Presented at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, March 2010.

1. public worship,
spiritual
formation, and
mission

2. Vincent Donovan was a Roman Catholic priest
from the U.S. who served as a Spiritan
missionary in Tanzania for 17 years in the 1960s
and 1970s, evangelizing the Masai. Christianity
Rediscovered, his memoir of ministry in
Masailand is, I think, one of the most important
mission-related books of the twentieth century, a
treasure that too few have discovered.

3. “I was to learn that any theology or theory that
makes no reference to previous missionary
experience, which does not take that experience
into account, is a dead and useless thing…praxis
must be prior to theology…. In my work
[theology would have to proceed] from practice to
theory. If a theology did emerge from my work, it
would have to be a theology growing out of the
life and experience of the pagan peoples of the
savannas of East Africa”

4. Never accept and be content with unanalyzed
assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the
people, about the church or Christianity. Never be
afraid to ask questions about the work we have
inherited or the work we are doing. There is no
question that should not be asked or that is outlawed.
The day we are completely satisfied with what we
have been doing; the day we have found the perfect,
unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer,
never in need of being corrected again, on that day
we will know that we are wrong, that we have made
the greatest mistake of all. (Christianity
Rediscovered, 146)

5. “…do not try to call them back to where they
were, and do not try to call them to where you
are, as beautiful as that place might seem to
you. You must have the courage to go with
them to a place that neither you nor they have
ever been before.’ Good missionary advice,
and a beautiful description of the unpredictable
process of evangelization, a process leading to
that new place where none of us has ever been
before.”

6. public worship,
spiritual
formation, and
mission

7. Learning is not the
consequence of teaching.
Learning is the consequence of
thinking.

8. www.brianmclaren.net
slideshare.net
brianmclaren

9. Your backgrounds?
A bit about my
background ...

10. Christian spiritual
formation:
The development of people
who “be,” think, feel, work,
relate, and play
… in the way of Jesus.

11. transformation
formation in orthopraxy:
…teach them to do
all I have commanded you.
(Matthew 28)

12. transformationFormation in “orthopathy”
I have give you an example
… love one another as I have loved
you.
(John 13-15)

13. Formation in identity:
to be conformed
to the image of God’s Son
(Romans 8)

14. formation in orthodoxy:
… be transformed
by the renewing of your
minds.
(Romans 8)

15. transformation
transformation:
…until Christ
is formed in you.
(Galatians 4:19)

16. In one sense, everything
is spiritual formation (or
malformation):
Listening to Rush Limbaugh, watching
Fox News or South Park or The
Cosmetic Surgery Channel, using
pornography or drugs, choosing one
neighborhood over another, engaging
in office gossip, making charitable
donations, etc.

17. In a more constructive sense,
spiritual formation involves
intentional spiritual practices
(or disciplines):

18. Actions within our power which we do
to train ourselves to do things
currently beyond our power, and to
become people we are currently
incapable of being.
- Running a marathon
- Playing the violin
- Building a bridge

19. For example, fasting:
- Feeling and acknowledging our weakness in
the face of impulses from our bodies.
- Practicing impulse control.
- Asserting to ourselves the importance of
things other than impulse gratification.
- Accepting weakness and “poverty” in faith that
greater strength and satisfaction can come to
us.
- What benefits could come from this practice?

20. Public Worship
Liturgy
Ritual

21. Public Worship:
a gathering for liturgy

22. Public Worship:
a gathering for liturgy
Liturgy:
an orderly succession of
rituals

23. Public Worship:
a gathering for liturgy
Liturgy:
an orderly succession of rituals
Ritual: a bodily action for
bonding to meaning

24. Ritualism:
repeating the prescribed
action without reference to
meaning

25. Liturgy:
the “workout” of the
people -
rituals and practices
for formation

26. public worship as
(spiritual formation)
[disciple-making]
{community formation}

27. there has been a lot of
talk about
worship in recent
years….

28. traditional
contemporary
blended
postmodern (ouch)

29. such labels can be
useful …
and they can be
problematic.
Do we need more “market
segmentation?”

30. let’s consider all of
these as transitional,
and on a deeper level ...

31. let’s consider ourselves
to be moving to a “post-
protestant” era in
worship …
where forms of worship
are not biblically
mandated

32. and where elements of
worship are not
denominationally
proprietary

33. where liturgy is
acknowledged as
universal …
a dynamic tension of
form and freedom,
identity and innovation,

34. and where “evolution”
is seen as normative,
and where one of the
essential functions of
worship is …

35. 1. Inconvenience:
Going to a place I didn’t
choose
At a time I didn’t choose
For a purpose I do choose.

36. 2. Awakening
Drawing attention to things
that can too easily be
forgotten.
Entry rituals, preludes,
songs, sacred space,
artwork, invocation

37. 3. Association/
Affiliation
Associating with some people
I like
And others I don’t like
For a purpose I believe in.

39. 4. Hospitality
Using my presence and our
space to help “the other” feel
welcome in my presence, and in
the presence of our community.

41. 5. Desire formation
Strengthening certain desires
through prayer, song, and
posture.
Which desires? What range?
Weekly, Seasonal, Annual,
Lifespan

43. Kinds of prayer:
invocation (here), thanksgiving
(thanks), adoration (O!),
confession (mercy), petition
(help), intercession (please),
aspiration (when?), refusal (no!),
abandonment (why?), meditation
(behold), surrender (yes),
contemplation (-)

45. Kinds of posture:
invocation (here), thanksgiving
(thanks), adoration (O!),
confession (mercy), petition
(help), intercession (please),
aspiration (when?), refusal (no!),
abandonment (why?), meditation
(behold), surrender (yes),
contemplation (-)

47. 6. Confession/Absolution
Dealing constructively with the
gap between behavior and
aspiration.
Constructive versus destructive
confession

49. 7. Creativity/beauty
Participating in beauty through
song, ceremony, architecture.
Consider alternatives:

51. 8. Receptivity
Waiting for what I may receive
only by waiting receptively.
Sermons and silence

53. 9. Generosity
Taking greater pleasure in being
productive (fruitful) than
consumptive.

