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Making it up as we go.

A few years ago, my teaching pastor took an improv class, not with the intention of ever really performing, but for, like, personal growth. "You couldn't pay me to do it," I said.

But you've done stand-up, he said!

Um, right. In stand-up, you're alone, you're in control, you don't have to trust some bozo who might eff up the thing with a stupid idea, and no one is relying on me to not eff it up.

When I put it like that, I could see how improv might, after all, provide an opportunity for personal growth.

Quick and dirty definition (that you probably already know): "yes, and..." is the idea in improv that you accept what someone else has brought to the scene, and expand on it. It's a collaborative move, that trusts self and others. It's relational, moving toward others instead of isolating. It's playful, and creates unknown possibilities. It asks, "If this is true, what else is true — or could be?"

This month, we want all of that and more. Playfulness. Collaboration. Risk. Trust. Humor (maybe). Relationship. Surrender. Possibilities. The chance to make something new together every. single. time. we get together.

We've got improv teams coming most Sundays but this week, we've got shorty, improvised sermons. (Is that a good idea?) Don't worry: no one's gonna make you do anything you don't wanna do; just come to church, say yes, and we'll make up this new thing we're doing, again, together.

Read the rest of the July 3, 2019 newsletter here.