11 O’Clock Service

Services are from 11:00-12:00 with light refreshments & coffee following.

“In San Diego, An Interactive Approach Meets People Where They Are” By Carla Friedrich

The Swedenborgian Church of San Diego has been trying to enliven worship with an interactive approach to our spiritual message and services. We do this by inviting individuals from the congregation and the larger life of the church, and even the larger San Diego community, into our worship service.

As the minister, I invite folks to share their loves, their interests, their work, expertise, musical gifts, skills, knowledge, and (especially) art with us; then I put whatever they offer into conversation with the Scripture readings for the day and our Swedenborgian understanding. This opens us to new influences, reduces our insularity, helps us share phenomenal New Church teachings, and best of all gets people involved and fosters community.

The difference between this and a traditional guest speaker or preacher or musician (we do that too), where the minister in charge generally relinquishes the pulpit entirely, is that this model is more integrated with the spiritual message and gives a chance to share New Church teachings with the outside world by dovetailing it directly into the topic for the day. Drawing connections like this should always be done with respect and sensitivity, never coercive or overbearing, and should always relate something that is of interest and congenial to the faith or perspective of the speaker. It is a matter of “meeting them where they are,” so to speak. This model is based on the “divine human” principle where no part of the church or community operates in isolation or under compartmentalization: “Religion is of life, and the life of religion is to do good.” This helps create an atmosphere in which each activity of the church, maintains its individuality and autonomy but becomes “distinguishably one” with the others. So it is perhaps a bit more interactive, stays doctrinally sound and yet is still mutually useful and supportive.

For example, our first guest was a surfer/actor/writer/instructor and owner of a trapeze “catcher” school. On another occasion, an actor performed a one-act on “Gossip” from an award winning play. Both individuals were wonderful speakers: Lively and interesting in their own right. Even though they both came from vastly different faith traditions, both were very caring and sensitive toward their respective audience. I found and highlighted divine principles within each part of what they offered, related them to Scripture, and then presented a Swedenborgian understanding of it all.

The “Science of Sciences” or Correspondences, really is a unified theory of everything and is the tool I use to bring everything together! It was an awesome Sunday with multivalent lessons about finding the Divine within the natural world, our relationship with a merciful loving God, the whole human regenerative process, and all of this grounded in practical living.

Our ministers have a long history of preaching in this interactive vein and helping people to connect God with secular and natural life, but we might not often invite people to be part of that experience. With the human component, there is an element of witnessing as to the spirit. It seems more alive. I enjoy the dynamic involved. It is fluid and improvisational and unpredictable, like life.

We are just trying it out, and there are many improvements to make, but it is lively and just plain fun. You could call it Preaching Improv. Or is that just another name for the Holy Spirit working within us and amongst us as well as in the world?

I learn from talking to so many of our ministers and what they are doing. I hope this inspires you to venture out and create new organic forms of worship specific to your own culture and context!

The Rev. Carla Friedrich is minister of the San Diego Swedenborgian Church, in San Diego, California.

1st Sunday Potluck after services
2nd Sunday Special Music
3rd Sunday Holy Supper Communion
4th Sunday is Birthday Sunday
5th Sunday Early Morning Walkabout come at 9 instead of 11 and join the walkabout