Start Here - The Center for Christian Spirituality

Participate in Contemplative Worship

online or in-person in The Chapel each Sunday at 8:45am

What can you expect on a Sunday morning at The Center?

Each Sunday morning service is unique, crafted to give you the time and space to be still, quiet, and receptive to God’s transforming presence. The services offer extended times of stillness, Scripture readings, meditative music, sacred reading (Lectio Divina), silence, and Holy Communion. Though each service is different, there are four common elements.

Understand the Elements of Contemplative Worship

Contemplative worship is a little different than traditional worship. Here is what you can expect to experience each week during worship.

Contemplative Music

Throughout the service you are immersed in music that facilitates centering yourself. Instrumental music, meditative songs, and simple chants, are created or chosen to fit the theme of the service. While piano is our foundational instrument, sometimes you will hear violin, guitar, drum, chimes, cello, or a number of other instruments. While using their gifts, our musicians and vocalists seek to “get out of the way,” so not drawing attention to themselves, so you can instead deepen your awareness of God within and around you.

Silence for Centering

“God’s first language is silence,” according to 16th-century Christian mystic St. John of the Cross. In Contemplative Worship we make space to enter into this language of God, to simply be open and receptive to God’s Presence within us. Several minutes of silence are included in each Contemplative Worship, usually placed before we move to Holy Communion. Persons may come early or stay late for extended periods of silence.

Guided Meditation

Each service provides extended quiet time for worshippers to reflect and sit with the extravagant love of God. Scripture passages and quotes from those who walked with God before us are provided for meditation in the weekly worship guide. Often worshippers are guided in some contemplative practice of becoming more present to themselves as a way to becoming more present to God. Services include prompts for meditation and reflection rather than a sermon or homily which invites participants to hear what God speaks in the Word.

Holy Communion

Holy Communion is offered weekly in Contemplative Worship. The liturgy for the day may come from a variety of Christian traditions, or may be spontaneous in light of the theme of the service, or may be done in complete silence. For all of our differences in heritage, we come to a common table, the Table of the Living Christ. Thus, while Communion may look a little different each week, we gather to celebrate the Living Presence and to become the Body of Christ in our world today.

What is Contemplative Worship?

Through days of exhausting schedules, multiple responsibilities, and critical decisions many persons are looking for a place of quiet rest, a setting for worship that will refill and revitalize. Sometimes we find such buoyancy in praise or in the preached Word of God. We also may find such spiritual refreshment in worship which is still, reflective, and meditative.

Contemplative Worship is a setting in which we quiet ourselves in order to open our souls to the ministry of God within. It is one way to hear the voice of God with our hearts. Contemplative Worship waits for God in the silence. Contemplative Worship is an opportunity to be quiet and still in the midst of busyness, finding our spiritual center. Contemplative Worship practices us in the rhythm of Jesus, a rhythm of moving into prayer and communion with God before going out to engage the world in meaningful ministry. Contemplative Worship does not imply that a person must be proficient in a certain skill or discipline to participate. It simply implies a desire to seek God and to be open to however God might choose to move within our lives. Historically, contemplation has implied two things: fire and love. Contemplative Worship kindles the inner fire of the Spirit of God. Further, Contemplative Worship grows us in love and devotion for God. The aim is an intimacy of relationship which comes from falling deeply in love with One who loves us and gives himself for us.