Abstract
Distinct methods and practical resources are accessible to all involved in the planning and leading of worship. Through education and enabling, these methods and resources are both responding to and shaping current trends in worship such as increased participation and all-age worship. As we embrace these resources they stimulate our own creativity, giving rise to possibilities of future resources being created locally and shared widely.
Keywords
Introduction
Each week, hundreds of thousands of people attend worship in Scotland alone. People of all ages and stages gather together, drawn by a diverse range of liturgical practice. With so many people regularly attending services of worship, it is easily the largest learning opportunity that the church hosts. As such, it is vital that those involved in creating worship are inspired, relevant and resourced regarding how they plan and enable worship so that the experience of worship is nothing short of transformational for the body of Christ.
This article offers an overview of current trends and supporting resources that have brought, or are bringing, significant changes to worship, particularly in Scotland. I am privileged to write from my experiences as one who works primarily in worship; in its development, practice and resourcing within the Mission and Discipleship Council of the Church of Scotland, (that said, all opinions are my own). In this article I therefore explore what is distinct to each of the trends and how a congregation might go about harnessing the huge potential of each.
The trends are grouped as follows;
Worship and Prayer for Everyone
Sharing the Word
Participative Action
All Ages Together in Worship
Blessing and Sending
Debriefing Worship.
Worship and Prayer for Everyone
Leading worship is fundamentally about leading people. This first section then, looks at a framework for understanding the wide range of people’s needs, which has steadily grown in popularity. The framework’s simple concepts can have a profound impact on how people begin to relate to God and to one another; particularly with regards to differences of opinion on worship. This framework, offering insight into the needs of people and how they respond to God, is therefore an apt starting point for this article.
The framework in question is that set out by Gary Thomas in his book ‘Sacred Pathways’ (Thomas: Sacred Pathways, Zondervan, 2000.) In it he argues that nine distinct ‘spiritual temperaments’ can be recognised, to a greater or lesser extent, in most people. These ‘temperaments’ may help us to notice within ourselves the ways in which we most easily meet with God and the ways in which we most naturally respond to God.
The ‘temperaments’ suggested by Thomas and paraphrased here are:
Activist – Loving God through confronting injustice;
Ascetic – Loving God in solitude and simplicity;
Care Giver – Loving God through compassionate service to others;
Contemplative – Loving God through adoration;
Enthusiast – Loving God with mystery and celebration;
Intellectual – Loving God with the mind;
Naturalist – Loving God in the outdoors;
Sensate – Loving God with the senses;
Traditionalist – Loving God through ritual and symbol.
Thomas describes the strengths and weaknesses of each ‘temperament’. He goes on to suggest ways in which people might develop and grow in an area to which they are naturally drawn, or indeed develop and strengthen areas in which they feel they are lacking.
My recent experiences of unpacking these ‘temperaments’; whether in gatherings small or large and with people of all ages, has been that they consistently provide a common language that opens up conversations about worship and different experiences of it. For some, the identification and use of these ‘temperaments’ may feel like an overly simplistic generalisation of the complexity of the human spirit. There is also danger that the ‘temperaments’ are used to confine rather than to liberate. That said, if the ‘temperaments’ are explored with these cautions in mind, they offer significant potential for shaping and enriching worship; increasing both mutual understanding and respect amongst worshippers.
The ‘Spiritual Temperaments’ are a tool, or method which may help individuals and groups develop their self-awareness by seeing areas of strength, as well as potential for growth. They can help people to understand what they need in the liturgy to connect with God; to find a way of articulating that connection to their community; to help a church understand why certain people do not attend the service – or only attend the morning/evening services; to provide churches with a depth of appreciation as to why people want things done a certain way; and to offer a healthier way of managing differences and conflicts.
Practical Application
Thomas, through questions at the end of each chapter of his book, enables readers to identify the three ‘temperaments’ most natural to them (their passions), the three in a middle ground (their preferences) and the three least natural to them (their potentials). Much benefit may be reaped from contemplating his questions. Reflection on the following questions also proved useful to individuals that we have worked with:
Knowing my most natural ‘temperaments’, how might I change the way I try to pray?
How might I develop in the areas of my ‘potentials’?
Who do I know that is ‘passionate’ in the areas I am not?
How might these people help me learn to see God in this way?
As a group or congregation, the following might be explored:
Whose ‘temperament’ does our worship most cater to?
