Worship and the Church

REUNION Christian Church
Boston, Massachusetts

In our new series of Email Updates we will be examining philosophy and style of worship from the perspective of two of our new churches and one existing church in New England.

The first church featured is our most recent church plant, REUNION Christian Church. It meets at the Backbay Hilton in Boston, MA, and has two Sunday morning services. The church is led by Hank Wilson, Lead Minister; Mike Brown, Director of Creative Arts; John Tischer, Director of Community; Phil McArdle, Director of Generosity; and Karen Brown, Director of Children/Family Ministries and Administration. REUNION launched public worship in February 2007. They have averaged 252 in worship attendance for 2008 and currently have 21 Community Groups (Small Groups) meeting weekly. The interview for this article features Mike Brown, Director of Creative Arts, who gives oversight to all forms of arts including, but not restricted to, praise bands, praise vocal teams, visual arts (painting, graphics, film, etc.), written arts (readings, poems, stories) and participation in Sunday morning worship services. Throughout high school and college, Mike was heavily involved in vocal music and played the trumpet. He attended college on a vocal scholarship and performed in concert and show choirs, receiving awards for his vocal talent. After completing his degree in Sports Medicine and Athletic Training, Mike worked in higher education in the area of development and student recruitment for eight years. During the same period of time Mike became involved in lay leadership at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, through leading worship prior to coming on staff at REUNION Christian Church. 

Mike, what is your role or function as Director of Creative Arts in conjunction with your philosophy of worship at REUNION Christian Church? 

I am a leader of artists, most of whom are extremely gifted, and I try to be a lead artist myself. My role is to empower artists to live lives marked by creativity as a response to God's love and expression of their own personal faith journey. We then incorporate their creativity into our Sunday morning experience whether it is by sharing their art in our gallery or specifically sharing art as an element of our Sunday morning experience. For instance, we had a series on addictions and were able to have one of our artists not only share some of the art pieces he created when in his brokenness, emptiness, and struggles, but we were also able to tell his story through film. We feel that there are many ways to give people a clearer picture of who Jesus is and strive to do that through everything we do on Sunday morning. We see worship as a response to God-an opportunity to express praise and adoration to God through multiple forms. We want people to see that the time they spend in community on Sunday morning singing praises to God can be, and is, an important part of our collective worship experience, but it goes much beyond that. We can honor and praise God through our finances, our gifts, our relationships at work, in our marriages and families, as spouses, as co-workers, and as students. We can honor God in the way we live from day to day. So the bigger idea of worship is what we really try to incorporate at REUNION. Our goal is not a performance thing for a Sunday gathering, but a gifted life in Christ throughout all of life's experiences. God is Creator and He designed us in His image. Therefore we can connect to God's heart through the creation processes. We encourage people to respond creatively to God's love, their journey, and His story in their lives. Whether people consider themselves artists or not, we want them to begin to respond by being honest and vulnerable with God and feel that there is beauty in that expression. For some people it is in painting, design, creative writing, poetry, writing songs, singing songs, or creating film. For others, it could mean growing a garden or any number of ways to express their journey and what God is doing in their lives. God created us as individuals and the way we respond to Him and His love will look different for each person. God's creation is very diverse, and the way we are going to respond to Him is going to reflect the diversity in His creation. We continue to work through our philosophy of worship with our worship leaders and apprentice leaders to be sure we are all moving towards a place of understanding the purpose of our worship. We are currently working through Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship by David Peterson with our worship and apprentice leaders.

As a leader of leaders in the area of Arts, how do you lead?

Leadership development is heavily relational coaching. In our role as leaders in worship, we want to be seen as lead worshippers instead of worship leaders. Throughout the week we hope to set an example by living a life-style of Biblical worship. As artists we have to talk about technical issues, but primarily leadership development comes through building personal relationships, allowing people to look into our lives. We dialogue a lot about how we're moving through this journey together and how together we can be drawn closer to God.

How many leaders, teams, and individuals do you have directly involved in your worship experience?

We currently have three people who are leading worship and two others who are developing as apprentice leaders. In any given month we could have about 40 musicians available for worship and 14 people serving in the technical arts. We currently are not intentionally scheduling those people as teams from week to week. In the Artist Community we have two who are developing as leaders of Visual Artists. We have four leaders and one apprentice who coordinate the planning and production of our Sunday gatherings.

How do you put together a Sunday morning worship experience?

We start with a team of people who puts together the theme we will cover called The Big Idea. That team produces an outline of the story we hope to tell from week to week and scripture we will focus on throughout the series. We will typically work through one series at a time, anywhere from three to seven weeks. Another team meets to creatively write the message (teaching, preaching). A third team meets monthly to brainstorm about how to give people a clearer picture of Jesus through song, film, live art, interactive moments or other special elements to communicate The Big Idea. Then we bring these elements back to a group that meets weekly to piece together a service flow, with communion being the pinnacle of our worship experience. Our intention is to use the familiar as a point of connection to help "people find their way back to God." So as we put together a service, we try to think about creative ways to connect people to the Big Idea and ultimately help people leave with a clearer picture of who Jesus is, or at least be forced to contemplate who this person Jesus is and what He means to them and their lives. Because laughter is such a powerful element in breaking down barriers in our worship experience, we have developed our own film clips, such as the Coach Cliff Series and Bible Stories with Graham Series. Once we have the plan (about eight weeks out) we empower our artists to develop the plan of worship to tell the story. I am freed up to focus more on implementation, vision, and vision casting. Then once all the elements of the worship experience start to come together, our Producers see to it that the vision we have created, the story we want to tell, gets told in the right order. They are the ones who bring all the elements and all the people involved in those elements together and make sure everyone knows where, when, and how they fit into the larger story of the Sunday morning gathering.

What recommendations do you have for other churches?

Just as God has created us as individuals to respond differently to Him and His story, the way we, as church bodies, worship Him is going to look different as well. As we look at worship in ways that are meaningful to a community, each situation is going to look different. For REUNION we happen to be in a place where our community culture is very artistic-we have a lot of musicians and artists who attend-and for that reason we have been able to explore many artistic ways of communicating God's story. When we plan, it is not our goal to create a "cool service" but we ask, "How can we worship You this week, God? How can we be a blessing to You and help people really hear Your Word?" That is the place you have to start. God is the Senior Minister and it's His church. Seek His guidance. He has empowered us creatively to express His love and His story. If you start with God as the center, your end goal of glorifying Him will be met.

For more information concerning REUNION Christian Church, go to http://reunionboston.com. For examples of film clips, go to www.YouTube.com and search "Reunion Church, Boston" for "Bible Stories With Graham" and "Anything For Love."