95 – Mosaic of Words
A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship
Mosaic of Words
Reconstructing Truth
What words are shaping the life of your church, and which words describe the world your church is called to serve?
We are surrounded by words every day. Newspapers and magazines tell stories of conflict and cooperation, poverty and prosperity, fear and courage, loneliness and belonging. Some words express what we long for. Others name realities we would rather avoid. Both can become part of our worship.
For this activity, gather old newspapers and magazines, scissors, blutak or drawing pins and a large sheet of card or board. Invite each person to search through the pages and cut out one word that speaks to them.
The word might express something they hope the church will become, such as:
Welcome. Courage. Justice. Joy. Belonging. Peace. Compassion. Hope. Renewal. Love.
Or it might name something happening in society that they believe the church needs to notice, respond to or engage with:
Housing. Climate. Conflict. Migration. Poverty. Safety. Isolation. Inequality. Change. Recovery.
Encourage people not simply to look for a "nice" or obviously religious word. Ask them to notice the language of current affairs, local communities, politics, culture, sport and everyday life. What word makes them stop? What word feels important? What word describes something the church should celebrate, challenge, heal, protect or become involved in?
As people come forward, invite them to blutak or pin their words onto the board. Gradually, fragments taken from advertisements, headlines, reports and feature articles will begin to tell a new story. The finished mosaic becomes both a picture of the community's hopes and a snapshot of the world in which the church is living.
That opens up some rich questions.
- Which words describe the kind of church we want to be?
- Which words describe needs beyond our walls?
- Are there tensions between them?
- Are words such as welcome sitting beside migration, justice beside poverty, or hope beside conflict?
- What might those combinations be saying to us?
Christian faith isn’t only about imagining a better world. It’s also about paying attention to the world as it actually is.
Our communities are mosaics. None of us sees the whole picture. Each person brings a fragment, a concern, a hope, a piece of experience. Placed together, those fragments help us recognise where God's Spirit is already at work and where we are being called to respond.
Leave the finished mosaic on display for several weeks as a visual prayer and perhaps also as a challenge:
What are these words asking our church to do?
Ngā mihi
Philip