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It was no ordinary passing of the peace.

'Sawubona,' the 500 people were instructed to say to their neighbors. 'I see you.'

But first they had to look ? eye to eye ? with a gaze that mattered. When they glimpsed God in the person standing before them, they offered their greeting: Sawubona (sa-woo-bone-ah). It?s Zulu.

And those who were seen didn?t just quickly shoot back a casual, 'I see you, too.' Rather, they answered, 'Yebo' ? yes, you do.

The worship was led by a storyteller, Valerie Tutson, at a 'Growing in the Spiritual Life,' conference in September at Peach Tree UMC in Atlanta.

The three-day conference reached out in a way to challenge the 500 participants to discover God?s prayer for them. Irreverence blended with dance and instruction tangled with earnest curiosity and compassion.

People in the very traditional church went off script. They placed themselves in the present-tense, daring the moment to be enough, and began to think about God in luxurious and extravagant ways.

'I want to be in church where embarrassing things happen because people get so caught up with God,' said one of the speakers, Grace Imathiu of the General Board of Discipleship.

I wondered if that was part of the Discipleship Adventure, if the churches of the Baltimore-Washington Conference would take risks to the point of being embarrassed. Will we worship outside our comfort zones, connect, develop, serve and share in ways that knock God?s socks off?

I don?t know if that?s really necessary. I do think it would be remarkable if we took the time to look past the Sunday-morning niceties that separate us from being vitally relevant to those in our communities, and say Sawubona, I see you, and then really and truly look.

Kathleen Norris, the writer, says, 'Prayer is not asking for what you want. It?s asking to be changed in ways you can?t imagine.' That?s the Adventure to me. It?s not always comfortable, in fact it?s usually quite psychically messy. But we?re here to form our souls, and the church needs to reclaim a bit of its audaciousness, if they are to be souls worthy of the God we serve.

Another writer, Anne Lamott, who was the keynote speaker at the conference, told me, 'You are not here on earth to make people comfortable. You are here to know God, be with God and to be God for other people.'

From her, I learned that if I really intend to do this, I will need to wake up. The church, too, might need to be awakened. But how?

Lamott offered four steps for living just healthily enough.

First: 'You start by stopping,' she said. 'Stop living unconsciously.'

Bees, it?s said, can be kept on the bottom of a jar because they only look at their feet. If they looked up, they see possibility. They?d take a stab at flying.

For many churches, looking at our feet seems likely the only option when we?re caught in a chaotic whirlwind of just getting things done. There?s too much to do to be creative or really meaningfully fulfilled.

We need to stop, Lamott said. '?No,? is a complete sentence.' Sometimes we need to speak it. We need to say no to some things and yes to what really matters. We need to slow down because that?s where the magic of resurrection begins.

Second, 'it?s okay to not know more than you do.' The writer E. L. Doctorow said that writing is often like driving at night with the headlights on. You can only see a little way at a time, but you can make it the whole journey that way. The same is true for ministry.

Step by step we move forward, and shouldn?t be afraid to ask for direction. Seeking wise counsel and sharing what we know for certain is one of the best gifts of the connectional system.

Thirdly, to awaken spiritually, churches need to realize it?s a triumph to do more things badly.

'We are raised to be little demonstrations of excellence,' said Lamott, who recalled a bumper sticker that said, 'Ships are safe in port, but that?s not what ships are for.'

Some of life?s best things are learned by failing. It?s like the poem by W. Berry who said, 'Be like the fox that makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.'

And finally, said Lamott, remember that 'you get to ask for a great deal of help. God is present, we are here for each other. In good moments we can rejoice together and in trying ones, can turn and say, ?Hallelujah, anyway.?'

According to Marjorie Thompson of the General Board of Discipleship, who also spoke at the conference, 'The world is going to ask you who you really are, and if you don?t have an answer, it will tell you.'

The church has a great and varied answer; I just hope we have the courage to proclaim it. We must start, each of us, at the point where we can hear God?s voice. The rest, I believe, will follow.

Sawubona. Yebo.