Worship & Arts at the Center [part 3 of 8]: The Service of the Lord's Supper and The Service of Baptism

Week 3: The Service of the Lord's Supper and The Service of Baptism

You all conduct worship as if worship was something that started last week. You forget that we are part of the vast host of saints of those who have gone before and that even now that as we worship God; we worship God in the presence of that vast company of unseen believers who surround us and are clapping their hands as we sing the praises of God. I have a great sense of the communion and fellowship between the church celestial and the church terrestrial. And there’s nowhere in my Christian expression where that sense strikes me more forcibly than in Christian worship. -- Albert Aymer, from the transcript of a panel discussion at Calvin Symposium on Worship, 2006

*Note: this lesson is taken from the resources found and with the permission of Calvin Institute of Christian Worship*

Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20 and Romans 6:1-7

Introduction

These two passages, along with many others, make clear that Christ expects the practice of baptism will be at the heart of his church. In Matthew 28:16-20 Christ gives his disciples the Great Commission to make disciples and baptize them. Becoming a disciple of Christ and being baptized go hand in hand. The baptism, he says, is to be in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and should be followed by teaching toward obedience (see v.20). This passage opens the door to the remainder of the New Testament and the establishment and growth of the Christian church. Soon after, when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, Peter tells the listeners to "repent and be baptized" (Acts 2:38), and all who "accepted his message were baptized" (Acts 2:41). Baptism, therefore, becomes the sign of washing in Christ, the entrance into discipleship, and inclusion in the Christian church.

Paul, some years later, writes more theologically to the Roman Christians to explain the significance of their baptism. In Romans 6:1-7, he says we are baptized "into Christ Jesus" (v.3), and we are, more specifically, "baptized into his death" (v.3). So we are buried with Christ, raised with him, and may live a new life (v.4). In verses 5-7 he develops this thought to show that our baptism is a sign of being freed for a new life.

A Sacrament

The Christian church practices baptism for infants and for adults. When the church baptizes adults, the baptism is always in conjunction with their profession or reaffirmation of faith (Acts 2:38). The church baptizes infants and children on the basis of God's covenant promises. These covenant promises show that God's grace extends before the child has the ability to choose him. Therefore, believing parents have the privilege of presenting their children to receive the sign of God's covenant (Genesis 17:7-14 and Colossians 2:11).

The following are foundational pastoral principles for baptism in the church today:

• Baptism is a celebration of God's grace, not human achievement. It is a means of grace through which God acts to seal the promises of the gospel.

• Baptism is not an end in itself. It always points beyond itself to celebrate God's grace and covenant faithfulness.

• Baptism is a sign of a relationship that is covenantal, not contractual. Our relationship with God in Christ is based on promises, like a marriage.

• Baptism is deeply personal, but never private. It is a communal action of the gathered congregation, which represents the church in all times and places.

The wisdom of the church in its practice over 20 centuries of time has taught us that the baptismal liturgy should contain at least these parts:

• A declaration of God's invitation and promises surrounding baptism, through the words of institution and instruction from Scripture.

• A statement of the church's faith, and the particular promises or vows of parents presenting their children for baptism or those being baptized.

• A prayer of thanksgiving and petition for the work of the Holy Spirit in and through baptism in the life of the community and those being baptized.

• The baptism itself, with words of blessing.

• A welcome into the church and commitment of the congregation to encourage and support newly baptized members.

Remembering our Baptism

Though baptism is administered only once and need not be repeated, we should be reminded of our baptisms regularly for comfort and encouragement. Martin Luther even urged Christian to practice the daily renewal of their baptism by saying I am a baptized person, and today I will live out my baptism. Following his pattern, many Lutheran liturgies regularly refer to baptism as the basis of all Christian living. The task of parents in training their children in the ways of the Lord should involve a regular reminder of their baptism, but the church should reinforce this remembrance. This can be done in several ways:

• One congregation places a "Baptism Candle" on the font at the time of baptism. The candle is given to the parents for their home. They are encouraged to light the candle and place it on their table each year at the anniversary of this baptism.

• The pastor or worship leader could remind worshipers of their baptism. For example, the assurance of pardon is built on baptism by which we were declared children of God. Both the assurance of pardon and the call to worship are good places in the liturgy to do this.

• Periodically the congregation should observe a "Reaffirmation of Baptism Vows" in which all those baptized repeat and reaffirm vows. It can be meaningfully included at the beginning of the year, an anniversary, in conjunction with a sermon on baptism, or in a baptism service.

Suggestions for Baptism Liturgies

The structure of a baptism liturgy leaves ample room for shaping it in a way that has special significance for the participants and the congregation. Especially in congregations in which baptism services occur often, worship planners will want to keep it fresh while retaining the significance of this meaningful ritual. We present here a list of ideas that have come from a variety of congregations and experiences. You may want to consider incorporating some of these in your baptism liturgies. (It is important to keep in mind that our aim is to practice a rich tradition with freshness, not just be novel or cute.)

1. The children of the congregation can be invited forward to participate in the service of baptism. This gives them an opportunity to witness the baptism up close and gives the pastor the opportunity to explain the meaning of baptism to them. If baptism occurs often, the pastor may want to identify several main core ideas and present one each time.

2. The entire extended family of the candidate for baptism can be acknowledged or join in a circle around the baptism font. This extended family is the "covenant circle" into which this person has been placed by God.

3. An elder can offer the prayer of intercession for the person being baptized, asking for nurture, protection, growth and blessing.

4. The congregation can sing the same hymn at every baptism service so that the hymn becomes identified with baptism. This repetition enables children and adults to learn it by heart. It is important that such a hymn carries the message of baptism's significance.

5. A special large banner can be constructed and hung for every baptism service. A smaller replica of this banner or an individualized banner can be made and presented to the person who is baptized or the family of a child being baptized.

6. A member of the congregation can present a red rose to the family as a symbol of the sacredness of this life as a special creation by God.

