Some Rules I Made for Myself

I'll be posting soon about my visit this week to St. Martin's Lutheran Church. However, I wanted to share a little bit about some rules I've been trying to live by on my journey.

The first is that I don't take notes. The reason I've done this is because I'm afraid if I start taking notes, I'll take on the role of observer rather than participant in the service. I'm not there to evaluate, judge or report on the church. I'm there to experience their worship with them and see both how they view God as well as how God manifests Himself in their service. I also try to wait at least a little bit to write about the service. This gives me a chance to think about what I really took away from it. Some weeks I may talk about the sermon or homily because they had the biggest impact or most meaning to me. Some weeks I may come away talking about the people or how the worship service felt because that had the biggest impact or most meaning to me. Someone could write about the same service from their perspective and you might find yourself wondering if we were both in the same place! That's probably a good thing. It probably reflects how each of us experience God and worship differently, even when doing it collectively.

The second rule is I don't take a camera inside. In fact, I have only taken pictures during the week when the church isn't meeting. I think it would be disrespectful to walk into a church service, snapping photos, so I won't be doing that. I wanted to go get my camera out of the car after the service today and run back inside, but I decided to resist the urge. I also haven't taken pictures of the building while people are still exiting. I did post pictures of St. James Episcopal Church, but I actually did that from the middle of the street on a Saturday afternoon. I might run around Austin one day and try to get a bunch of pictures to post of churches I've visited. I just don't want people to feel like I'm standing out there, gawking at them, while taking pictures of them or their building.

I'll be writing later and sharing today's service with you.