Now that Fall is in full swing I am able to checklist my work days opposed to attempting to control the chaos that are my summers. Thus, a drive from one destination to another is able to foster thoughts beyond work. One such...
For some reason I remembered sitting in a host family's basement in the Netherlands talking with elders of the church we attended while studying there. The evening was setup to be a "conversation" with the elders to confirm that we were professing Christians and we could take communion at the next church service. The dialogue however, traveled through many veins of our faith which I had never considered. We talked about the history of the church and what it meant to us as North Americans and them as Europeans. They listened to our Christian Reformed United States Citizens perspectives then gave their opinions. They said that after the reformation the new church swung so heavily toward the word that some other important parts of church were lost....and now...the church in our age is in the process of swinging back to re-understand and practice some of those things we left behind. The example I remember is use of visuals in worship.
Growing up a "good" CRC boy in a conservative town....I was not even sure if Catholics were saved, much less their tendencies of worship being OK to consider....and.... No, I am not talking about crucifix's and mother Mary, but the basic concept of visuals in worship. Things such as color/light/dark...
I remember large purple banners hanging in First CRC during the season of Lent. Also, the candle light services and the Palm Sunday services...all very visual.
....but for many many years church services were held "colorless"...not that Christ wasn't the center of the Church and the Holy Spirit moving, but that worship was much different then before the split between Catholic/Protestant.
I dare not say what that means for the future of the church using the pendulum concept aka the potential swinging back towards some of the practices of the church before the reformation.
I can say that I am a very visual person. I learn with visuals. I am affected by visuals. Visuals typically have a more vivid imprint on me then spoken or written word. Why wouldn't Christ use visuals to impact me and move me then? He already is...so I suppose I am pondering the thought that there could potentially be more visual worship in a church service then a screen with Hymn/praise song words on it...something that assists our understanding of churches sacred days, as noted in the First CRC memories, or art that helps us to visualize things we have read and not really grasped or taken the time to wonder about.
I don't really know what that looks like (really...no pun intended), but I think the Dutch elders were on to something. What do you think?
