Small Pieces Loosely Joined

So here's what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.

That's from our friend Paul. He wrote it in a letter to Jesus lovers in the Corinth area a few years back.

No he didn't say it quite like that. That is from The Message. No he didn't say it like it is written in the NIV or the King James Version. He said it, or wrote it in Greek. (Not the stuff the kids speak today.)

I've come to love that verse in the past few years. And I hate to pull one verse out of a much larger thought and make a point, but I'm gonna anyway and I'll hope you and the great apostle will forgive me.

That verse, 1 Corinthians 14:26, is part of a much larger thought on spiritual gifts. To me, 12, 13, and 14 all go together. Many of us are familiar with chapter 13, the love chapter. Love is kind, it does not boast, and on and on. Chapter 13 is like the meat of a three chapter sandwich. Chapters 12 and 14 are the pieces of bread. 13 is the good stuff, but you need 12 and 14 to make it complete.

Anyway, chapter 14, verse 26, is a great guide for worshiping the Divine.

"When you gather for worship..."

Whose worship gatherings look like that? Sure, their house churches didn't compare in numbers to some of today's gatherings. What if you go to a church with 800 folks there? How can everyone "be prepared with something that will be useful to all"?

I'm not against large groups getting together to praise Yahweh. I mean, does anyone consider heaven and how many folks will be getting together on that first Sunday? Talk about adding extra chairs!

The idea I keep returning to is everyone was to be prepared.

I'll confess, I'm not too crazy about one guy standing up there telling us how it is and we nod our heads, and another guy leading the singing and we leave 'filled with the Spirit' and go home.

Not to say there aren't great folks in those roles now, but we've sort of given up ownership of that. We've sold out. We hire people to teach us and lead us because we are too busy or just don't want the job.

Yeah, I know it isn't easy. We complain because it isn't done how we want it, then we are too lazy to get off our rear to do anything about it.

The other side of that coin is people who don't want to give up that control. They become the official spokesperson and it helps to keep challenging views out of the limelight.

Fortunately, there is a soft wind of change blowing. And much of it has to do with the web. We are becoming small pieces loosely joined.

David Wienberger wrote several years ago how the internet is changing our culture. We know it, but I don't think we realize just how much it is true. His approach is not of a religious view, but it is easy to see the spiritual connection.

The old model is about control: a team works on a document, is responsible for its content and format, and releases it to the public when it's been certified as done. Once it's published, no one can change it except the original publisher. The Web ditches that model, with all its advantages as well as its drawbacks, and says instead, "You have something to say? Say it. You want to respond to something that's been said? Say it and link to it. You think something is interesting? Link to it from your home page. And you never have to ask anyone's permission." Then it adds: And how long will it take to do this? I dunno. How fast do you type? By removing the central control points, the Web enabled a self-organizing, self-stimulated growth of contents and links on a scale the world has literally never before experienced.

...We are the true small pieces of the Web, and we are loosely joining ourselves in ways that we are still inventing.

And I say we are the true small pieces of God, and we are loosely joining ourselves in ways that we are still inventing.