This question has been rolling around my mind for the past few weeks and this morning Aaron Niequist helped me articulate it. The question is this: What if our Christian worship does exactly what the world’s liturgies do, namely, create self-oriented, consumer-driven people committed to their own happiness and success?
“If the mall and its “parachurch” extensions in television and advertising offer a daily liturgy for the formation of the heart, what might be the church’s counter-measures? What if the church unwittingly adopts the same liturgical practices as the market and the mall? Will it then really be a site of counter-formation? What would the church’s practices have to look like if they’re going to form us as the kind of people who desire something entirely different—who desire the kingdom? What would be the shape of an alternative pedagogy of desire?”- James K.A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom
What kind of worship practices can form us into entirely new kinds of Kingdom people? What would corporate worship look like on Sunday mornings? What would discipleship look like throughout the week? What personal disciplines and spiritual practices would we encourage day-to-day?