I asked for and got a wonderful collection of folks--including faculty, staff and students from Luther Seminary and area pastors--gathered around a conversation on alternative worship in the twin cities. We met last Thursday and I've wanted to post about it ever since, but my Lenten discipline and other commitments (like my day job!) keep me from it. Here's the scoop. For now the group (which will be open, seeking additional participants any time we meet) meets monthly, in a three month cycle of 1) read 2) plan 3) act. For this first gathering, we'd mostly read about or at least watched video of Improv Everywhere. The book for discussion at the gathering is written by two founders of Improv Everywhere, Charlie Todd and Alex Scordelis, and is titled Causing A Scene. It is a fun and funny read. I found myself laughing out loud, disturbing my dog's slumber on the couch next to me. But it is also, at times, beautiful and profound, too, in a simple kind of way.
Our conversation (at The Edge coffee shop on University and Raymond) started just by sharing favorite 'missions' as IE calls them. Out of that conversation I shared that part of my motivation was wanting a space for creativity and ritual innovation that engaged the public. I have some space for creativity in my home church and at Luther, but also lots of constraints and I wanted MSP ALT to create a space where we could collectively experiment with the general public as our 'congregation'. Others shared experiences with either 1) manipulative experiences or 2) experiences with public actions that were either explicitly conversation oriented or confrontational. These were not, people said, where they'd like this group to go. I shared how without saying it, Improv Everywhere seemed to imbue certain gospel impluses I liked as orienting values. They offer, I said, a way to imagine doing public ritual as parable--the action draws people unknowingly into the world of the Gospel and they might be changed by this without ever having been offered the words 'salvation' or 'jesus christ' to frame the experience. So, they might frame the experience many ways, but we trust that. So, an example might be the IE mission called 'fast food bathroom attendant'. Why, they thought, should only the rich at their posh clubs get a tuxedo guy and fancy stuff in the bathroom? So they offered that service at a local McDonald's bathroom. On a Sunday, no less. I thought: Magnificat. I thought: Mark 9:35. I thought: hilarious!
Deeper that that, however, is the Improv Everywhere 'philosophy' to do missions that 1) cause a scene of surprising joy and 2) offer those who observe a good story to tell. That is living as Easter people; that is inviting people into a resurrection experience. Not obviously in the sense we mean when we talk about that singular Easter and its cosmic ramifications. But perhaps a way to set the lilies and trumpets aside and talk about how we might really engage people with the surprising joy of the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus reconciling the world. That reconciliation, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is always already ahead of us, acting in the world, in people's lives, and we might just tap into that by our effort to create scenes of love, of surprising joy, of grace but in parable form and publicly. Let those who have eyes and ears, hear and see.
We had various ideas that were creative, funny, and fairly unformed. Our next gathering will be 2) plan. Our aim is to have a first event in April after Easter. Let me know if you have ideas, want be added to the email list, etc.
Anon and +peace,
Chris
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