On most Sundays, you can expect to find the worship experience at First Christian Church in St. Joseph to be fairly traditional. It is this grounding in the historic liturgical tradition that allows the freedom for FCC to experiment with other worship forms on a handful of Sundays throughout the year. Recently FCC hosted "A.W.E.some Sunday," otherwise known as "Artful Worship Experience" Sunday. Worshipers gathered around tables in the church's social room and, in addition to praying, singing, hearing scripture, and sharing offering and communion, they created art together.

The focus of the Sunday was the story of the Road to Emmaus and each table group worked together to create one piece of three large mosaic images depicting different parts of that story. The images were created by tearing pieces of paper from colorful magazine images and gluing them to a pre-drawn outline. Toward the end of worship, all the pieces were brought together to reveal the full images, much like putting together pieces of a puzzle. The congregation reflected on how the art-making experience itself touched on the themes of the story: how we don't always recognize Christ in our midst until we come together in community and each share our gifts with the whole body.

The final beautiful mosaic images will be framed and put on display at the church. FCC hosts A.W.E.some Sunday twice yearly, and it is always highly-attended and involves all ages in an exciting experience of connecting with God's creative spirit in worship.

For more information on how this approach might work with your congregation, please contact pastor Brian Kirk.

Thanks to Brian for sharing this story and photos.