SLICE: EVALUATING AND IMPROVING WORSHIP S Sacramental: Congregations continue to grow in the richness of their sacramental life in worship and in ministry. L Liturgical: Worship is primarily the work of the people, not simply the work of the folks up front or even the production of the worship planning team. I Indigenous: Worship consistently reflects the best gifts of your particular people gathered in your particular time and place. C Connected: Worship is connected and continually connects worshipers to Christ, to all Christians in all times and places, and to ministry reaching all the world. E Embodied: Worship calls and enables worshipers to offer their whole selves to God in many ways, including with their bodies.
Sacramental How do you celebrate the sacraments as fully as you can (words/gestures/music/ holy hardware /movement in space) where you are? How do you help people live out the sacraments and the Great Thanksgiving in daily life? Services of the Baptismal Covenant Baptism, Confirmation/Reception of New Members, Re- affirmation Celebrating the Ritual How you say the words/offer the prayers Gestures Music (before, during, after) Location/size/prominence of the font/amount and form of water Movement and orientation of the congregation Living the Ritual What do you do to help people actively in their daily lives Renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness? Repent of their sin? Resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? Embrace and serve Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord? Live in union with the whole church opened to all people? Serve as Christ s representatives in the world? Holy Communion Regular and Special Occasions Celebrating the Ritual How you say the words/offer the prayers Invitation, confession and pardon, peace, presentation of gifts, Great Thanksgiving, Distribution, Post- Communion Prayer, Sending forth Gestures Music (before, during, after) Location/size/prominence of the Lord s Table Movement and orientation of the congregation Living the Ritual What do you do to help people in their daily lives be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood? Preach good news to the poor Proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind(ed) Set at liberty those who are oppressed Announce the time has come when God will save the people Heal the sick, feed the hungry, eat with sinners What do you do to help people in their daily lives offer themselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ s offering for us?
Liturgical Liturgy <Gk. leitourgia- - laos (people), ergon (work) work of the people How is the worship truly the work of the people all the people and not just the folks up front? Exercise: Review Worship Bulletins and/or Video of Worship At each point in the service, ask: Who is leading? Who is working (include tech folk)? How? Who is becoming more engaged? How? Who is becoming less engaged or disengaged? How? Looking at the service overall, ask: Who remains engaged the most? Who becomes disengaged the most? Where and why? Given your strengths as a congregation, what might be done with the flow or the actions of the service to encourage more engagement by more people more of the time? How does the design of worship where you are help people both to expand their repertoire and to make worship their own over time? (Repetition, following a basic pattern allowing for improve/creativity)?
Indigenous No plug- and- play! No one right way! How is worship where you are truly the work of these particular people, in your particular community, at this particular time? These Particular People Describe a time when worship where you are seemed to express the voice, cadences, and movement of these particular people best? What factors contributed to make all of that click? What are the gifts people in your congregation have that could be offered in worship? Music Arts Performance Technology Design Cultural/traditional heritage Expert perspective (trained, skilled and life experience/testimony) What process do you have in place to find, evaluate and deploy the gifts of the people in your congregation in worship? Your Particular Community If the congregation is the public face of the Christian faith, worship where you are also has to take seriously the various publics of the people you and the people in your congregation have relationships with: - - All the people in the immediate neighborhood/region of your public worship space - - All the people in the social networks of your existing congregation - - work connections - - nearby family connections - - home neighborhood connections - - school connections - - leisure/sports place connections - - shopping place connections - - virtual connections within reasonable driving distance of worship space - - community service connections (clubs, organizations, etc.) What are the gifts of these people that could be offered in worship? (See list above) What process do you have in place to invite and include these people to offer their gifts in worship? This Particular Time What planning processes or actions in worship regularly help locate worship in the here and now, rather than merely in some golden past or wished for future? - - Prayer requests and prayers reflecting current realities/concerns - - Music whose texts or tunes capture lived realities - - Preaching - - Sacraments - - Actions in worship that keep people connected, not tuning out - - Appropriate use of appropriate technologies
