Virtual Mosaics: Birthing Community Story in Worship

Community-voice, Christo-centric story, subtlety, reality, encounter, spontaneity, soulfulness, intentionality. All of these things are on our subconscious "wish lists" when it comes to our own worship gatherings. These are big ticket items to pull off by ourselves, regardless of our media budget, the quality of the band, or the depth of the liturgy. Our own experiences of the Divine throughout the week can only partially inform the affirmations and acclamations that we come together to share over the Eucharist feast.

As we continue this cultural shift towards empowering the community to be part of the liturgy and also giving them what almost feels like permission to let GOD out of the box throughout the week, we need to give them forum, canvas, and framework to weave and share story. In our ever-evolving spiritual culture, we have started to embrace the ancient transmitted through the ultra-modern media. This is our canvas.

One of the easiest ways to begin a community worship mosaic is through a blog. No super media-savvy set up. No crazy up-keep. No intimidating access points for congregants. It requires a little moderation and some thoughtful framework before beginning. What is your goal? Where is your congregation uniquely intersecting and immersing themselves in the Grand Narrative? This will help you frame the desired outcome of your goal. It's important to take the time to word this correctly, to guide people, form their expectations so that it doesn't turn into a Hallmark movie for Christian spirituality on the web. There is a bit of spiritual formation involved in worship, especially as it comes to stretching our safe GOD-concepts and our cultural worship concepts. One idea would be to invite journal entries from congregants of their unexpectedly Divine encounters throughout the week. It could be prayers that they've found particularly poignant or song lyrics. This is their opportunity to bring their individual voice to the corporate experience.

Another option is to do a visual blog. This is still minimal set-up and minimal maintenance. Post a characteristic of GOD or the theme of the Christian year. (We are in Eastertide...pretty fabulous for discovery, awakening, and re-imagination.) Invite congregants to post pictures or videos, especially those that are unexpected and disturbing as they encounter this theme or this lunar rhythm of the season.

If you have the web savvy types among you, you can create a very literal mosaic online with pictures, words, and videos that people post. Shape it into an icon, into a loaf and cup, into those symbols that are much bigger than we are. Or you could create a virtual candle-kneeler. Come, light your candle and leave a word expressing your encounter or experience. The beauty of this is giving the people permission to be honest. A lot of Divine encounters are unsettling, frustrating, even disappointing. But they're always real, always full of inhalation. That's what we hope people will capture.

At the end of the day, even if you pull this off brilliantly and beautifully, if it doesn't make it's way into your community worship, you are still in danger of being elitist and "My Story" centric. See this not just as a communal worship contemporary ritual, but as a vast pool of story, idea, color, and depth from which you can draw the liturgy for the season. You can discover new songs in these ideas, new litanies, new interpretations of the bread and the wine.

As you use the pieces from these mosaics or find yourself inspired by them, be sure to give credit by name to your congregants and especially to make note to them of what you found life-giving in their contribution from your perspective as an artist. Remember, artists have different windows than those we serve with our art. I know that all is a given, but the mother in me is compelled to remind us all of our manners.

This is the beginning of a new living liturgy and we have the remarkable tools to worship and create as a community in multi-facted ways. I hope that you have great success finding the voice of your people and using their stories to peel back the GOD revelations all around us.


Jodi-Renee Adams is a teacher, author, and visionary for community worship. She serves as a worship pastor and teaching pastor at Ecclesia Denver, a new urban faith community.

Passionate about empowering artists and leaders to take their congregations beyond the Christian-culture box, Jodi is a contributor to CTI's FaithVisuals.com and GiftedforLeadership.com and speaks regularly on the convergence of post-church crisis, cultural issues and worship.

Jodi is currently completing her M.Div. at Denver Seminary and finishing her first book, which is due out next year. She and her jazzy husband, Justin, live in Denver with their three children: Sara, Anna-Michelle, and Leo, along with Karma the Wonder Dog.