Worshiping with others - 2020 annual Worship Symposium

Something happens when a worship space fills with people who mostly don't know each other, but who all come with some sort of prior Christian worship experience and now are willing to try to fit into the general order of service that may well be unfamiliar or possibly contradict or at least contrast their own worship habits at a home church. It is a kind of affirmation that seems to emerge from this experience of not being in control; not knowing how things are supposed to (or may be expected to) go. Everyone seems committed to going with the general flow of events and not judge or criticize or compare or condemn. So with nothing to defend, the overall experience is fluid. Those attending are guests of the hosting worship leaders and can let go of any worries, responsibilities, or performance anxiety. Instead, the main purpose is to be a gracious guest and accept what has been prepared and now is being presented, inviting participation as much as one is able or comfortable to do so.

This photo collage comes from the opening worship in the campus chapel of Calvin University as part of their Thursday-Friday-Saturday Worship Symposium at the end January every year since 1997. It shows the miraculous transformation from pre-worship space mostly empty, to the seats filled and voices raised (complete service online), to the assembled worshipers departing the chapel.
[click the photo for larger view]

Thursday, January 30, 2020 at the Calvin University chapel

 People come to the annual event from all over North America and many countries overseas. So only a few of the repeat attendees will know each other by face, and fewer still by name. Probably for most of those worshiping this morning the experience is a peculiar mix of familiarity (yes, this Bible is one that is identical or at least bears a family resemblance to one's own) and strangeness (order of worship, styles of music, customs of greeting one another). When one almost exclusively worships with the same people, same place, same weekly time/day, then any worship outside of that seems slightly unfaithful in a double sense (being absent from one's familiar co-worshipers; but also being present among strangers in a strange place and acting in ways unfamiliar). Somehow, the space is filled with fellow worshipers who have possibly similar mixed feelings and despite that, the overall experience together does flow, does teach, does inspire, does ring true to the God one seeks after.