What ‘temperaments’ are most neglected?
Are there people with ‘temperaments’ that are missing from our worship, but who live in our parish?
What might we do to ensure that everyone is enabled to participate fully in worship?
What ‘temperaments’ are exhibited by those who plan and shape worship?
When the framework of ‘temperaments’ is used thoughtfully and with sensitivity, it is entirely possible that the conversation of a group of worshippers moves beyond ‘my temperaments’ and ‘my needs’ and becomes a vehicle through which people arrive at a place of deeper honesty with one another. New conversations about current forms of worship and prayer take place; the common language and concepts facilitate discussion on topics that have at times been considered ‘no-go’ areas; a new understanding of people’s needs in worship creates a moment from which new shapes of liturgical expression can emerge.
Sharing the Word
The Word in Scripture is central in Reformed worship, because the Word and its meaning are central to the life of the Christian. Preaching from Scripture with relevance is both vital for the Church and demanding on the preacher. Preparation is vital for the whole service to flow well and to connect with the congregation. The next two resources support preachers in that preparation and delivery of the Word in ways that are relevant to a contemporary Scotland. A recent trend that can be seen is in leaders looking for resources from other local sources through online platforms. Resources shared peer-to-peer carry an inherent credibility, that what is being shared is likely to ring true in the original context as well as the context of the recipient.
‘Starters for Sunday’ 1 is an online resource provided by the Church of Scotland’s Mission and Discipleship Council aimed at resourcing Ordained Clergy and Lay Worship Leaders with a range of study notes and sermon ideas based on readings taken from the Revised Common Lectionary.
The material is created in a local context by practicing Ordained Clergy and Lay Worship Leaders rather than an office of any central church. Embracing the peer-to-peer approach increases the material’s relevance to parish life and ensures that it reflects a theological diversity and a range of creative approaches to preaching and study.
Each week there is a set of materials that contains study notes, sermon ideas, fully written prayers (including the Collect) and ideas for time with children and musical suggestions for the whole service. At times ‘Additional Materials’ are provided; typically for Festivals or a special Sunday or Season (such as Pentecost, Creation Time or World Aids Day). This will generally, but not always, use the Revised Common Lectionary and may have more variety in content such as dramatic sketches, meditations, images for projection etc. Material is usually published four to six weeks ahead of any given Sunday, sometimes further ahead on the Festivals.
In response to the ever increasing use of Starters for Sunday, a further peer-to-peer resource named ‘Preachers’ Perspectives’ 2 was made available via the Starters for Sunday website. This comprises twelve articles written by experienced preachers describing how they approach the challenge of preparing for worship, sermon development and reflections on the preacher’s life.
Practical Application
The material, as the name suggests, is simply a starting point. The download is free and is well used by people who lead worship regularly (there is presently an average of 30,000 hits per month on the website).
The contributors strive to provide material that is flexible and adaptable. Lay worship teams can make good use of the materials in preparing worship for evening services, mid-week services as well as Sundays when no Ordained Clergy are present. The prayers are often useful for other contexts; such as leading a devotional section at a house-group, or when opening a meeting in prayer.
Additionally, a number of churches have used the Preachers’ Perspectives series combined with the weekly materials from Starters for Sunday to aid worshippers within congregations to begin developing their own gifts for preaching the Word in worship.
The strength of this resource is the breadth and depth of the material from within the preaching community. This peer-to-peer resourcing model allows an honest sharing of ideas, theories and theological perspectives, whilst providing contributions that enable others to engage more fully with the Word.
Participative Actions
Year upon year in the course of our work, we see and hear of a growing number of groups and congregations in Scotland embracing the use of participative and symbolic actions in worship. People are finding new ways to pray and worship, to connect as a community and to express their deepest sentiments in ways that words could not. Participative actions invite us to an holistic encounter which enables people to bring their whole humanity as an offering of worship.
Evelyn Underhill writes:
Man [sic] responds best to God by a rich and complex action in which his whole nature is concerned. He is framed for an existence which includes not only thought and speech but gesture and manual action; and when he turns Godward, his act of worship would not be complete unless all these forms of expression find a place in it … Therefore those artistic creations and Rhythmic movements which so deeply satisfy the human need for expressive action must come in. It is hardly necessary to insist on the dramatic character of great religious ceremonies or the powerful influences of rhythmic speech and movement, as a stimulant to corporate emotion. (Underhill: Worship, Harper & Brothers, 1937.)
