We began a new series yesterday! Yes to the Mess: Surprising Lessons from Jazz & Acts. This series is structured around a book called Yes to the Mess: Surprising Leadership Lessons from Jazz by Frank J. Barrett. Throughout this worship series we will hold Barrett’s reflections on jazz in creative tension with the development of the earliest church as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.
This week worship will be rooted in Acts 9.1-20. This is the story of Saul’s “great reversal”. On his way to persecute the Syrian church, he encounters the living Jesus who converts him and prophesies his prophetic minitry. An obedient Saul, coming out of this transformation, changes the direction of his life. He becomes a faithful follower of Jesus Christ over time and with practice. Eventually Saul is renamed Paul and he lives into his call to travel, witnessing to what he knows to be true about Jesus. (from NIB oVl 10, pp 154-155) Many who come in contact with Paul join in and become followers of Jesus because of his leadership.
Who is a person you consider a leader of the faith in your own life?
How have they inspired you to follow Jesus?
In Yes to the Mess, Frank J Barrett writes, “When musicians ‘hit the groove,’ they don’t experience themselves as the source of that activity. This is ironic in a time when we put so much emphasis on autonomous skilled agents making rational, individual choices. When groups hit a groove they talk about it as if the source of this activity comes from somewhere else. They apply masterly skillful activity and yet remain radically open to the surrounding situation that is calling forth a response. Musicians often speak of such moments in sacred metaphors: the beauty, the ecstasy, the divine, the transcendent joy, the spiritual dimension associated with being carried by a force larger than themselves..” (Yes to the Mess, 34).
What is an experience you have had over the last year in which you think you may have “hit the groove.”? Why might this be important for you to identify as you learn to practice your faith?
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