55. 10. Modeling
Exposing apprentices to
masters
In prayer, teaching, artistry,
faithfulness, service,
hospitality, etc.
Contemplative and charismatic
models …

57. 11. Envisioning
Preaching justice & compassion
Singing justice & compassion
Praying, signifying, announcing,
celebrating, organizing for
justice & compassion

59. 12. Catholicity
Celebrating the wideness of
God’s mercy to others:
Quoting others
Affirming others
Praying for others
Inviting others

61. 13. Mystery
Exposing the soul to the wonder
of saturated events - with
unfathomed layers of
meaning ...
Such as
Eucharist, Resurrection,
Pentecost, Eschaton

63. 14. Reciting creeds
Affiliation
Submission to tradition
Abiding in community
More?

65. 14. Scripture reading
Living before and in the text

67. 16. Benediction
Being sent into the world ...
For what purpose?

69. Getting specific:
Order of Worship:
Take your liturgy (formal
and informal) and break it
down into components and
evaluate them for spiritual
formation potential.

71. -Arriving, Parking, Entering,
Refreshments, Mingling
-Prelude, Greeting
-Gathering song
-Welcome, invocation
-Creative element
-Sermon

73. -Prayer of response
-Confession, creed
-Eucharist
-Stations, music, singing
-Applause, announcements
-Doxology, benediction
-Orientation, mingling, sign-
ups, goodbyes, departure

75. What about your church
year?
What seasons do you have?
When is there planned latency?
When is there planned intensity?
Feasting? Fasting?
Inward, Upward, Outward focus?
Planning? Evaluating?

77. Are there unintended
“malformations” happening?
-Revelation sermon
-“Give us the lost” & “the nations” songs
-Warfare language, cliches
-Emotional manipulation/hype
-Emotional strangulation
-Racial/Cultural/age exclusion
-Body acknowledgement
-Intellectual or political messages

79. Six dynamic tensions:
-Charismatic and
contemplative
-Regularity and intensity
-Familiarity and surprise
-Ancient and Future
-Planned and spontaneous
-Word and image

81. Question:
How do we induct or initiate
people into our public
worship - so they know the
meaning we want them to
bond to?

83. Dialogue:

84. Vincent Donovan was a Roman Catholic priest
from the U.S. who served as a Spiritan
missionary in Tanzania for 17 years in the 1960s
and 1970s, evangelizing the Masai. Christianity
Rediscovered, his memoir of ministry in
Masailand is, I think, one of the most important
mission-related books of the twentieth century, a
treasure that too few have discovered.

85. “I was to learn that any theology or theory that
makes no reference to previous missionary
experience, which does not take that experience
into account, is a dead and useless thing…praxis
must be prior to theology…. In my work
[theology would have to proceed] from practice to
theory. If a theology did emerge from my work, it
would have to be a theology growing out of the
life and experience of the pagan peoples of the
savannas of East Africa”

86. Never accept and be content with unanalyzed
assumptions, assumptions about the work, about the
people, about the church or Christianity. Never be
afraid to ask questions about the work we have
inherited or the work we are doing. There is no
question that should not be asked or that is outlawed.
The day we are completely satisfied with what we
have been doing; the day we have found the perfect,
unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer,
never in need of being corrected again, on that day
we will know that we are wrong, that we have made
the greatest mistake of all. (Christianity
Rediscovered, 146)

87. “…do not try to call them back to where they
were, and do not try to call them to where you
are, as beautiful as that place might seem to
you. You must have the courage to go with
them to a place that neither you nor they have
ever been before.’ Good missionary advice,
and a beautiful description of the unpredictable
process of evangelization, a process leading to
that new place where none of us has ever been
before.”

89. From Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge: Toward a
Postcritical Philosophy (1958)
It follows that an art which has fallen
into disuse for the period of a generation
is altogether lost. There are hundreds of
examples of this to which the process of
mechanization is continuously adding
new ones. These losses are usually
irretrievable.

90. It is pathetic to watch the endless efforts
-- equipped with microscopy and
chemistry, with mathematics and
electronics -- to reproduce a single
violin of the kind the half-literate
Stradivarius turned out as a matter of
routine more than 200 years ago.

91. To learn by example is to submit to
authority. You follow your master
because you trust his manner of doing
things even when you cannot analyze and
account in detail for its effectiveness. By
watching the master and emulating his
efforts in the presence of his example, the
apprentice unconsciously picks up the
rules of the art, including those which are
not explicitly known to the master
himself.

92. These hidden rules can be assimilated
only by a person who surrenders himself
to that extent uncritically to the imitation
of the master. A society which wants to
preserve a fund of personal knowledge
must submit to tradition.

93. … practical wisdom is more truly
embodied in action than expressed in
rules of action. (pp. 53-54)

94. What do we do?
Theology
Preaching
Worship
Common life
Ministry
Mission

95. A Triangle
Spirituality External
Environment
Context
Community Mission
Experiences of life … joys,
sorrows, sufferings, pleasures

96. Transformation for Mission and
Transmission:
From Finding Faith (McLaren, Zondervan, 1999)
Simplicity
Complexity
Perplexity
Humility

97. Brianmclaren.net
Emergentvillage.com