This week I was excited to get a new book "Imagining the Kingdom" by James K.A. Smith. In the opening pages of the introduction, he references a typical "more liturgical"church and a boy named Andrew's expereince. 

"The bulletin would then become a checklist, a way to mark the droning passage of time. Confession? Check. Assurance of pardon? Check. Reading of the law? Check. Creed? Check. Pastoral prayer and prayers of the people? Long wait to be able to check that off, as an elder seems to be praying for the entire world. Bible reading? Check. Sermon? Wait for it... wait for it...still waiting...Finally: Check! We are getting Close! Offering? Check. Wait - second offering for benevolence? Ugh, check (finally). Doxology (we're getting tantalizingly close now): check! Another prayer: check! A Hymn (seven verses!?): finally, check....Benedicition: yes! Freedom!" Pg. 2

How many of you have grown up this way, or on a Sunday morning have this running through your head? I use this humorous quote to get at the reason for this post. We are all guilty of showing up on a Sunday morning with the punchlist/checklist mentality. We show up to do our duty and go on about our day. We don't want to offend anyone by not showing up. For some of us, we show up because we feel like Sunday morning just can't go on without you. However, we need to re-remember the reason we gather and why we are sent.

Smith reorients our excitement for our gathered time to be over in a healthy way. Consider the following quote: 

"Having been drawn into the life of the triune God through our union with Christ, we are sent. The end of Christian worship comes with a responsibility. Like all those prophetic encourter with the living God, this encounter with the Triune God send one away with a commission and a charge: "Go and do," in the power of the Spirit, as a witness to the risen Christ, inviting your neighbors to become citizens of the coming kingdom....The end of worship, is the end of worship. The culmination of Christiona worship is it s/ending."

Does this then change the way we read/hear this Sunday after Sunday? "The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;  the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace." Numbers 6: 24-26

My point in writing this is not to just share a bunch of random quotes that I have been reading. My hope is to reorient outselves to our calling and mission. We come together "we are (re)made to be makers." As we prepare to gather this Sunday, would you consider taking time to read through what Pastor Paul Vroom has posted? Let these resources, by the power and help of the Holy Spirit, help you to be better Kingdom servants, sent out on mission, week after week, to the glory of God!