Such participative actions need not be complex (indeed less is often more) and can be as simple as lighting a candle, writing out a prayer or placing a stone in front of a cross. Certainly, small steps are advisable for any group beginning this journey. The important point is that the symbolic actions shape worship that enables the expression from the worshippers to be full, total, whole and, as Underhill says, ‘complete’.
Groups such as the Glasgow-based Wild Goose Resource Group of the Iona Community have done much to place resources into the hands of people
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(both Laity and Ordained Clergy) working to develop worship patterns that embrace the use of symbolic and participative actions. Contributing his thoughts in an interview for this article, Graham Maule, Resource Worker with the Wild Goose Resource Group said:
Ritual movement involves the entire person, the whole body - not just the head. When movement, smell, touch, sight and even taste are involved we move away from more limited, singular meaning to comprehension that is more evocative and multi-valent (or multi-layered). The locus of interpretation moves from the speaker or teacher, towards the recipients, whose role shifts, becoming less passive and more active.
So, in addition to enabling one’s whole being to be expressed in worship, these participative actions or ‘ritual movements’ can provoke a desire for greater involvement. Active participation is about more than the use of kinaesthetic learning methods for one specific ‘active’ part of the service. This process invites a growing sense of participation in all of the worship. Furthermore, this shift of becoming ‘less passive and more active’ may begin in the liturgical arena, but often flows into other areas of the life and work of the church.
Maule continues:
Undergirding our desire for participative worship is the understanding that power and authority is shifted and dispersed. Rather than being a threat, this is more precisely a promise, a herald of hopefulness for a church where the number of ordained Clergy leaders is shrinking. The participative movement demonstrates that the Laity have, an implicit, if not yet explicit understanding of what is happening in worship. Within themselves, within their own bodies, they already carry the critical insights about what is needed for a more fully engaged liturgy.
This dispersal of power and authority is nothing less than a re-discovering of what it means for the church to capture the spirit of the priesthood of all believers, inclusive of all, celebrating the gifts of both ordained and lay worshippers together and recognising the value of each. In cyclical fashion, this re-discovery weaves its way back into the liturgy, refreshing and reflecting the increased understanding of what it means to be a member of the body of Christ.
Participation in Context
In order to use participative actions well, it is imperative to understand the function they seek to serve in liturgy and what value they are providing to the growing numbers of congregations making use of them.
In his work ‘Rites de Passage’, anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep (1873-1957) identifies three stages of liminality; the rite of separation, the rite of transformation and the rite of incorporation. His work focuses on male rites of passage in ‘primitive’ cultures. Work by Victor Turner in ‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal period in Rites de Passage’ (1987 Open Court Publishing Company) applied Van Gennep’s in a wider sense to Western society. Below, we explore the theory in the context of Christian Worship.
At first glance participative actions may seem trite; little more than adults playing with sticky labels and sand. However, examining them through the framework of ‘liminality’ can help us to appreciate what is really happening and aide us in finding the most appropriate type of participative action for a particular moment of worship. After exploring this we will proceed to their practical application, as set out below.
The rite of separation: the pre-liminal stage
The first part of a worship service seeks to enable worshippers to approach God, praising God for the all that is good and confessing our brokenness. Together we express all of life as it is. The opening worship is a ‘setting-apart’ moment (hence the name ‘rite of separation’) and prepares us to let go of what we know becoming more ready to be transformed.
The rite of transformation: the liminal stage
The next stage leads us to an image of this new way, life as it could be, through an encounter or exposition of the Word. The Latin word ‘limen’ means threshold. It is the space of transition between two spaces. Whilst liminal spaces exist all around us (cinemas, theatres, doorways and bridges), the presence of a liturgy or ritual supports participants to reflect with greater purpose and intensity. The Word (through reading, preaching, drama or song) meets and radically re-shapes the worshipper who prepares to emerge from this time changed and transformed.
The rite of incorporation: the post-liminal stage
The final stage is where worshippers prepare to leave the ‘set-apart’ place and time. Here they prepare to embody the transformation, taking the Word of life and making it real, tangible. Word made flesh and sent out as a living example of the transforming power of the Word of God.
(Note: the section on Blessing and Sending towards the end of this article offers further thoughts on the importance of blessing in the rite of incorporation.)
Practical Application
Participative actions should neither clutter the liturgy nor frustrate worship; quite the opposite. The action should be unhurried and should seek to deepen the experience of worship appropriate to the stage – preparing to hear the Word, processing the Word, preparing to incorporate the Word.
Example 1 – Pre-liminal Stage (Rite of Separation)
If the text for a service was for example John 10:1-10, a participative action might be for worshippers to think of words that describe the things that give shape to our lives, for good or ill (beauty, creation, family, brokenness, grief, money, security etc). These words could be expressed artistically, for example by being painted onto stones and placed together thus forming a circle which is not building a literal sheep-pen, but is symbolic of one. In the passage the shepherd calls the sheep out of this into a more abundant life. Therefore this action is to enable the community to name life as we know it before God, both giving thanks and offering a space for honesty before God.
Example 2 – Liminal Stage (Rite of Transformation)
If using John 10:1-10 at this stage, a different action would be appropriate. There might be an invitation to write one’s name on a card and place it in a collection plate as a sign of wishing to hear ‘The Shepherd’ call to us by name. The plate might be placed under a sign reading ‘He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out’. Such an action could be used to express prayer; for help to hear what we might be called out of and/or called out to. This stage is to help people ‘remain’ with the Word, to meditate on it. As Luther says ‘Keep still, and He will mould thee to the right shape’.
Example 3 – Post-Liminal Stage (Rite of Incorporation)
This time if using John 10:1-10 one might place a long cloth on an aisle or approaching the chancel, ending with an image representing a pasture or a floral arrangement reflective of the passage and representative of the abundant life. People could draw round their footprints and write words that describe the steps they might take, changes they would make to help them implement or rather ‘incorporate’ what they have felt to be important.
Note: These suggested actions will appear in the worship materials prepared for the Christian Aid Week 2014, which also include a full liturgy. 4
Finally, what is striking about a participative action is that although the details of the internal prayer are private, there is the power of a public declaration. Thus a decision made in the mind, or felt in the heart, is articulated through a communal, albeit very personal moment, through physical movement. It helps one to make, commit to and remember choices. The aim of active participation is realised when a sacred moment supports a worshipper to respond to God’s Word and live that response out beyond the liturgical experience.
All Ages Together in Worship
There is a undoubtedly a growing trend in worship for doing things that everyone can engage with – not simply tolerating the needs of different generations, but genuinely finding a way of worshipping that engages, moves, inspires and transforms the whole community as they approach God together.
Therefore the most important statement I make in this section is this: the resources we explore here are not just for children. They may have emerged in part from work with children, some of it may have been aimed at children initially, but all of the writers and creators of the material go to great lengths to labour this key point – these worship resources are for everyone.
Fischy Music
For the past 15 years Fischy Music has been resourcing churches and schools around the UK with music that is simple and effective in engaging children, young people and adults in authentic worship. Naturally this is a tall order, especially when you consider the diversity of musical tastes even amongst those of the same age. The success of these songs seems to lie in the topics being dealt with in the music. They do not shy away from struggle and difficulty, but neither do they hesitate to celebrate what is good - all in accessible language that carries strong lyrical content and music that is appropriate to the emotional tone.
Contributing to this article in an interview Stephen Fishbacher, Creative Director of Fischy Music said:
Our songs and materials are widely used both in the Health and Wellbeing curriculum in schools and in all age worship settings. Our songs address many issues such as bullying, loss and grief, creativity and God coming along side us in the “good” and “bad” times of life. We aim to support the emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing of both children and adults. Our songs are not children’s songs, they are songs that are accessible to every stage of life.
In our worship we are seeking to enable people to bring their best and their worst, indeed all of life, to God. We are seeking to promote a corporate expression of all that we are. Resources like this can take us a long way to praying with the necessary honesty and openness and we do it while singing. 5
Fishbacher continues:
We see songs as a safe “container” to put important stuff into and that songs are a genuine resource to people throughout their lives bringing comfort, connection, expression etc. They can stay in our minds for a lifetime. We work alongside a programme called ‘Seasons for Growth’ that helps children to deal with loss and grief, we help children write songs about important issues in their lives, we train teachers and those working with children to use music to enhance their work and partner organisations aiming at supporting the emotional spiritual lives of children.
At a grassroots level, here is a source of music enabling people to articulate to their grief, loss and anger – which if not expressed, can cause profound harm to mental and emotional health.
Practical Application
Many churches have found Fischy Music useful in a variety of settings such as (but not limited to) parent and toddler groups, holiday clubs, all age worship, Sunday School, church fairs and of course any work being done in Primary Schools, especially Assemblies. The music is simple and fun to use and could be incorporated into any stage of worship.
Integrating such music in a Sunday morning service might be easier if the musician or organist understands the ideas behind the music; that of emotional well being for all; accessible and inclusive language for all ages; and a way of connecting the songs of the church that are being used in schools with the songs of the church being used in the sanctuary.
Spill the Beans
Spill the Beans is a collective of Scottish people (lay and ordained) who have collaborated in the writing of all age resource material for their own congregations – again stressing that this is worship for all, not just children. They have published their work so that it is available for others at a low cost. Its main intention (and what makes it distinctive) is the way in which each and every one of the exercises, reflections, activities and liturgies are specifically aimed at helping the users ‘get into’ the story at hand. Spill the Beans believes that storytelling is back - and that it is the way forward to share the faith.
Contributing in an interview for this article Rev. Peter Johnston, Minister of Ferryhill Parish Church, Aberdeen and co-creator of Spill the Beans said:
The Gospel is Good News to be shared. Also it is not monolithic, it’s not one single thing that you get out of every story. It is a multitude of different things. So the different colours of the beans, the flavours that come out of it give an idea of the depths that we get out of the Scripture and it is something that we all want and hope to spill with others through Spill the Beans.
Story telling here is not just to be thought of exclusively as an oral telling. The thrust here is to create material that people of different learning styles (or indeed spiritual temperaments) will find helpful. Participative action, group art-works, small discussions and playful exploration all feature as ways of opening the story up.
Specifically the materials are downloadable PDFs; 130 pages of Lectionary-rooted worship materials that cater to children, teenagers and adults 6 .
Rev Roddy Hamilton, Minister of New Kilpatrick Parish Church said:
It recognises that we don’t all have the massive Sunday Schools we used to have and I suppose it is an attempt at doing church as we can and not as we can’t. It’s a bit messy, a bit still-to-be-thought-out completely (hopefully we’ll never get there), a bit bite it and see, a bit interesting and a bit hopeful. It won’t work for some and it might be just right for others. It’s not a one-size-fits-all but it sort of fits where we find ourselves about now.
This ‘try it and see’ approach is life giving in worship. Nothing here proclaims this resource as the next big thing, it is simply an attempt to be the story tellers that we are meant to be. If it does not work out, or only works for a time, there is built-in permission to try again or to try something different.
Practical Application
Spill the Beans encourages local teams to get creative. It is not intended as a fixed programme that must be followed. Instead a plethora of different options and ideas are provided from which worship leaders or children’s/youth leaders can choose, as they plan sessions together. Sometimes the materials are used as they are, after adaptation, or in some cases they have led to the creation of something new in other congregations. In this way the ‘liturgical literacy’ of those working with the materials begins to increase. Over time one can hope and expect to see leaders adapt the material more readily, as they grow in confidence.
Godly Play
‘Godly Play’ enables children to discover for themselves who God is and where God dwells. Instead of being taught by someone else, they enquire, question and wonder for themselves. This is done in connection with others and with input from adults – not as teachers, but as storytellers and ‘accompaniers’. Children working things out for themselves, does not have to mean by themselves.
Alex Mackenzie is an accredited ‘Godly Play’ Trainer and Margaret Grant is accredited ‘Godly Play’ Teacher. Together they are the founders of Godly Play Scotland. They describe ‘Godly Play’ in this way on the ‘Godly Play’ website
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Two words which don’t seem to fit together, but there isn’t a better way to describe this incredible method of discovering God’s presence in our lives. Gentle and worshipful, the invitation is not just to play, but to explore and wonder about the stories of God’s people, the stories Jesus told and to make the connections between these and our worship. It is unlike any other approach to Christian education and, although it has been designed to meet the needs of children, it is for everyone. ‘Godly Play’ is founded in the expectation of, and belief in, the child’s capacity for spiritual response. It allows children to explore Bible stories and Christian worship traditions in their own way and at their own level. We can tell you about the circle of children, about the special materials used to tell the story, the wondering, the reflection and response and, of course, the feast, but its really better to see for yourself, and so Godly Play Scotland has been set up to help people in Scotland find out about and explore this unique approach.