7. A candle can be lighted at the baptism service to symbolize the light of this life with all its promise.

8. Invite a family member (or two) to read a relevant Scripture passage as part of the baptism service.

9. A personalized baptism certificate and booklet can be prepared and presented from the church.

Above all, it is important that the service convey a spirit of celebration of the grace and goodness of God!

Guidelines for Music in Baptism Services

Because baptism is a welcoming into the church, it is important to involve the congregation in the celebration. This can be done through congregational singing or by involving the musical ensembles of the church in songs and anthems that celebrate the covenant. But because baptism is also a very significant time in families, it is very appropriate that family members be invited to participate in music ministry, particularly when the music used serves as part of the baptism celebration.

For an in-depth message about the Service of Baptism at Union Center Christian Church, listen to the audio stream of Pastor Craig's message from April 19, 2009: The Depths of Baptism.

Questions for Discussion

1. How did your baptism service show that baptism was a celebration of God's grace? Give examples.

2. Would you say that baptism services are an event that includes the whole congregation, or is it a family event at which the congregation is a spectator? Which should it be? How can your liturgies better reflect this?

3. Do you believe that the members of your congregation are aware of their own baptism and its personal significance for them? Why or why not? How could your liturgies improve that?

4. Think about the key elements in a baptism service (God's promises, the parent's promises in the case of infant baptism, the baptismal candidate's vows in the case of adult baptism, the water, the prayers, the hymn, the welcome, and the blessing), and discuss how each one could or should convey meaning.

5. Recall some of the baptism services you have seen in recent years. What stands out as particularly meaningful actions? Explain why.

6. Think about the baptism font in your congregation and the amount of water that is normally used in baptism. Is it prominent enough? What does its symbolism convey to the congregation? Could anything be done to convey deeper symbolism? Does the font have any significance on Sundays when there is no baptism?

Rules for Commenting

• This is intended to be a conversation that happens over time. (eight weeks to be exact!) Please limit your comments to the subject matter of this post. (in fact, I would be delighted if you used one of the questions as a prompt)
• It goes without saying, that your comments do not need to be in total agreement with the content in the post but they do need to be respectful.
• This is intended to be a conversation that involves many people -- no lurkers allowed! If you are uncomfortable using the comment feature on this blog, you can email me your thoughts at tmurphy@unioncenter.org
  

Worship & Arts at the Center [part 3 of 8]: The Service of the Lord's Supper and of Baptism

Week 3: The Service of the Lord's Supper and The Service of Baptism

There is something about mystery in the sacraments. I know we want to make everything so absolutely intelligible and clear and plain that we forget in the worship of God in the sacrament there is a whole lot of mystery. You try to explain to someone what is different between sipping a little bit of wine that the priest allows the wine to touch your lips, and eat a dry piece of wafer or piece of bread in church over against sitting at home in the evening with a nice glass of wine and some crackers and cheese, what makes the one sacrament and not the other? There’s something of mystery and no one has been able to explain it to me. It is something I do by faith. -- Albert Aymer, from the transcript of a panel discussion at Calvin Symposium on Worship, 2006

*Note: this lesson is taken from the resources found and with the permission of Calvin Institute of Christian Worship*

The Lord's Supper

Scripture: Matthew 26:17-30 and 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Introduction

These two passages are the two locations in the Bible where the sacrament of the Lord's Supper is given to the church. In Matthew 26 (or the parallel passages in Mark 14:22-26 and Luke 22:14-23) the narrative shows Jesus marking the Passover with the disciples to commemorate their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. He surprised them when, instead of completing the customary ritual, he referred to "my body" and "my blood" and gave instructions to eat and drink.

In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul addresses certain matters of worship in the life of the Corinthian church. Among other concerns he speaks about their observance of the Lord's Supper. Paul explains that he is giving them instruction about the Lord's Supper on the basis of the instruction he had received from the Lord.

A Sacrament with Multiple Names

The sacrament that these passages refer to is often called by multiple names. These names emphasize different aspects of the sacrament. Sometimes the sacrament is referred to as "The Lord's Supper," which emphasizes that it is a meal at a table at which Christ is the host. This is a reference to the Passover meal which celebrated the deliverance of Christ's chosen people from bondage. At other times it is called "Communion," which implies sharing deeply with another person and refers to the deep relationships that are present at the sacrament, both with Christ and with one another. Still other times, it is called the "Eucharist," which comes from a word that means "thanksgiving" and suggests that celebrating the Lord's Supper is an act of giving thanks to God. Recognizing all three helps us more fully understand this sacrament.

Whatever title we use, there are many themes that should be kept in focus. These themes can be expressed this way:

• The Lord's Supper is a celebration of God's grace, not human achievement. The power of the sacrament is not found in our ability to meditate deeply, but rather on the way in which God's Spirit uses this celebration to nourish our hearts.


• The Lord's Supper is not an end in itself, but points beyond itself to celebrate God's grace and covenant faithfulness.


• The Lord's Supper is a sign of a relationship that is covenantal, not contractual. It is based on God's gracious promises to us.


• The Lord's Supper is deeply personal, but never private. It is a communal action of the gathered congregation which represents the church in all time and places.

Ideas for the Lord's Supper Service

If you are a worship planner who is responsible for Communion Services on a regular basis, then you have likely encountered many issues and questions in your attempts to make this time of sacramental worship rich and meaningful. We present here a list of suggestions and ideas that have come from a variety of congregations and experiences.

Preparation. Past practice often placed much emphasis on preparation for the Lord's Supper, especially when it was celebrated quarterly. The week preceding was "preparatory" with worshipers encouraged to search their heart and examine their faith before coming to the Table. Much of this practice has been lost, but it seems that the sacrament is treated as less important when worshipers come unaware of and unprepared for the sacrament. We encourage you to include, at least with some regularity, an emphasis in the preceding week that will help prepare worshipers.

