A couple of weeks ago I blogged about starting a Beliefnet dialogue group on "Getting the Most Out of Liturgical Worship."
The group launched, and it's going okay, I guess, but I suspect I'm boring some of the participants -- so I gave them a liturgical problem to solve in the next two weeks. And I thought it might be interesting to try this here as well.
You live in a resort community, on the shore of a lovely lake, with about a thousand year-round residents; the population triples in the summertime. You help plan worship at your church, a liturgical church with about 150 active worshippers. This church has one Sunday service, and then a Saturday evening service in the summertime that is usually fairly well attended -- 30-50 people.
Your local ministerial association is sponsoring a summer program where, each Saturday evening, a local church conducts an open-air worship service in the municipal park, next door to a state campground and near other resorts. The park features a kind of rustic amphitheatre that's been used for concerts, plays and so forth. (In case of inclement weather such things usually get moved to a community building in town). This Saturday evening worship program is being publicized in the local papers, on the local broadcast media, in the "What to See and Do" visitors' guides, etc.
Your church has been scheduled to lead worship on July 1, 2006 -- a big weekend with a lot of summer people and tourists in town. You are, of course, anxious to be welcoming to visitors, but you also want to serve your regular Saturday night worshippers. And you want to maintain the integrity of your own tradition.
Your worship human resources include the usual lay helpers, and the following possible musicians: your pastor, who plays recreational guitar of the "three chords and the truth" level of talent; your organist/pianist, who has offered to play a portable keyboard for this event; a few of your high school kids who have a garage band and know some contemporary Christian music, but who have no experience leading worship; and a local duo who are violin and flute virtuosos nonetheless pretty laid-back and open-minded about playing different types of music.
Your mission, if you choose to accept it: Design a worship service for this event. You can use an extant liturgy or write one of your own. You will be using the assigned texts for July 2, 2006. Tell me how you'd go about doing this; your rationale for making the decisions you do about order of service, choice of music and any other features of this service. Be creative; think about the various populations you'd like to welcome into this worship experience, and how you can best do that.
Good luck!
10 comments:
This sounds a little too much like what I do 48 weeks year--but I will lurk enthusiastically!
GATHERING
Gathering Song/Hymn
Greeting
Prayer of the Day
WORD
First Reading
Second Reading
Gospel Acclamation
Gospel
Sermon
Hymn of the Day
Prayers
Lord's Prayer
SENDING
Blessing
Sending Hymn
Dismissal
Maybe I'd also play some songs/hymns before the service as people are arriving. I'm assuming there will be people there from a variety of denominations who wouldn't all be comfortable sharing the Lord's Supper for some strange reason. I'm also assuming there's not a place for an offering required in such a service. If there was it could be just before the prayers and there might be opportunity for more music/song at that point.
The outline above is the kind of service I lead at the local nursing home when my turn in the rotation comes up (next Tuesday actually).
I think I would be tempted to have a Taize service with a focus on prayer for the community, the civic leadership, vacationers and the world.
I'd hire or invite some outside ringers from other congregations to come and be a part of the music.
Consider this: liturgy is not the only fruit.
anonymous,
What does that mean? Liturgy is a technology we use to facilitate our worship. It brings us all into the worship rather than making the people up front the actors and the rest of the people spectators. Paul Bosch has written:
"The chief 'actors' in the 'drama' of Christian worship are the people in the pew; those serving 'up-front' are merely the prompters for the people's praise. To change the figure: it's the people themselves who constitute the team on the playing field; the pastor and other worship leaders may be thought of as cheerleaders, encouraging and exhorting the true players."
Liturgy then acts as the script or play-book that directs our worship. In addition, we then give our grandparents a say in our worship, in our ministry and in our experience of faith by cherishing those ancient things which build up the body of Christ, while changing those things that hinder us or no longer speak to our current context. The liturgy gives us an historic shape or form for our worship, one that's stood the test of time.
I suspect it's a reference to the novel 'Oranges are not the only fruit' but I'm not sure what it's supposed to convey.
Like Tom said, Liturgy is all about acting out the Things of God. We become Players in a great cosmic theatre. The important thing is the symbols not what they represent. Power is conveyed through action, action is modelled in words and words create the form that we use to actualize our salvation. And the form is the Name of Jesus, the one and only Word of God.
Praise be!
wow!
have to think some :) we don't use liturgy you see but I'd like to at least sometimes
Tom: I'm glad you do the nursing home circuit. Around here the mainline denominations don't have a strong presence in the local care facilities.
Anonymous 1: Liturgy is not the only fruit...enthusiasm is not the only vegetable...where ya going with this?
Here's a question: What are some ideas for some visual elements in this service?
I am very happy to read Tom's comments. This summer I attended several funerals in a short period of time. After the Lutheran one, my friend said to me, "I didn't realize how Lutheran I was until this service. It meant so much to participate in the service rather than just sit there and listen."
There needs to be a balance, one that actually teeters back and forth a bit, between doing the liturgy the old way and thereby having the blessings of the familiar and "of the grandparents" and some new forms and new phrases for the old meanings, so that we hear with new ears.
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