“I wasn’t sure what to expect.” “I thought it was going to be contemporary, but you went the other way…I liked it a lot.” “Will there be speaking in tongues?” Needless to say, the expectations for X Church were all over the board as we geared up for our first offering of the new service last night. 110 brave and/or curious souls accepted the invitation to, ‘come and see,’ and based on the feedback since, I’d say we hit exactly the mark we had in mind with our new service. More than half of those in attendance were not Christ Church members, and the feedback has been positive across the board.

This morning I have seen some effusive feedback on Facebook. I got a text from a parishioner that X Church was a topic of conversation at the grocery store – two different grocery stores as a matter of fact, I learned later (and in the good sense that you want people to talk about something in the grocery store). I wonder what exactly is being said by those who attended as they speak about it to those who were not? I know how hard it has been for me to convey clearly what folks should expect from X Church, and I was the main driver in its creation, ably assisted by our wonderful staff. Some things are hard to describe until you experience them. Until our first run through a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t experienced it myself!

Rest assured; X Church is an Anglican service that follows ancient patters of prayer and would be easily recognizable because the components of the liturgy are exactly the same as what is already in our prayer book, although in some cases the words of a particular prayer might be different than the ones we read on Sundays. There was no clapping, nor was there a rock band, nor did we engage in any new-agey stuff, despite the opening comparison in Saturday’s article in the Brunswick News to a yoga studio. That comparison was purely from the reporter, and she hadn’t seen the service yet when she drew that comparison. X Church is a service that brings us to worship God through ancient prayers and practices that Christians have engaged since that first Christian community.

My point in sharing this is to illustrate that expectations are not always met by experience. That reality goes both ways. We can be unpleasantly or pleasantly surprised by an experience when we compare it against our expectations. While there were a few people in attendance last night who had experience some other form of contemplative worship, no one had ever been to X Church because there has never been another X Church. While it is conceptually like other contemplative worship in other places, we crafted our liturgy based on the people and gifts available, and specifically for this community in the space that we have. Although I had a hunch about how this would go, and how it would be received, we have been, and remain prepared, to adapt based on who shows up and what they need for their spiritual journey.

I have no way of knowing how many people did not come last night, despite their curiosity, because their expectation about the service was such that they didn’t think they would find it helpful or meaningful. Some of those people, I’m sure, would get a lot out of it, while some probably would not find it helpful. What we tried to do, and what I think X Church does, is to help people connect to God in ways that might not be easy in the course of our lives the rest of the time.

X Church is a work in progress. We have expecta

tions about who would show up and why, and we’ll keep adjusting those expectations as we hear from folks and meet them where they are on their spiritual journeys. We strive to make all of our liturgies opportunities to encounter the holy, and I’m happy to say that we have one more in our weekly line up. All in all last night exceeded my expectations. My experience was that last night truly was a holy time and space, set aside, in which I encountered God more fully than I typically do when I preside over a liturgy. That’s not to say such things can’t happen on Sunday – it happens every week. But X Church is different in ways that could never happen on a Sunday, and yet there is also much in common with a Sunday service. I don’t know about your expectations, but if you’re curious, come and see for yourself.

Tom+

(If you’re really curious about it, and you can’t wait for next Wednesday, you can watch it online now on our streaming page, although it’s quiet – we’ll fix the sound before our next streaming.)

Almighty God, from whom every good prayer comes: Give us the spirit to praise you and thank you and call upon your Name, that our hearts may be warmed within us and our minds enlightened. Grant that we may worship you now in beauty, truth, and love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen