Sunday Echo-Remix 08-19-2007

This is a Sunday Echo-Remix – an opportunity to stay in conversation about the content of our Sunday evening worship gathering.

I’m using a new ‘Echo-Remix’ image in this post to mark a couple significant changes in our community. First, yesterday was our first ever morning worship gathering. We have met on Sunday evening since the beginning – evening still has its upside, but we hope morning is more accessible for folks and more sane for those of us who live in rhythm with little ones.

Second, we have officially changed the name of our church. See this for an explanation. The new name is Vox Dei Community.

Why Vox Dei?
- It is God’s Voice that is the activity of the Creation story in Genesis. God speaks creation – and it has historically been one of the core passions of our church to promote robust creation theology.
- It is God’s Voice that speaks into the Fall of humanity, calling to Adam in the Garden like (as Newbigin says) a mother calls to her lost child in the supermarket, “Adam where are you?” That call of a desperate parent who longs for his children is the Voice of God which is present in the Law and the Prophets, and in the communities of the people of God throughout the Bible.
- It is the Voice of God – become Flesh – that is the very person of Jesus Christ. The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood (John 1).
- And it is the Voice of God that calls Christ’s body the church into a future of restoration and we participate in God’s mission to redeem all of creation toward re-creation by participating in Christ’s community of followers – that’s what we are.

Why Community?
After much debate, we agreed that the word ‘community’ may suffer from a little anemia but it still is a word that communicates simply what we most simply are – and most people understand at least part of what a community might be.

Yesterday felt like a significant day – I think to all of us (?). For one thing, most of our folks were there – summertime attendance is always sketchy in any church because summer traveling. I really enjoyed the level of energy (even if it was nervous energy) and enthusiasm with which everyone embraced these changes. I’m most proud of those for whom these were difficult changes. I’m totally honest when I say everyone has been generous and unselfish in this process – now how often can anyone say that about a church? My prayer is that God will meet us in our efforts and “establish the work of our hands.”