Visuals. The sanctuary should visually speak to worshipers the moment they enter. Banners, other forms of art, and the arrangement of the worship space are all able to convey the message of the sacrament to worshipers. The table is usually highly visible. For congregations that do not celebrate weekly communion, we recommend still keeping the table highly visible for services in which communion is not celebrated as a reminder of the sacrament.

Methods. In some traditions the most common practice is that all communicants come forward to receive the elements. In some congregations they take the elements to their seats/pews and all partake together. In others they partake of the elements as soon as they receive them. Some practice tincture (dipping the bread in the juice before partaking) while others take the elements separately. It is often helpful to vary the practice from what a particular congregation is accustomed to, particularly when an explanation is given. For example, a congregation might be encouraged to come forward and sit around the communion table to focus on the meal aspect of the Lord's Supper, or the participants might come forward, form a circle and pass the elements to each other to emphasize the communal nature of the Lord's Supper.

Elements. Some congregations use wine out of tradition, but others use grape juice out of consideration for those in the congregation who struggle with alcohol addiction problems. Some have options of either. Some congregations use small cubes of bread, wafers, or a loaf from which bread can be broken. Another possible concern is to provide gluten free bread for those in the congregation with gluten allergies. Others will set a large pile of various types of breads to provide a symbolic representation of the diversity yet unity of the body of Christ.

Serving Time. Whichever method is practiced, being served in pews or coming forward, worship planners often wonder how to provide a meaningful setting for reflection and meditation. We suggest several possibilities: The congregation can sing familiar songs that express their faith and hope; the choir or praise team can sing similar songs; the accompanist can provide music that enables private reflection by worshipers; or the pastor or others can read appropriate passages of Scripture that reflect on the ministry, suffering and victory of Christ or the assurance and confidence of the Christian.

The Sanctus. Historically, the celebration of the Lord's Supper included the singing of some form of the "Sanctus" during the sacrament. This exclamation of honor and praise for God's holiness becomes the proclamation of the congregation. The "Sanctus" can be found embedded in a hymn, as in the fourth stanza of "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty" or as a separate piece of music as in "Holy, Holy, Holy/Santo, Santo Santo ". It can also be a spoken response.

Questions for Discussion

1. What words would you use to describe the spirit in which your congregation normally observes the Lord's Supper? Is it consistent with the purpose of the sacrament? How and by whom is that spirit determined?

2. Is the Lord's Supper normally a separate part of your worship service, or does it flow seamlessly in the entire service? In other words, does your liturgy lead naturally into the sacrament, or does it seem "tacked on"?

3. How often is the sacrament celebrated in your congregation? Are the times of observance associated with the events of the Christian or Church Year? If so, how is the celebration different at various times of the year? What themes are emphasized?

4. What term is your congregation most comfortable calling this sacrament (Lord's Supper, communion, Eucharist)? Why? What term makes your congregation most uncomfortable? Why? What could be done to emphasize the themes of all three of these terms?

5. How does your celebration of the Lord's Supper point to God's grace and covenant faithfulness? What could be done to strengthen this connection?

6. What does your celebration of communion communicate about the relationship of the people gathered? Is communion private? Is it a communal act? How does it represent the church in all times and in all places? Is it personal? What could make your celebrations more personal and more communal at the same time?


*to keep this post from being too long the Service of Baptism post will be included in a new post*

Rules for Commenting

• This is intended to be a conversation that happens over time. (eight weeks to be exact!) Please limit your comments to the subject matter of this post. (in fact, I would be delighted if you used one of the questions as a prompt)


• It goes without saying, that your comments do not need to be in total agreement with the content in the post but they do need to be respectful.


• This is intended to be a conversation that involves many people -- no lurkers allowed! If you are uncomfortable using the comment feature on this blog, you can email me your thoughts at tmurphy@unioncenter.org

mixtape monday [the addendum]

I can't believe I forgot to add these to the mixtape countdown in my last post! On July 4 we headed out to watch an air show from our friends' field way up close to the runway. We ate chicken barbecue, drank beers, moved our lawn chairs around in the mud....and waited.

And the show was totally worth the wait. My friend Jamie Arnold took a bunch of great photos with some sort of huge contraption of a camera and I am quite impressed with the way they turned out, aren't you??

(You can check out the rest of Jamie's photos at his website.)

monday mix tape

i made you a mix tape of all my favorites this week!

Have I mentioned that I love, love, love SUMMERTIME?!? There's just too much good stuff for me to fit in a normal mix tape format so I give you the Mix Tape Countdown instead. Enjoy!


10. Just in this morning from the Don Miller Blog: a lovely welcome-to-the-world poem Donald Miller wrote for his friends at the very same moments they were in labor. It's a beautiful poem and the only thing I don't like about it is that I didn't write it myself!

9. And while we're talking about my favorite links from the past two weeks, go ahead and check out the radio interview my sister and brother-in-law did with the local Christian radio station. The interview features Kaley and Wes' blog, Cha-Ching on a Shoestring. I don't know how to say this without sounding sappy: I am so, so proud of Wes and Kaley. They continue to live large on a limited budget and have not yet touched their savings account since Wes' official layoff last April (2008)! He has persevered working odd jobs and temp jobs while Kaley has busted her backside learning the ins and outs of couponing and finding freebies. All this while preserving their most valuable possessions -- faith, humility and an awesome sense of humor!




8. Speaking of Kaley and Wes, check out their offspring (yes, that would be MY nephew) in his debut acting role at Union Center Christian Church. (and, oh by the way, the big guy is my dad!)










7. I finally completed the biography of the late great Southern author Flannery O'Connor. I felt like it was important for me to push through this book even though I'm not in love with her writing (please don't tell anyone!) Her life was enigmatic, somewhat sad but at the same time triumphant as she persevered with her craft in spite of debilitating bouts with lupus. I also think I needed to learn about the often-grotesque writing choices she made. This statement, quoting her, gave me some much-needed insight: ...O'Connor insisted that her own use of the grotesque was meant to convey a shocking Christian vision of original sin. "To the hard of hearing you shout," she said, "and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures." I think I can understand this. Wish I could have known the woman in person, though. I'd love to chat with her in her yard while her beloved peafowl and her sharp wit and insight into the hypocrisy of people ran circles around me.


