Happy New Year. Tomorrow is the first Sunday in Advent and we begin anew the annual spiritual journey with our Lord from birth to death to Resurrection. Each year we resolve to do better in this faith quest. We admit that lack of spiritual growth is ours to own but couldn’t our fellow Christians, our parish leaders, our clergy help us?
For example, what is the purpose of the Sunday Service? Is it just to carry on a tradition? Is the focus the (few) faithful who show up? Could it be to entertain visitors who may or may not come back next week? None-of-the-above would seem to be the best answer. Try this on for size; the reason we worship is to honor our Creator, our Redeemer, our Sanctifier. Therefore everything we do should make God proud – the way the buildings look when he drives in the parking lot – the music – the sermon – the fellowship – and, yes, even the way the announcements are shared. One author wrote, “If God brought his friends to church, would he be proud to show then what you are doing to bring glory to his name?” Can you imagine God bragging about the service to the angels? To be sure, worship will look very different from congregation to congregation – but each parish should give their very best effort every Sunday and not just pay lip service to the concept of honoring God.
It is difficult to know what first time visitors see and feel because most do not come back and we don’t do follow-up anyway. So to gain that perspective congregational members could invite friends to visit a service and then ask them to be candid about what they saw and felt. Clergy could invite retired priests to visit and then debrief then over coffee during the week.
Members and clergy alike need to honest about the quality of music, liturgy, education and, of course, preaching. As Chief of Chaplain Services in the military it was a privilege to superintend over 200 clergy from 40 Christian Denominations. Many were outstanding preachers; many were not. Retirement has facilitated visiting many Episcopal congregations and perhaps a dozen churches in other faith groups. Again, many sermons were outstanding and many were awful. One fellow used “I”, “me”, and “my” more than 100 times in the first ten minutes of the sermon; too much ego to have room for the Gospel. Another preacher used the entire sermon to describe taking her husband to a tattoo parlor and paying for an addition to his body art. Good grief, where did these folks take homiletics? Can anyone preach a sermon without personal pronouns and ridiculous stories?
Perhaps a suitable New Year’s resolution for laity and clergy alike would be to make the Sunday Service the most important event in the week. Mark Batterson, church planter and Pastor of National Community Church in Washington , D.C.
We have ample evidence of what happens when we ignore this wise counsel.
Rector@garygilbertson.org
Yes, Gary, thanks. How about focusing on the simple things done well? No choir? Or few musical options? How about Morning Prayer said well with superior biblical readings? Do the worshipers participate actively and vocally? Is the worship area clean and picked up? Is the narthex or entry way clean, simply decorated and just a few "pick up items?" Is there any one to direct people to this or that location? Inviting unknown retired clergy to help evaluate would very effective and at no cost.
ReplyDeleteHey Ron, I like your idea of retired clergy doing worship evaluations, but for free? Seriously, how about an extraordinarily high consulting fee just for the heck of it. Seriously, Gary, a great article that all parish clergy should pay attention to. The details are so very important. People who are used to the kind of perfection found in a George Lucas film look for the same thing in worship. For one thing, referring to self often in sermons is offensive to me, as well as announcements that are not short, crisp, clean and to the point. Furthermore, we don't need a lot of extraneous blessings of just about everything nor blathering on about this or that important meeting. Ho hum. How about a short liturgy taylored to the needs of the I phone generation of millennials.
ReplyDeleteI read this after attending a dress rehearsal for Christmas Vespers (tomorrow afternoon) at Baker University. A huge amount of work went into trying to do the best we can do musically. Of course, this is a once-a-year deal, not weekly, but I'm impressed by the high standards of our vocal and orchestral leaders and by the performers' efforts to "wow" our audience.
ReplyDeleteGeorge, thank you for the comment especially, “…trying to do the best we can do…” Congratulations to all of you for doing your best. We can only hope that more lay and clergy leaders will do the same every Sunday.
ReplyDeleteThe issue remains as to the future of a print dominated Episcopal worship in the coming year. No matter how well a print dominated liturgy is conducted it is print.A feature article in the Kansas City Star Casual is the Word writes 'growing churches are ditching the stuffy...religious messages are presented through technology, videeo and lighting in a modern way that,s familiar to people." You see we live in the age of Jesus, worship and the ipad.
ReplyDeleteGood column. We had a homiletics professor in seminary who was also my field ed priest. He never used the personal pronoun when he preached. Using story, allegory, and pure outright application to the Gospel, you felt that Jesus was never far away. We were taught through his words and example, that the goal of preaching is to connect folks to Jesus Christ, not ourselves. We are now presenting Christ in a personal view, in a new way. Check out what we are doing at http://bwxp.org
ReplyDeleteJon, took your suggestion and visited http://bwxp.org - looked very interesting and have signed up.
ReplyDeleteJon's web site is worth a look see given our interests. Good luck and prayers of thanksgiving for you efforts.
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