For many Jesus-followers, Lent is a season of paring some things back to intentionally focus on renewed connection with God, just as Jesus withdrew for 40 days to the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. This year, we are going to embody this collectively through a series of "Seeking Sundays". Throughout the season of Lent, we'll be engaging a different format for our next three Sunday gatherings. We want to create space in this season to pause as a community, and listen for the voice of the Divine speaking in our midst about how we might feel called to evolve in this next season of Haven life. We also want to experiment a bit with what a simpler, more intimate communal experience could look and feel like.
Practically speaking, this means our gathering will be set-up differently in the coming weeks, gathering in the round, with a more minimal audio-visual set-up. We will be trying new technology that allows us to still host a hybrid gathering, but with a more simple set of tools. In these three Sundays there will not be formal teachings, but rather there will be lots of space for sitting in questions and discernment as we "seek" together through an intergenerational telling of a gospel story, listening prayer, contemplative practices, acoustic musical worship, and conversation.
The new tools we are trying will also permit two-way conversation with those who are joining us remotely. As part of this interactive experience, we will use our screen to project the Zoom meeting, allowing those joining from home not only to speak into the space, but also to be seen by those who are gathered in person. (Though if you are joining from home, you are welcome to keep your camera off, if you prefer.) Because our hope is that these gatherings will be more interactive and contemplative, we will not be posting a record of them on our YouTube channel.
We will also have ways to engage kids and youth throughout the gathering, at times together, and at times in their own space. We hope you will join us either in-person or from home as we grow in Seeking the Divine together.