6. I am totally digging music from Old Crow Medicine Show and John Fahey this summer. Click so you can dig it too!


5. I'm not sure I've ever included a food category in a monday mix tape (although I know I've included a losing weight category!) but I wanted to include a shout-out for the new deli my friends, Sarah and Jason Hill, have recently opened. We were able to take the family to The Director's Cut Hollywood Cafe and Fine Deli last week during our vacation and we loved the food and the space. Chris Pousseur (another friend) ,the chef, created our burgers and fries and paninis just right! When you go, I strongly recommend the Tear Jerker burger (although the Kevin Bacon would be a close second!)

4. Finished off books three and four of Madeleine L'Engle's Austin Family Chronicles. Just pure summer reading joy. The Young Unicorns is a slightly odd tale of the Austin family's move to the upper West side of New York during Dr. Austin's year of research at a major hospital. What with gangs, secret underground tunnels and evil religious zealots who wish to take over Manhattan with Dr. Austin's Micro-Ray, the plot is a little more Wrinkle in Time than the normal Austin Family adventure. Still, the characters are intact and we get insight into my favorite part of the city, the upper West side. One of the major characters of the book is the Cathedral of St. John the Divine! (see #3 below... )
As for the Newberry Award winning book four, A Ring of Endless Light, all I can say is *sigh....*
I love this book so much I want to marry it -- or at least take it with me on the ever-threatening deserted island I may be stranded on with only one book and nothing else to read for the rest of my days. I joyfully suspend disbelief as I revel in Vickie Austin's ability to communicate telepathically with dolphins. I smell the salty air surrounding Grandfather's Cove and hear the back porch screen door slamming as the busy Austin family come in and out of the house and I wait alongside Grandfather's deathbed with the family and sense that this is such a right thing to do -- to wait with a loved one as he nears Eternity.
There's more, but you'll have to discover it for yourself. For now, I keep shoving the books into my daughters' hands as soon as I finish reading...just like my own mother did years ago with me. (In fact, my eleven-year-old Natalie is sitting on the bed next to me reading Meet the Austins as I finish this post. She just rolled over and said, "I love Madeline L'Engle." Ahhhh......)




3. Girls' Day in NYC!! Our goal was to leave Binghamton by 4am in order to get in line for Twelfth Night tickets at the Delacorte Theatre in Centeral Park by 7ish. We got there shortly after 7 and got in line behind about 2,000 people!! So...





... we did this instead (Bryant Park for dinner -- Sabrette's!) ...






...walked 22 blocks uptown from Central Park to Morningside Heights and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. I will be writing about this glorious cathedral in a separate post, believe me.






But the sort-of-fun coincidence is that the book I took to read while waiting in line in Central Park (and, thus, did not get to read until the next day) was The Young Unicorns mentioned above. The central location for the book takes place right in this cathedral! Apparently L'Engle attended and was very involved in this church. I read that at one time she served as its librarian. Most of our time in the mammoth vaulted nave and its seven surrounding chapels was spent in speechless awe.
By the time we left, though, we felt inspired to do this...

2. Coming soon: My kids are learning the entire choreography to Michael Jackson's Thriller. I can't wait to show you all the video!
1. My little flower garden makes me so happy. We added a perennial bed to this forlorn little spot in our side front yard. As usual, I did my research by taking out 52 books from the library, posting sticky notes on about 110 ideas and then leading Brian around the nursery with my detailed bullet list and several photo-copied charts. Driving home with all those pots of potential beauty felt somewhat like the four different times we strapped our bawling newborns into the car seat to bring them home for the first time. I craned my neck from the front seat to check their safety every time Brian made a turn or stopped too quickly. Every morning, before I even get to the coffee pot, I have to run out to my front porch to check on their progress.


I think we're doing pretty well, don't you?




Before...


About five weeks later...


The black-eyed susans are opening now. I'll be back with more pictures soon!

Worship & Arts at the Center [part 2 of 8]: Preparation for Worship

Week Two: Preparation for Worship

Your primary role in worship is to be a partner with someone else…to assist them in their effort of worship. What would happen if we came in knowing that God has called us to partner with someone in the community of faith, to assist them in their worship? -- Dr. Constance Cherry, From Passive to Participative Worship, Calvin Worship Symposium 2006

*Note: this lesson is taken from the resources found and with the permission of Calvin Institute of Christian Worship*

Scripture: Psalm 15 and John 4:21-24

Introduction

When you stop to think about it, worship is a rather challenging activity. We aim to engage in a dialogue with a divine and invisible Being. We aim to meet with someone we are not able to see!
It is difficult, therefore, to overstate the importance of adequate preparation for good worship. We can only imagine the opportunities for good worship that never really happened because someone was unprepared. Missed opportunities are all too common. Yet, nothing is quite as satisfying as knowing that our thorough preparation has helped make worship a very rich time in fellowship with God.

When the Israelites ascended Mt. Zion on the way to worship, they did not go lightly. They knew they were on their way to a royal gathering, and they gave great care to this event. In Psalm 15 David talks about going to "your sanctuary" and "your holy hill." What a sacred destination! No wonder he proceeds to cite the personal qualifications of those who may comfortably go there. His point is that no one may simply barge in on the royal Lord. It takes a prepared heart. You'll find many of the same thoughts and convictions expressed in Psalm 24. Read through the Psalms of Ascent (120-134), and note their cultivation of spirit as they approached worship.

When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well in John 4, the conversation turned to worship. Their concern was not only where the worshiping was done (on Mt. Gerizim or in Jerusalem), but also how and in what spirit it was done (in spirit and in truth) (John 4:24). The phrase "in spirit and in truth" carries several levels of meaning, but through all its meanings runs the thread that teaches us the preparation of our spirit is more important than external circumstances or the location of our worship. Because of who God is, how we worship matters! And, therefore, so does our careful preparation.

