A Lenten Devotional Blog

Hey all. I’m going to be doing a daily devotional blog about the 7 Central Things of Worship during the season of Lent.

This isn’t exactly a new direction for me. Back after Hurricane Sandy knocked power out in my area for a couple of week, I created a prayer pamphlet for my congregation that eventually became Read, Reflect, Pray. Somehow this work launched me into a place where I was able to assist in editing the current edition of Minister’s Prayer Book.

Since then, I’ve dabbled with doubling down on writing about the 7 Central Things, even creating a series of 21 questions that, that I think could help liturgical churches answer the big “what’s next?” question hanging over all of our heads.

At one point, I hoped to do a Sabbatical in which I’d spend 10 weeks focused on writing a book about the above questions and how Paul, as we understand him in light of the New Perspective, might answer some of those questions, or at least give us some fresh rhetoric to use when talking about worship these days. I thought it might be a book that could save the Church!

At another point, I’d planned on doing a D. Min. focused on the 7 Central Things; three years studying early church liturgies in hopes of discovering how the central things of worship might be decentered and scattered out into the world, being salt and light. I imagined such a thesis might provide scaffolding for a liturgy for the post-Covid post-Christendom world.

Instead of all that, I’ll follow the Hip-Hopper KRS-ONE’s advice, “Know the story of your own success, or you won’t be successful.” I’ll go back to writing some simple devotions.

I’ll be publishing 47 reflections on the 7 Central Things of worship. Each series of reflections will begin in scripture, point to a personal experience, mine a thinker who engages with the aspect of worship, poke at the “what now?” question, give a broad-brush summary of the subject, and close in prayer. I hope this devotional blog speaks to people’s hearts, possibly provokes some faithful thoughts, and may be a first draft of something more in the future.