Connected Worship is religion re- linking enacted in public ritual. Christian worship specifically re- links those gathered to God, to each other, to the wider world, and to all Christians in all times and places. At Holy Communion we pray for the Spirit to make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world. Exercise: Bulletin Review One with Christ in our Triune God Mark places in your bulletin where your worship that day expresses, affirms or enacts unity with Christ and unity in the Trinity. Express says it (hymns, sermons) Affirm agrees with it (creeds, calls to worship) Enact makes it happen (sacraments) One with Each Other Mark places in your bulletin where worship that day helps you express, affirm or enact unity with each other a) Here and now b) With people around the world and across time c) In ways that witness to how God s future salvation is already happening now One of the ways we share our connection with each other is through a shared common pattern of worship. What pattern or patterns of worship do you see at work in your worship? UM Basic Pattern/Ecumenical/Ancient Ordo Entrance, Word/Response, Thanks/Communion, Sending Aim: The people of God encounter God, offer themselves, and are sent into ministry Revival/Seeker Basic Pattern Praise/Preliminaries, Preaching for a Decision, Invitation Aim: To lead sinners/seekers to an encounter with/decision for Jesus Christ Specific Cultural Pattern forms and aims vary by culture Sunday School/Creative Worship Pattern Announcements of Programs/Presentations/Emphases, Praising God (variety/novelty), Special Music (creative, unusual), Teaching (children through special lesson or program, adults through sermon), Closing Song or Action (if not repeated then summarizing what was learned/focused on that day) Aim: To teach/encounter God creatively American Protestant Aesthetic Preaching Service Pattern Praise, Confessions (faith and/or sin), Offering, Oratorial Pastoral Prayer, Choral Music, (usually by robed choirs, high art/poetry, classical music/hymns), Preaching, Benediction Aim: To inspire the spirits of the worshipers
What does this pattern or mix of patterns help connect you to? Are there ways your pattern or mix of patterns may create distractions or disconnections? One in Ministry to All the World Invite the group to move their hands as you describe each of these ways worship connects us to the world Hands up: intercession for the church and the world How does prayer in worship where you are help worshipers offer the whole church and the whole world to God in prayer? Hands on: ministry in the world Where in your worship do you link help people directly with group or personal ministries of mercy, reconciliation and justice (examples: the peace, announcements, stories of/by community ministries or missions, prayers, specific invitations to service, etc)? Hands out: projections of money or influence flowing from worship How are resources collected in worship specifically identified as being channeled for ministries in and beyond your congregation or community? (offering, communion offering, special offerings, others?) Overall: How do the patterns you see emerging from your labeling of your worship services reflect a) the presence and balance of elements of connectedness; b) areas where connection happens well (strengths); c) opportunities to expand these strengths into other areas?
Embodied We love God and worship God with our whole selves mind, and spirit and body. And our selves are not simply our own, but are always being inherited, received, and shared. Worship that offers our whole selves to God with each other seeks to make the best use of our whole selves as embodied community at each moment and through the flow of the whole. Key terms: Flow: See especially Energy Map http://is.gd/v418sv Bearings in Worship http://is.gd/mjp5lx Order of Perception http://is.gd/q9snzt Attentional Worship http://is.gd/aky0rq Alignment of Actions/Words Where are your current strengths in each of these areas? Where can you leverage existing strengths to grow more strengths? Focus Areas for Embodied Worship The Use, Design, and Re- Design(ability) of Worship Space Examples: Room for movement A Table that s inviting A Font that s visible and used Space that says it belongs to the worshiping community The Voicing of Scripture Sung, spoken, chanted, dramatized, art, music, drums, dance, rhythm The Lifting up of Praise and Prayer voice, volume, gesture, posture, poetry, song, embodied prayer Enacting Sermon and Sacraments Sermon as enactment not of manuscript but of Word of God alive and active in your midst Presiding at sacraments HOW the ritual is enacted by presider and people and HOW we all interact with basic elements of water, Spirit, voice, body, blood, bath, Word, and meal Alignment of Actions, Space and Words (Use bulletin of one or more services to review) 1. Where in our worship are the actions or positions of our bodies generally best aligned with the words we are saying? (Leadership, Presence, Energy) 2. Where in our worship do changes in movement or position seem to be most helpful in helping us transition from the action completed to the new action about to begin? (Flow, Bearings ) 3. What elements in our worship space seem best aligned with the actions we are trying to offer in worship? What adjustments to the arrangement of worship space might we make to make it easier to do what we are trying to do? (Space Design)