We can conclude, therefore, that it is possible to "come to church" and still miss worship. And good preparation will likely be the key that makes the difference.

First, let’s attend to attitude. Sometimes we are not aware how our attitude affects others: if I am bored, this rubs off; if I am angry, this rubs off; if I am enthusiastic, this rubs off; if I am grateful, this rubs off; if I am filled with praise, this rubs off; if I am genuinely concerned for others when I make intercession, this rubs off; if I am committed to being there, this rubs off. All this makes a difference not only by affecting others’ participation ability, but it also affects how we are as the church, the body of Christ. If one member slacks off in participation, two things simultaneously happen: first, the body is weakened; second, the others who are participating lift up that slacker. Thus, the attitude of congregants actually is a give-and-take situation. -- Joyce Zimmerman, from transcripts of a panel discussion at the Calvin Symposium on Worship, 2006

Areas of Preparation

Next week we will focus on The Gathering or Opening part of worship and its importance, but first there are a few areas prior to the service that deserve our attention.

1. Internal preparation of heart. Each worshiper carries responsibility for personal preparation of heart. If God calls us to worship him "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24), then we must ask questions about the state of our spirit. Read Psalm 15 again and listen to David in verses 2-5 speak about the integrity of heart and life that is necessary for those who come to the Lord's house. Yet, how often do we ask ourselves questions about our readiness of heart to worship?

2. Pre-arrival preparation. We may want to call it "pre-Sabbath" preparation. We can learn from the Jews who believe Sabbath begins at sundown. Our activities on the evening before worship will have a formative affect, positively or negatively, on our readiness for worship Sunday morning. Also, our personal schedule between rising and the beginning of worship on Sunday morning will have a great deal of influence on our readiness of spirit. Have we raced, or was it done leisurely? How many of us consider that?

3. Pre-service preparation. The short period of time between our arrival at church and the beginning of the worship service is also a critical period of time. Our interaction with friends reminds us that we are here as part of a body in relationship with others. A short while to quiet our spirits will enable us to leave some distractions behind and center ourselves in God. A time of reflective prayer can open our spirit to engage in conversation with God. Even the visual appearance of the worship space will have an impact on our readiness. How conscious are we of these critical minutes?

Worship Leaders

Preparation on the part of those who are called to lead worship is so important it warrants special consideration. Those who stand between God and his people for this important worship conversation must be personally prepared for this role. Whether they are prepared or not will have a significant influence on others.

The heart-preparation of a worship leader is doubly important. The responsibility of worship leaders during the days preceding the worship service is not only to prepare the liturgy and its many parts adequately but also to take care for their own spirits. Times of prayer, reflection, and drawing close to God are necessary preparations for worship leadership.

We have spoken at length in our book (Designing Worship Together) about the work of planning worship together. Even after the worship service has been planned and printed, worship leaders have personal preparation to do.

Nearly all of this preparation among worship leaders will depend on good communication and healthy relationships together. Make sure that all leaders have had face-to-face conversations before the service begins. Are all clearly aware of the theme of this service, especially if some who will lead were not involved in planning the service? Is everyone aware of his or her role? Is it clear how transitions will be made? Are there any lingering questions? Can you identify any potential areas of distraction?

All who will participate in worship leadership should gather for a time of prayer together before the service begins. Let them not only prepare their own heart, but put their hearts together with the hearts of others.

Aids to Preparation

Perhaps your group could brainstorm and put together a list that will help in your preparation. We encourage you to share it with the congregation through your bulletin or newsletter. For starters we would point to these considerations:

1. Use your congregation's website to provide information and reflections to encourage worshipers. Provide ideas and reflections about worship in general. In addition to information about the life of your congregation, post information about the sermon and passage for next Sunday's worship, including perhaps ideas and questions to reflect on.

2. Take a look at your lobby space. Is it an inviting space for worshipers to gather? Is it sufficient in size? Is it welcoming? What tone does it set for worshiping together?

3. Encourage worshipers to arrive early enough to meet others, have time for personal reflection, and be ready to enter the worship space before the service begins. Stragglers who enter worship after it has begun can be distracting to others.

4. Provide gathering music that will set a worshipful atmosphere. Let the gathering music be a transition time from the busy world into the presence of God. An instrumental prelude can be an effective bridge into worship and singing.

Questions for Discussion

1. Describe a "prepared worshiper." Psalm 15 and John 4:24 should help you. What would you look for in such a person?

2. What are some specific habits you have to prepare yourself for worship each week (internal heart preparation, pre-arrival and/or pre-service)?

3. What is a specific habit(s) you would like to implement to prepare yourself for worship each week (internal heart preparation, pre-arrival and/or pre-service)?

4. What distracting habits do you spot among your worshiping community? Make a list of possible ways in which they can be addressed.

5. What intentional efforts are worth reinforcing and encouraging because they are a positive influence in your congregation's readiness for worship each week?

6. Discuss the quotes at the top of the lesson (Dr. Constance Cherry) and in the middle of the lesson (Joyce Zimmerman. How does our own preparation or lack of preparation affect the corporate worship that takes place at Union Center each week?

Rules for Commenting

• This is intended to be a conversation that happens over time. (eight weeks to be exact!) Please limit your comments to the subject matter of this post. (in fact, I would be delighted if you used one of the questions as a prompt)
• It goes without saying, that your comments do not need to be in total agreement with the content in the post but they do need to be respectful and civil!
• This is intended to be a conversation that involves many people -- no lurkers allowed! If you are uncomfortable using the comment feature on this blog, you can email me your thoughts at tmurphy@unioncenter.org
  

intercession [disciplines for the inner life]

"Today I imagined my inner self as a place crowded with pins and needles. How could I receive anyone in my prayer when there is no real place for them to be free and relaxed? When I am still so full of preoccupations, jealousies, angry feelings, anyone who enters will get hurt. I had a very vivid realization that I must create some free space in my innermost self so that I may indeed invite others to enter and be healed. To pray for others means to offer others a hospitable place where I can really listen to their needs and pains. Compassion, therefore, calls for a self-scrutiny that can lead to inner gentleness.