Practical Application
‘Godly Play’ is radically different from traditional teaching methods. I have seen it being used in a variety of contexts and have been impressed by the way it draws people not into an educational moment as such, but a moment of worship and wonder. I know of participants from local settings and well as national events describing it as the most important thing to have happened in their Church; reporting how the process had enlivened their experience of faith in ways they would never have expected.
Support, advice and training (definitely essential before you start) is readily available at Godly Play Scotland as well as continuing support for churches starting out with Godly Play. Similar support is available throughout the UK through Godly Play UK 8 . Training will help participants develop an understanding of children’s spirituality, the roles that adults can play in developing this and the resulting educational methods. It will help participants practise skills in storytelling using this unique method, as well as consider the practicalities of running a Godly Play session.
Above all, training will give participants an opportunity to experience this method. In this way one is given a sense of what ‘Godly Play’ is really about and the distinct contribution it is making to the lives of children and adults globally; in coming to a ‘felt and owned’ understanding of God.
Blessing and Sending Out
A blessing and sending out of worshippers has long been a concluding part of Christian worship. As worshippers prepare to emerge from this time set apart, words and symbols are a vital aide to crossing the threshold with confidence and moving out towards the rest of the world bearing all the blessing received in the worship.
Catholic Priest, Poet and Author John O’Donohue (1956-2008) wrote:
A threshold is a significant frontier where experience banks up… It is a place of great transformation. Some of the most powerful threshold divide worlds form each other: life in the womb from birth, childhood from adolescence, adulthood from middle age, old age from death. And on each side there is a different geography of feeling, thinking and being. The crossing of a threshold is in effect a rite of passage… this is where we need to retrieve and reawaken our capacity for blessing. If we approach our decisive thresholds with reverence and attention, the crossing will bring us more than we could ever have hoped for. Blessing invokes and awakens every gift the crossing has to offer. (O’Donohue, Benedictus, Bantam Press, 2007.)
We have seen firsthand how this age old tradition can be achieved in an evolved, modern context. In 2010 staff members from the Church of Scotland Mission and Discipleship Council, myself included, looked to create a resource that would connect the receiving of a blessing in worship with the sharing of that blessing in life. Interestingly a key driver in creating this resource was our experience of ‘Body and Soul Fairs’ held in the central belt of Scotland. In conversation with attendees of the fairs, the team I worked with from the Mission and Discipleship Council discovered that there was a desire for receiving and blessing and sharing blessings which people not attending church might struggle to fulfill. One can perhaps take for granted the beauty and gift of a simple blessing bestowed upon worshippers in a Sunday Church service. We wanted to provide a platform in which blessing and sending out could be bestowed upon a modern society, in many contexts.
The result was the creation of Pray-It-Forward - a set business sized cards with a Scriptural blessing (such as the Aaronic Blessing) written on one side and text on the other side which reads ‘The person who gave you this card prayed for you. Why not pray for someone else and give them this card’. The first batch sold out swiftly and there are currently over one hundred and ten thousand of these cards in circulation 9 .
Being personally involved in this project was a privilege. We did not anticipate the level of uptake and interest in these simple cards. Having listened intently to the feedback sought and received we have learned the following:
People were looking for a way to share the blessing they had received;
People felt more confident to offer a blessing having received one from someone else in worship;
The tool is a simple one and so expresses, rather than obstructs, the habit of receiving God’s love and sharing it with another;
Many people preferred the initial blessing to come from an ordained person;
Yet it was felt you do not need to be well educated, or ordained to take part in a blessing of others. The act of blessing is both spiritual and very down to earth. Everyone can be part of the cycle;
The cards integrate well with existing forms of service such as elder district visits, hospital visits, greeting cards, church mid-week café’s etc and give voice to the spiritual care the Church as well as practical concerns;
These are not wholly unlike communion cards and in that respect resonate with a function of the eldership that at its heart communicates belonging, welcome and membership;
The words on the cards, all taken form Scripture, are thousands of years old and carry with them the weight of words that have stood the test of time. Whilst our own words can sometimes falter in the face of tragedy or loss, these words speak where we fall silent.
Practical Application
Here are some of the ways that people have used the cards in their congregations and beyond:
Inserting them into Get Well cards, leaving them with people you visit in hospital or asking if you can leave some in a GP’s surgery (such requests have been surprisingly well received);
Using them when on your district visits within a parish;
Distributing them as part of morning or evening, or weekday worship, or using them if you wish to start a prayer meeting for people unused to extemporary prayer or praying aloud;
Using them as part of a new house group or Bible study initiative;
Use them as part of a school assembly or Chaplaincy at schools (younger children may enjoy collecting or swapping the cards);
Leaving in local cafés, church cafés or drop in centres;
Carrying them in a wallet or purse and offering them to people one meets.
