The Parable of…The Perfect Church Service

January 31, 2012 in #digidisciple,Bible,Blog news,Blogging,Christian,Christian values,Christianity,Church,Creativity,Discipleship,Find me online,Identity,Jesus,Parables,Religion,Testimony,Theology,Writing with 8 Comments

One thing I always want to do is explore and develop my writing and creative gift. One area that’s always fascinated me is the concept of parables – I’ve not really written much fiction in my time, but a good friend recently challenged me to spend more time on some parables and to share those with people, to try to grow in my faith and develop my written and creative gifts.

So over the next few months I hope to be sharing some parables I’ve created with you here. A good parable, for me, is a story which answers some questions and leaves us with more questions, which communicates truth in a way we can understand – I will share more on that topic in a future post.

In the meantime, enjoy my first attempts at a Parable. We begin with ‘The Parable of the Perfect Church Service’:

A pastor was teaching at a church service of a relatively successful church, which he had recently joined the staff of. He was teaching on the subject of listening to God, intimacy with God and drawing into the presence of God. During the service he saw someone who had never been to the service before arrive, they moved slow and had a walking stick, but otherwise seemed fine.

As he taught he noticed her with her eyes intently closed, but seemingly very intent on prayer and reflection, with her hand open to receive.

No one tried to disturb her at all, all left her to her own devices.

At the end of the service after everyone else had gone she was still there, still with eyes closed and hands out, and it was time to lock up the building so the pastor quietly went to  tell her it was time to go. He tapped her on the shoulder and she instantly knew he was there.

She said “Is the service ended already?”

Surprised, the pastor said “Yes, of course, it ended half an hour ago. Didn’t you hear me close the service?”.

“No, sorry” the woman responded “I was so engrossed in my business with God I could hardly notice. But what a perfect service it was.”

“What do you mean?” the pastor asked “You arrived halfway through and were hardly aware of what was going on here!”

“Exactly.” replied the woman “It allowed me to pay full attention to God.”

 

‎’The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God’ -C.S.Lewis

About James Prescott: James Prescott is a writer & blogger who explores how we find divine hope in the messiness of live. He's a regular guest blogger & author of '5 Steps to Encouragement: The Secret to Transforming the World' Follow him at @JamesPrescott77

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  • Marc

    Hi James

    Hmmm…not sure if I understand it?
    Isn’t the fact that the women turned up late a tad rude?

    Hebrews 13:17 tells us to ‘Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you.’ 

    and yet this women ignored the minister who is we trust if filled by the Holy Spirit and therefore would’ve missed God in action at the service?

    maybe I have missed the point?

    pax

    Marc

    • Anonymous

      Marc – yes, you did. Not about the role of women or being late at all. 

      The C.S. Lewis quote at the end is the giveaway…saying no more though as want to leave it a bit open….thanks for the comment though, interesting to see how people interpret it.

      JP

      • Marc

        er…OK.

  • Anonymous

    Interesting … I think I get the point of the story: that our church services should help us focus on God rather than on anything else which makes sense to me. :) It also seems to be suggesting, though, that paying full attention to God means that we need to block out everything around us including teaching, corporate prayer, communal musical worship – the usual elements of a church service. Not sure that’s what Lewis was trying to say. If he was, I don’t agree with him! ;) For me, church services are an important part of my discipleship. Not only is it one of the places I learn more about God, but it’s one of the places where I find fellowship with other Christians. Was Lewis suggesting (and is your story suggesting) that being unaware of a service and focusing our attention on God means ignoring everything and everyone around us and going off into our own world for a one-to-one with God? If that’s the case, what’s the point of going to a church service with other Christians if we’re just going to ignore them? As I said … interesting. It’s certainly got me thinking! :)

    One thing about the actual story, though, is that (unless I missed something) it seems to be just a straightforward story or anecdote rather than a parable. It’s my understanding that parables should have some element of allegory or analogy – they convey their meaning through use of comparison. For example, the story of The Lost Sheep involves a shepherd and a lost sheep, but it’s really about Jesus and a lost human being. Some of the best modern parables I’ve heard are stories that are not set in churches and do not mention God at all. Something to think about?

    Thanks for sharing your writing, James. It’s a pleasure to read. :)

    • Anonymous

      Thanks for the feedback Nembow – I’ve been looking obviously at Jesus but also at Peter Rollins as good parable-examples, my hope is that I do write more which aren’t so church-based and are more metaphors from life. 

      I’ve only written two (the other one isn’t ready to go live) and am going to try and write some more, still early days really so bear with me, but thanks for the comment and the encouragement. For someone who usually writes non-fiction only, it’s a big step out for me. 

      The purpose really is not to give some final answer or solve one problem, but to leave people with questions, to start the discussion rather than finish it – that’s what Jesus did and what the best stories do for me, so glad it’s done that. :-)

      Thanks for all advice and guidance, and the positive/constructive feedback, really valuable.  Take care, JP.

  • http://commentfromalayminister.wordpress.com/ Preacher Woman

    I agree with nembow that I understand a parable to be a story that on the surface is about ordinary things but underneath gives a profound lesson about God. As we were taught in Sunday School ‘an earthly story with a heavenly meaning’. Anecdotes can be used to make people think – this one certainly would make me think about whether what I considered a perfect act of worship met everyone’s needs. But I wouldn’t call it a parable.

    • Anonymous

      Thanks for the feedback – as I said I’m just beginning this journey and still exploring what a parable is, so it’s great to get this feedback, and really helpful for future reference. Will definitely bear your points in mind, so thank you so much for your comments. :-) JP.

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