeps walking even when carrying a heavy load.
Love keeps trusting, never loses hope, and stands firm in hard times.
The road of love has no end.
So I titled this Sacred Space ” The Road of Love…or Joining Jesus on the Road of Love”
You are invited
on the
Road of Love!
Jesus says
Follow Him on a Pilgrimage
of LOVE!
On a Pilgrimage,
we watch for the signs of God’s love for us.
We allow Jesus to surprise us with his love and unexpected gifts.
We allow Jesus to love us along the way and we are transformed in the journey.
On a Pilgrimage,
we watch for the signs of God’s love for us.
We allow Jesus to surprise us with unexpected gifts.
We allow Jesus to love us along the way and we are transformed in the journey.
Pilgrims take time to notice and pay attention.
They listen, watch for signs, and allow for interruptions.
We pilgrims follow closely and get the dust of the rabbi on us.
Consider the Road you are walking with Jesus right now. Is it smooth, rocky, covered with trash or gifts? Tell Jesus where you are. Maybe you need to give yourself permission to stop at a rest stop and take a break.
What gifts have your received on the Road with Jesus lately? Take time to say thank you to Jesus.
How has Jesus surprised you lately? Are you paying attention and watching for signs?
Consider who needs to walk with you and pray for them to join you and Jesus on the Road of Love.
This weekend take time to join Jesus on the Road of Love
Below is a video description of the On the Road Sacred Space. I love curating spaces and helping others learn to practice experiential worship. I’m creating a downloadable kit of this experience that will be available later this summer.
PRAY WITH ME :
Explorer God,
You have put within us
A spirit of adventure move beyond the immediate,
And to see
In the ordinary things
You extraordinary presence of love.
Propelled by your Spirit,
May each day become an adventure
Of people, tasks, places and responsibilities.
And when we feel grey and lifeless
May you remind us
That each day holds
It’s own gifts:
New truths,
Restored vision,
Inner healing, and the possibility
To forgive even our enemies. AMEN
Peter Millar (Iona Prayer Book)
LAST CALL! Join me THIS August 28-Sept. 4th. Finding Your Thinplace Retreat Pilgrimage.=IN SCOTLAND! 5 days on Iona!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com