The liturgy that accompanies the cards offers a reflection on the tradition of Blessing in Scripture as well as responsive words based on the Beatitudes.
For those who wish to find a way to express concern, this resource invites them to integrate their prayers. For those who wish to pray for others, this invites them to turn that into a practical expression of care. The main purpose then is to enable people to find a way to enter into the habit of receiving a blessing and sharing that blessing with the people they meet, today.
Worship Debrief
I would like to close this article by looking at potentially the most significant resource for worship development that any church has – the ability to reflect critically and prayerfully together on our experience liturgy in a ‘worship debrief’. New trends and resources will give us plenty of ideas and fresh direction in developing how we worship. Having a method by which people can discuss what the experience was like for them, will ensure that any new developments are being used in helpful ways. This is an intentional gathering where the perspectives and collective wisdom of those present is given space to be shared.
This is also a process which in some parts is mechanical (such as issues around volume, sight lines, seating, lighting etc) and in other parts is more about the impact it has had on worshippers. Some people may find this idea reminiscent of conference feedback forms being used to score the worship (or more specifically, the worship leaders) on a scale of one to ten. However that is not the intention with this concept. The intention here is to find a way that those called into the planning and leading find a way of truly hearing the stories that are emerging from the experience of the worshippers in response to the liturgy. In some worship debriefs I have been part of, people have shared very movingly about what has inspired, disturbed and consoled them.
If the worship has had contributions from members of the congregation this can be a very affirming and even stretching time for them as they become more aware of what potentials lie within each of them individually and what possibilities lie before all of them together. The de-brief becomes a form of safety net for further developments as more of a culture grows that celebrates the innovations (as small or large as they might be), even when they do not work as planned. When facilitated well, the fear of critical reflection begins to disperse and people are empowered to become more involved.
Practical Application
So how does one facilitate a worship de-brief well? The key points from my experience are that firstly, everyone should feel able to attend or not – this opt-in means that those present are those who wish to be. Secondly, people can offer critical thoughts but must follow that up with an idea of how it might be have been done differently or better. Thirdly, people should use ‘I’ statements not ‘we’ statements – speaking from their own experience rather than trying to represent the whole congregation. Finally, the leader (not necessarily the Minister or Clergy) should ensure that everyone is given space to speak, such as by asking everyone to keep comments fairly brief.
There are of course risks in people finding criticism difficult, especially if their contribution has not worked. Thought has to given to how this may be best managed. However, it is often the case that people are well received for their contributions in ways that leave them feeling valued and affirmed, even where a particular part of worship has not gone to plan.
Often practical issues come to the fore; areas of prayer, music, layout, flowers, lighting, opening times, heating – to name but a few – are all open for discussion. These may be seen as the sole preserve of certain individuals and consideration must be given to how these discussions will be facilitated (remembering the Spiritual Temperaments above, may be helpful). It is worth noting though that the de-brief may be the place to open up conversations where people express a desire to be rid of a job they have done for years.
Principally, the process of a worship de-brief is another way of sharing power. Providing a space for people to discuss the worship gives them a voice and inevitably leads to people asking for changes and seeking a greater participation.
Conclusion
Growing trends such as peer-to-peer resourcing, increased participation in worship and a re-discovery of all age worship has given rise to a range of resources that can enable worship developments in any congregation. Whether it is developing what we already do so that we do it better, or taking fresh ideas and going in new directions these resources can be adapted and blended to create the most appropriate combination for any given context. These resources increase liturgical literacy, stimulate creativity and increase ownership. With the right balance of discerning leadership, dialogue amongst participants and a desire to give God our best a new appetite for worship can grow among congregation members. Not only does this enrich the lives of the worshippers now, it may also give rise to the next generation of creators and shapers in worship development to the benefit of the whole Church and indeed to the glory of God.
Coming Next Month
In next month’s issue, Volker Rabens considers “Ethics and the Spirit in Paul: Religious-Ethical Empowerment through Infusion-Transformation”, the first of two articles. Miles Hollingworth offers reflections on “Closer to Augustine: Speculating on the recent past, and future, of Augustine scholarship”.
