Our church, as I've blogged about in the past, is growing into its new worship space. And one of the things our people are trying to adjust to is having an actual narthex area for socializing outside the sanctuary. Some people get this; some people don't.
Yesterday our bulletins included a bookmark-sized slip of paper, crafted by our Worship Committee, with suggestions for spending quiet time before the service starts -- ideas for prayers, for personal reflection, for resources in the hymnal. It was pretty cool, actually.
We'll see how it goes.
4 comments:
Any chance you can post the contents? It sounds like a great idea to implement at our church, too. At least for the traditional service where people are there before the service starts...unlike the contemporary service where people are still coming in 5-10 minutes after :-)
Nice! Subtle! When I was a young person (like, confirmation class age) our church had a little rubric in the bulletin:
Enter to pray
Sit to learn
Stand to praise
Depart to serve.
(This is why I had trouble when I married into a Lutheran family, and went to Lutheran churches several times a year, where as often as not they sit to sing.)
I hear what gene is saying...at MH&U, we line up with the choir and there are 17 people in the church; arrive in the choir stalls, turn around -- 125...what I wish we had is some way of stopping the sidespeople/ushers from continuing to natter after the service begins.
Best Wishes. We haven't conquered this problem. And some people sit 30 minutes early! There are reminders in the bulletin. The lights aren't turned on, all to no avail.
However one thing we do that I like: All announcements, esp the lighthearted ones, are at the beginning, before the candles are lit and the invocation said. THEN the worship begins.
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