The Theology of the Round

Gather ‘Round

To “gather around” invokes the image of coming together. There is no quicker way to gather my family than to start a fire in our fire pit, and just sit down by it and wait. Soon, the circle of fire becomes a circleof joy, as we gather around the fire sharing stories of the day, roast marshmallows, and see faces in the light of the flames rather than the light of screens.

What have you “gathered around” this week? Tables with family for meals? Tasks and the meaningful work of your hands? Serving people, or meeting a need in your family or community?

What we gather around defines our days, our families, our lives, and our spiritual life. Said another way, the shape of our life is determined by what we gather around, and how we gather around these things matters. We gather around fires for warmth and stories. We gather around tables for food and belonging. We gather around a loved one in a difficult season. We gather around music, art, sporting events, and often we gather around a good cup of coffee to sit and enjoy a friend.

All of these images speak to my heart when I think of our Sunday morning gatherings, which is one of the main expressions of our weekly rhythms of becoming like Jesus together. To be known and loved. To hear again the story of God’s love and the way it is impacting someone’s life. To sing songs of hope and truth as we encounter the surrounding presence of the Holy Spirit. To Jesus – the One who calls us to be face to face with Him, to a place at His table and into His story.

On Sunday mornings, we gather around Him – but HOW we do it matters deeply. How we set up the room, our stage, our worship, teaching, and connecting, impacts how we experience our time together, and how it shapes us as a community and a people formed around Jesus.

We are living within a culture that teaches us to be individualistic and isolated. To be leary of the stranger, and guarded against one another. Even in church, we can look for safety rather than risk community – we’d prefer a few seats between us, maybe even a whole row, and loud enough music so we don’t hear ourselves or others sing. We turn lights down so no one sees us worship. Certainly, there is an element to creating a sacred space for someone to meet with God, but how we come together was never meant to just be about an individual’s Sunday morning worship experience.

Scripture, especially the New Testament, was written primarily to communities, not isolated individuals. Almost every letter in the New Testament was written to a gathered people. Paul, Peter, John – they were writing to communities learning to love, forgive, serve, and worship together. Yet today, we face an epidemic of loneliness: studies show most people lack enough meaningful conversation with family and friends weekly to thrive emotionally, relationally and spiritually. In this cultural moment, gathering in the round feels both ancient and urgent – a counter-cultural invitation to be face to face, truly seen and known.

We’re choosing to “gather round” back in the round for the next few months

Here’s what this shape is trying to say about who we want to be:

1. We want to see one another’s faces. When we gather in a circle (or close to it), we choose to believe it’s safe to be seen. We can show up on good days, and hard days – with our tears and with our smiles – and be okay – to see who is next to us, across from us, around us. That visibility is vulnerable. It’s also honest. It reminds us that worship is not a solo experience or a spectator event – it is a shared act of the body of Christ. In the months ahead, we feel led by the Lord to make sure this is a church of friends, of shared story – and our goal is to help you be known, seen and connected.
2. We want to decentralize the stage and recenter the community. There is still teaching, there is still leading, there is still worship and the Story of Jesus, but the physical center is smaller, lower, and closer for everyone. Those teaching stand among us rather than in front of us. This relocates our focus from a stage to worship leaders and teachers and storytellers who are right with us. It says the truth and life of Jesus is not something to hear about from a stage, but something shared by all of us, where we can look one another in the eye and ask, “Is this true in your life? Is it true in mine?”
3. We want to lead from the core, not from the platform. We want what we teach and what we lead you into to be true of our own lives, overflowing from our story, not just something we teach, or sing, or say, but something we are experiencing and cultivating and holding space for in our own lives. The round makes that promise visible. When we speak and lead from the center, not elevated above anyone – it says we’re in this formational, powerful, miraculous and messy journey together side by side, face to face. We’re not up front giving a lecture, or leading a song – we’re surrounded by this community, gathered around Jesus, cracking open our imperfect hearts and lives and sharing them together.
4. We want the sound of our voices together to matter. In the round, the acoustics change. Our singing wraps around us rather than projecting out toward the stage. We hear each other more clearly. We are reminded that worship is all of us, young, old, quiet, loud, confessing and professing together. Our new Great Room offers us a ton of flexibility to how we set up our gatherings, which allows us the incredible gift of being creative with how we gather. When we first moved in, a front-facing setup was perfect for a time due to logistics, but now we’re being drawn back to one of our distinctives: gathering in the round, shoulder to shoulder and face to face again.

We’re not saying every church should do this. We’re saying we need this right now. We need the reminder that the church is not a theater, not a concert, not a lecture hall. Not because it’s trendy or novel, but because we believe the way we physically arrange ourselves in worship is one of the most honest statements we can make about what we value and what we’re gathering around.

Yes, it is somewhat awkward and uncomfortable at first – to be seen while we learn, lean in, and worship is vulnerable. That feeling is real, and it’s part of what we’re inviting. But when we stay with it, something shifts: we start to see each other, we start to be seen, and that changes everything.

If we think worship is something we watch, we will spectate. If we think it is something we offer, we will engage. There’s depth, healing and connection when we see and hear one another!

So this March, we’re gathering in the round again. Around Jesus, and around each other. Faces visible. Voices together. Hearts open. It is a choice to value authenticity over appearance, and visibility over anonymity. Looking forward to seeing you in the round.