If I could have a gentle "interiority" -- a heart of flesh and not of stone, a room with some spots on which one might walk barefooted -- then God and my fellow humans could meet each other there. Then the center of my heart can become the place where God can hear the prayer for my neighbors and embrace them with his love."

-- From The Genesis Diary by Henri J. Nouwen

God has been transforming my ability to embrace the tensions of emotional honesty and Christ-like compassion. It may kill me.

I'm not even kidding.

My understanding of intercession is elementary and cloddish. I imagine long to-do lists of People To Pray For and complex systems of remembering them all. I've at least learned not to tell someone I'll pray for them if I don't really want to do that. Better to risk appearing unaffected by another's plight than to perjure myself.

The holiest, most common, most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God, that is to take delight in and become accustomed to His divine company, speaking humbly and talking lovingly with Him at every moment, without rule or system, and especially in times of temptation, suffering, spiritual aridity, disgust and even of unfaithfulness and sin. We must continually work hard so that each of our actions is a way of carrying on little conversations with God, in any carefully prepared way but as it comes from the purity and simplicity of the heart. -- from The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

Brother Lawrence's journey toward practicing the presence of God began when he was captured by the image of a barren oak tree. I like the symbol -- although I'm not sure for the same reasons as Brother Lawrence. When I was a little girl we spent much of the warm weather months at my grandparents' cottage on a little pond in the middle of the country. On walks we'd disappear into the forest across the road and up a gravely pathway. At the top of the foresty hillside -- just after walking from the cool leafy darkness of the trees into the bee-buzzing sunlight -- stood an ancient, towering tree overlooking a black-berry-bush-infused field and a small twinkly lake. I loved this tree. It marked the top of a climb, yes, but also it had presence. I often would pause my hike long enough to sit against its bumpy trunk and journal or read or wonder. During my sixteenth summer I sat down in the presence of the aged tree in the angsty throes of a teenage romantic break-up. Years later when I took my children on walks around the lake we played games of spotting the tree way up there on top of the hill.

This is not some kind of pantheistic sonnet. Just a symbol of strength and comfort in the presence of something unmoveable and ancient. I think this is what I was supposed to learn about intercession. Well, that and one other: intercession is not about warm fuzzy words for the people we like, but I'll come back to that.

Nouwen's words pierce me. I am quite skilled at providing an external image of warm, hospitable empathy but much, too much of the time my interior self is as the priest states, crowded with pins and needles. This makes true intercession nearly impossible. There is no space to bring another with me into the presence of the Father. There is no place to intercede, to remember anyone outside of my own immediate concerns and preferences. No soft spots for another to stand barefooted in my remembrance.

This is where intercession becomes a discipline. I have no problem remembering people. Or maybe that should read: I have a problem remembering people. I think about, worry about, stew over and stress about people all the time. It's the remembering to the Father part that makes this a discipline. It's kicking the clutter of my soul out of the way to create a clear path to take that person to the Father.

"Will you pray for him?"

Prayer. An act of love, Mother had said.

"Of couse," Grandfather replied. 

"How do you pray for someone like that?"

Grandfather held out his open hand, palm up. "There are many different ways. I simply take him into my heart, and then put him into God's hand." Again he smiled. "That sounds like rather an athletic feat, doesn't it? Nevertheless it's as close as I can come to telling you."

-- from Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle

With that truth learned, intercession becomes about all who come to my mind and all I allow to enter my mind and heart. Not just the loved and the lovely; the lonely and the whole, the sick and the well, the wounded and the wounder, the friend and the enemy, the faithful and the faithless. With a gentle interior I am able to make space to bring many with me into the presence of the Father for His care and His judgment and His healing.

A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses. I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. ...This is a happy discovery for the Christian who begins to pray for others. There is no dislike, no personal tension, no estrangement that cannot be overcome by intercession as far as our side of it is concerned. Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day...Intercession means no more than to bring our brother into the presence of God, to see him under the Cross of Jesus as a poor human being and sinner in need of grace. Then everything in him that repels us falls away; we see him in all his destruction and need. His need and his sin become so heavy and oppressive that we feel them as our own, and we can do nothing else but pray...To make intercession means to grant our brother the same right that we have received, namely, to stand before Christ and share in his mercy. -- from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Bible is full of hearty examples of saints disciplined in intercession. Numbers 14 tells an account of Moses interceding on behalf of the Israelites who were busy with the task of slandering him and grumbling against him. Moses did not intercede out of some twisted sense of self-preservation; he interceded with the goal of God preserving His own Name and reputation in front of all the nations.

In 1 Samuel 12, the prophet admonishes the people for their sin of rejection of God as their king (you guessed it, slandering and grumbling and wish-dreaming for their ideal leader again). He then performed a sign of rain in the dry season to prove God's displeasure. The people begged Samuel to pray for them to not be killed by this God. Samuel assured them and instructed them this way: God, simply because of who He is, is not going to walk off and leave His people. God took delight in making you into His very own people. And neither will I walk off and leave you. That would be a sin against God. I'm staying right here at my post praying for you and teaching you the good and right way to live. (I haven't yet learned the discipline of calling down rain, but certainly I'm capable of staying at my prayer post!)

In Genesis 18 Abraham literally stands in God's way and confronts Him about His plans to to deliver harsh justice to Sodom. Abraham displays a holy blend of boldness and humility - confronting with persistence and frankness while at the same time acknowledging his frailty as a man before his Master. God seemed pleased with Abraham's behavior and consented to his requests.

