Suzanne Castle is a popular speaker, artist, and author, currently serving University Christian Church in Fort Worth where she is the Worship Architect for The Search. She received her doctor of worship studies from the Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies in 2011 and is proud of her latest creative activity, Brim: Creative Overflow in Worship Design, with co-author Andra Moran. Suzanne is a former professional ballerina and actress, and spends her time creating ways to live out being a revolutionary in the movement of Christ in unique ways. www.suzannecastle@me.com or visit www.seekingthesacred.org.
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Trekkies, Klingons and the Language of Worship
Image: from BRIM: Creative Overflow in Worship Design, © 2013 Chalice Press, by Suzanne Castle & Andra Moran
Star Trek’s High Chancellor Gorkon raises his glass: “I offer a toast to the undiscovered country.” And then Mr. Spock chimes in: “Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1.” The scene goes on to reveal that each group does not understand the language and actions of the other, but is willing to be at table together, uncomfortable though it may be. Both realize that they must forge together. And then a Klingon asks Captain Kirk if he would be willing to leave Star Fleet, intimating that for the future to happen, something must be given up.
When I was a girl watching the various iterations of Star Trek with my daddy, I didn’t know that it would be helpful in church dynamics, much less worship planning. But often I return to my favorite Star Trek movie, The Undiscovered Country, and find that from early on I was being formed to bring people that have differing cultural assumptions — differing languages — together at the table.