Worshipping A Creative God
01-27-2016 by Shawna Bowman, via The Presbyterian Outlook, Jan. 26, 2016
These are the words I want folks who visit the church I serve to use when describing worship.
Creative.
Experimental.
Curious.
Bold.
Inviting.
Formative.
But … it’s a challenge when the dominate narrative about worship insists over and over again that we Presbyterians are the frozen chosen and that worship is boring — or at the very least predictable. How did we get here? How did we get from Jacob’s sun-rising poured out oil, Miriam’s seaside dancing and Joshua’s sacred art-installation of 12 stones in the midst of the Jordan to this safe and staid celebration of the Word and sacraments we call worship?
Shawna Bowman (M.Div. 2009) is an artist and pastor currently serving at the quirky and amazing Friendship Presbyterian Church in Chicago. She is also co-founder of Creation Lab, an experimental art collective trying lots of things at the intersection of faith and arts.
We often refer to God in prayer as Creator God, but rarely do we worship our Creative God. Our ancestors paint with vivid imagination about our origins in Genesis describing a divine creative being with imagination, curiosity and the heart of an artist. And isn’t that what we’re all called to be? Co-creators, artists, imaginers of a new way? A new kind of life?