It is amazing that a poor human creature is able to speak with God's high majesty in heaven and not be afraid. When we pray, the heart and the conscience must not pull away from God because of our sins and our unworthiness, or stand in doubt or be scared away. When we pray we must hold fast and believe that God has heard our prayer. It was for this reason that the ancients defined prayer as an Ascensus mentis ad Deum, "a climbing up of the heart unto God". -- Martin Luther

Intercession as climbing, confronting, remembering, staying, imagining, bathing, welcoming --athletic feats indeed. But none apart from the immoveable, welcoming, all-knowing, ancient, smiling presence of God.

Ascensus mentis ad Deum: may I become lithe with its movement.

Worship & Arts at the Center [part 1 of 8]: A New Model and a Renewed Liturgy

Between the weeks of July 12 and August 30 the Worship & Arts team at Union Center will be working through eight lessons that focus on the specific actions we peform together in worship each Sunday.


While my hope is that the team will do most of the commenting here as a way of adding to the conversation and engaging with the material, if you are reading this post I'd love to have your comments, too!


Ready? Here we go!

Week One: A New Model and A Renewed Liturgy

Why Does This Converation Matter?


One of many important reasons this conversation matters is that the way we worship (intentionality) forms our view of God, each other and ourselves.

A simple evaluative technique I use in parishes is not whether they get the rite right. That's easy to evaluate; I can go down a checklist. Real evaluation of our liturgies, our worship in our parishes, can only be analyzed five, six, seven years down the line when we look at our corporate personality as a parish or a congregation and either do or do not see growth. If we do not see growth, we need to ask ourselves, what are we doing? If we see growth, then we have to thank God, because it's God's doing. -- Joyce Zimmerman

Definitions of worship

• shachah = to prostrate oneself as a subject to a master; to bow down and stoop (Ps. 66:4, Nehemiah 8: 5,6)

• proskuneo = to prostrate oneself; to do reverence; to kiss towards

• Worship is organized and directed action toward God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and through the power of the Spirit.

• Worship is orchestrated action that we do in community. Worship is work. (Story of a seminary professor who often said: It’s time for chapel. Let’s go get God worshipped.)

• The OT and NT contain words that suggest worship is work.

• Abad = the work that the priests and Levites do in order to “get God worshipped”. (lighting lamps, burning incence, preparing animals, sweaty, messy, dutiful things)

• In the NT, Greek counterpart: leitourgia = service, work , ministry (Romans 12:1, Hebrews 9:21, Luke 1:23; Hebrews 8:1,2)

• koinonia = participate, fellowship, partnership (Phil. 1: 4,5)

• Worship is to do something, to become active, to invest in an enterprise, to roll up our sleeves, to bow, to serve, to light lamps…

{notes from an online presentation of The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship; presentation given by Dr. Constance Cherry, professor of Worship and Christian Ministries at Indiana Wesleyan University }


Forms of worship


We have one term in the English language that has to do a tremendous amount of work. We have one term to mean three different things.

1. Worship of God in all we do in life (Romans 12:1)
2. Worship as an assembly
3. Worship in private moments of adoration

{notes from Transforming Culture Symposium, John Witvliet, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, 04/08}

While worship as a lifestyle and a devotional discipline are significantly intertwined with the corporate expression of worship, this conversation is focused on the weekly gathering(s) of worship at Union Center Christian Church.




A new model


Based on the belief our elders have communicated that Union Center has what it needs in our current resource and personnel to get God worshipped we propose a team-led rather than a personality-led approach to our weekly worship gathering(s). This flattened model would best steward the talents, personalities and gifting of our current musicians and artists and would increasingly blur the lines between the team on the platform and the team in the pew.


A renewed liturgy


We feel that the corporate worship expression at Union Center has not grown up with the rest of our ministry learnings (formally and informally spoken). One example of this could be our covenant value of prayer. How much time is spent in our service order doing the work of desperate prayer together? Another example is our covenant value of freedom. How much time in our weekly 75-minute service order is spent hearing stories of freedom or celebrating specific freedoms experienced in our congregation, or the opposite of that—mourning the brokenness in our community?


Combining both the positive and negative factors of worshipping in a non-denominational church under a leadership that encourages us to pursue a broad spectrum in worship, the vision drift under a variety of worship leaders and the influence of a consumer-based para-church subculture we are a generation of shallow, uneducated, unformed, doctrinally and biblically illiterate worshippers. The question can not be whether or not we use liturgy. Liturgy happens on its own with any group that gathers together to worship on a regular basis. The question instead is whether the liturgy we employ is intentional or unintentional? If worship indeed forms us we would propose a sturdier, historically and biblically-grounded order for our weekly worship gatherings.


The term liturgy is another English word that must do many jobs. The following definitions and descriptions are intended to aid in this conversation:


Definitions of liturgy


1. a form of public worship; ritual

2. a collection of formularies for public worship

3. a particular arrangement of services

4. a particular form or type of the Eucharistic service

Dictionary.com

A worship that will have staying power is a worship that is firmly grounded in the old, yet aware of and concerned for new ways to respond to the old, old story. -- Robert Webber, Worship Old & New, p. 18

For the purposes of this conversation, we are really looking at two forms of the word liturgy. We consider the larger sense from the biblical definitions of worship as a work of the people (corporate), as the work that goes into getting God worshipped. We also consider the more specific definition of liturgy as a particular arrangement of services.


If we, in fact, value an emphasis of the corporate over the individual in our weekly worship gatherings we see worship as a true work of the people. If we, in fact, desire the worship expression at Union Center to connect with the historic Bride of Christ and the global church, then we treasure its common expressions, or liturgy. (e.g., the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s Supper, etc.)


