A few years ago, I started a doctorate program (and it is still ongoing). There was an unusual practice/exercise that took place during Sunday (the day that we have a break from class): we were encouraged to not attend a church service. Go and engage in other spiritual activities other than attending church services.
When I first knew of that, I was wondering what kind of (weird) school did I enrolled myself in? Sunday should be the day to go church and worship God. And what more when I am in foreign land and that I can have an experience to worship with my brothers and sisters from another country.
Let me explain that rationale of this exercise or at least my interpretation of this exercise: it is about breaking the rhythm or routine of life so that we can examine and re-discover meanings of why are we doing certain things and going through certain routine.
Many of my classmates are practicians of faith for years, leading their churches or organizations for years. They are seasoned leaders and pastors in their fields. Many of us would be disciples and disciplers of Christ for years. But there are also routines and activities and people that we have been engaging in for years and especially on Sundays.
For example, the time slot before service starts, the time slot during service, the time slot after service. These are reserved routinely for a certain group of people for certain purposes.
Outside of this routine, we have no control or awareness of what is going on. We may even be so good and professional in engaging in those routines that we forgot why are we engaging them in the first place.
Breaking the routine with the aim to examine and re-discover meanings of why are we doing certain things and going through certain routine is good spiritual exercise to practice.
In our dis-engaging of the usual activities or routine, we take time to reflect why have we been engaging in them. Allow God to speak to us, aligning us back to His purpose. And in our engagement of new or fresh activities (even like sleep), we allow God to use them to align and strengthen our faith. Allow new perspective to form in this new engagement. One question we asked is: what is God trying to say to me in this dis-engagement and engagement?
I remembered that Sunday when this strange practice took place, a group of us went for a movie and it was during our usual service timing. I felt 'uneasy' in that arrangement (We should be worshipping God and ministering to people during that time slot). But at the end of that day when we gathered to process our activities, there were great sharings and learnings for all of us.
This is the first weekend that my family is without a local church. What did we do in the morning?
Which church did we go to (onsite or off-site)?
Just a peek for you: We did worship God together as a family and we worship using the platform of a children church program.
Have a good weekend.
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