Excerpt from Eugene Peterson

Liturgy is the means that the church uses to keep baptized Christians in living touch with the entire living holy community as it participates formationally in Holy Scripture. I want to use the word ‘liturgy’ to refer to this intent and practice of the church insofar as it pulls everything in and out of the sanctuary into a life of worship, situates everything past and present coherently as participation in the revelation written for us in Scripture. Instead of limiting liturgy to the ordering of the community in discrete acts of worship, I want to use in this large and comprehensive way, the centuries-deep and continents-wide community, spread out in space and time, as formed by the words in this book – our existence understood liturgically, that is, connectedly, in the context of the three-personal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and furnished in the text of the Holy Scripture…

Liturgy gathers the holy community as it reads the Holy Scriptures into the sweeping total rhythms of the church year in which the story of Jesus and the Christian makes its rounds century after century, the large an easy interior rhythms of a year that moves from birth, life, death, resurrection, on to spirit, obedience, faith, and blessing. Without liturgy we lose the rhythms and end up tangled in the jerky, ill-timed, and insensitive interruptions of public-relations campaigns, school openings and closings, sales days, tax deadlines, inventories, and elections. Advent is buried under ‘shopping days before Christmas.’ The joyful disciplines of Lent are exchanged for the anxious penitentials of filling out income tax forms. Liturgy keeps us in touch with the story as it defines and shapes our beginnings and ends, our living and dying, our rebirths and blessings in this Holy Spirit, text-formed community, visible and invisible.

When Holy Scripture is embraced liturgically, we become aware that a lot is going on all at once, a lot of different people are doing a lot of different things. The community is on its feet, at work for God, listening and responding to the Holy Scriptures. The holy community, in the process of being formed by the Holy Scriptures, is watching and listening to God’s revelation taking shape before and in them as they follow Jesus, each person playing his or her part in the Spirit.
It is useful to reflect that the word ‘liturgy’ did not originate in church or worship settings. In the Greek world, it referred to public service, what a citizen did for the community. As the church used the word in relation to worship, it kept this ‘public service’ quality – working for the community on behalf of or following orders from God. As we worship God, revealed personally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in our Holy Scriptures, we are not doing something apart from or away from the non-Scripture-reading world; we do it for the world – bringing all creation and all history before God, presenting our bodies and all the beauties and needs of humankind before God in praise and intercession, penetrating and serving the world for whom Christ died in the strong name of the Trinity.

Liturgy puts us to work along with all the others who have been and are being put to work in the world by and with Jesus, following our spiritually-forming text. Liturgy keeps us in touch with all the action that has been and is being generated by the Spirit as given witness in the biblical text. Liturgy prevents the narrative form of Scripture from being reduced to private, individualized consumption.

Understood this way ‘liturgical’ has little to do with choreography on the chancel or aesthetics of the sublime. It is obedient, participatory listening to Holy Scripture in the company of the holy community through time (our two-thousand years of responding to this text) and in space (our friends in Christ all over the world). High-church Anglicans, revivalistic Baptists, hands-in-the-air praising Charismatics, and Quakers sitting in a bare room in silence are all required to read and live this text liturgically, participating in the holy community’s reading of Holy Scripture. There is nothing ‘churchy’ or elitist about it; it is a vast and dramatic ‘story-ing,’ making sure that we are taking our place in the story and letting everyone else have their parts in the story also, making sure that we don’t leave anything or anyone out of the story. Without sufficient liturgical support and structure we are very apt to edit the story down to fit our individual tastes and predispositions.

-- Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, p.20

Forms of liturgy


Studies of worship throughout every era of God’s people doing the work of worship together provide rich resources for our learning and encouragement in this era at Union Center Christian Church. We find our heritage from the Old Testament Hebrew tabernacle and temple traditions, the New Testament churches, the Byzantine ceremonial traditions and love for the aesthetic, the Roman simplicity in symbol and love for architecture, the Reformation and free-church movement’s focus on the preaching of the Word and evangelism.


But for this conversation it would be more helpful to focus on the modern and postmodern church’s response to this rich heritage. The following represent three attitudes, responses or stances taken by the church:

1. First, there are the traditionalists who want worship to be as it was. These are the people who resist change or are so deeply committed to a particular historical model of worship that talk of incorporating new styles of worship is intolerable.
2. Second, there are those who wish to jettison traditional worship as irrelevant and go in search of a worship that is contemporary. Contemporary worship is difficult to pinpoint since there are so many forms of creative contemporary worship, ranging from the guitar mass to entertainment models of worship.
3. A third approach…blends both the old and the new, a worship that respects the tradition yet seeks to incorporate worship styles formed by the contemporary church…refer to this approach as worship old and new.

{Taken from Worship: Old & New by Robert Webber, pp. 12, 13}


If we have heard Pastor John and our elders well and have presented accurately the vision and values we have heard from them, we believe the best way to get God worshipped at Union Center is not only with a new model but with a renewed liturgy. And we propose this renewed liturgy be formed by a solid understanding and skilled practice of the worship old and new described above.


Discussion Questions


1. What is another way to say that "the way we worship forms our view of God, each other and ourselves"? Comment on Joyce Zimmerman's quote at the top of the lesson.


2. Consider the statement: Worship is to do something, to become active, to invest in an enterprise, to roll up our sleeves, to bow, to serve, to light lamps… What does this kind of "rolling up our sleeves" look like in our modern day worship assembly?


3. What are some of the benefits and challenges of a team-led approach to worship leading?


4. List a common service order or liturgy at Union Center from the past several years. What elements seem intentional? What seem unintentional?


5. Tell me your favorite part of Eugene Peterson's excerpt. (the premise is that everyone will have a favorite part!)


6. What are some clues that "contemporary" liturgy has faded into "traditionalist" liturgy?


7. Give me your best idea of a service element that blends old and new forms of worship.


Rules for Commenting


This is intended to be a conversation that happens over time. (eight weeks to be exact!) Please limit your comments to the subject matter of this post. (in fact, I would be delighted if you used one of the questions as a prompt)


It goes without saying, that your comments do not need to be in total agreement with the content in the post but they do need to be respectful and civil!


This is intended to be a conversation that involves many people -- no lurkers allowed! If you are uncomfortable using the comment feature on this blog, you can email me your thoughts at tmurphy@unioncenter.org

What are you waiting for?? Click on the "comment" button and start writing!