liturgy – Salvaged Faith

How to plan a funeral #NaBloPoMo

Posted on November 10, 2014Leave a comment

Today’s prompt comes from BlogHer Blogging: What knowledge do you have that others don’t? Write a “how to” post about anything you’ve got skills for, small or large.

In the first month of ministry, I had three funerals in my community. Nothing about their lives were the same. A baby who had struggled from the beginning. A good and faithful servant entering his nineties. A beloved grandmother.

Armed with my pocket book of worship and a prayer, I managed my way through.

Over time in that community I did more funerals than I can count. One year it was nearly 25 different services. Along the journey, I developed a system of preparation for the service that might be helpful. My number one goal is always to weave the life story of the person who has died with the story of God. Using traditional liturgy and pieces I have cut and pasted from various sources, I hope it might be helpful for you also.

The Family Meeting

What made ____ who he/she was?
What will you miss the most?
Tell me about where they grew up.
How did they meet their spouse? Where did they make their home together?
Vocational questions: if homemaker – what kinds of things did she cook/sew, if farmer – what crops/animals, etc. Stories usually come out here.
Ask the funeral director about how they died… then ask follow-up questions with the family: What was it like seeing them in the hospital for so long? What were their later years like? How did they adjust to a loss of physical ability?
Ask about what is important to the family about the funeral itself: music, scriptures, those who speak
Be kind. Be firm. Be open.
- Most families haven’t been through this kind of planning before. They don’t know what they don’t know.
- They don’t know what is normal. If there are things you feel are inappropriate, it is okay to simply say so, but figure out what that element represented for them and try to incorporate it.
- Don’t be afraid to embrace the weird… sometimes it is the wonderful.

The Sermon

This is kind of the basic structure that I work in for most funerals… especially when I don’t know the person. If I do, I have more freedom to play around and adapt, but this structure helps me to use the above questions to make the meditation personal.

Today we come together to remember the life of ______________.. Each of you are here today, because you carry with you memories of a dear friend, a neighbor, or an aunt who loved to work with her hands and who loved her family and her friends.

Obituary information woven in with stories from the family about his life growing up, marriage, life with kids, his work, what she loved, etc. Don’t read the obituary… tell their story in four or five paragraphs. Include the little details the family shared

[Name] was born not far from here on June 11, 1927 to [Name] and [Name] . He served his country faithfully during World War II… [Name] remembered how the young men would all hop on the train together here to go off to training and to service. [Name] was actually still in training when the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred, and then was later stationed there.

In 1949, [Name] married [Name] here in and together they brought [Name] and [Name] into the world. [Name] worked for well over forty years with his father and brother as a part of the family business. And then he watched as [Name] and [Name] came into their lives… and then grandchildren… and eventually great-grandchildren.

Even running his own business however, [Name] an knew that work wasn’t everything. The family remembers fondly weekends hanging out with the neighbors and dancing to Lawrence Welk in the living room – simpler times. In almost every picture I got to see of [Name] last night at the visitation, he has that great smile on his face… you can see that he was enjoying his life… almost as if he had a secret that he was treasuring in his heart. [Name] also liked to take time to fish and boat and he liked to take the grandkids camping in the RV.

Connect something about their life story to scripture or a song – something that sums up who they were in a way that connects us with the divine.

Be honest about the reality of death and the promise of resurrection:

More recently, you as a family have been through some rough weeks. A month and a half ago, [Name] had a stroke that dramatically altered your lives. Unlike some illnesses that gradually overwhelm us – this was a sudden transformation.

Perhaps one of the hardest parts that we have to do in this life is accept that all of the things that we love and all of the people that love us eventually will pass on in this life. In the book of Isaiah we heard the words: All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades… but the word of our God will stand forever.

These mortal lives that we lead, they are not forever. [Name] knew this to be true. (something about their own experience with death – spouse, child, the loss of a physical or mental ability in her last days, etc.) And as some of you gathered around [Name] bedside in her last days and weeks, that was an ever present reality. We come from nothing but dust and to dust we shall return.

But in between, we have the opportunity not only to lead beautiful and wonderful lives, but we have the opportunity to clothe ourselves with a new life as well – a life that will endure beyond even the valley of the shadow of death – a life that will extend beyond the grave.

Jesus told his disciples as they were gathered together that in his Father’s house there is room for many – and that a place was being prepared for them and for us. As we remember all of those things that you loved about [Name] – we also celebrate that those are the very things that she is able to enjoy once again… that the life in these past years that gradually slipped away from her is now restored – that she is in the presence of our God and that she loves you all dearly.

Connect God’s story back to their memories and name very specific things the family has named:

That doesn’t mean that we won’t be sad. Sometimes when someone has (lived for so long, or suffered for so long or done so much in their life) – we think that we should simply be grateful for how long we did get to share our love with them, grateful that (we got to experience…. Or that their suffering is over… or that we had so much time together) But as we celebrate her life, we remember all of those things that you will miss. You will miss… [be specific! – the smell of cookies baking in her kitchen…. the way he yelled at the television every the Hawkeyes lost… etc. ]

And we should mourn. Because it means that we remember and that we cherish what we have lost. But also know that in your time of mourning – we are promised comfort. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. The same shepherd who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death walks beside each of you today and as you leave this place and walks with you forever more. Amen, and Amen.

MY BIGGEST ADVICE –Figure out what you want to say in general at funerals – what is the message of comfort and hope, life and resurrection that you want to speak. It is okay for that to be said at every single funeral that you do. The last third of the above message is what I say most of the time… put the gospel in your own words and continue to share that good news. The rest is simply weaving in their story with God’s story.

The Service

Entrance

Here is where customs will dictate.

At my funeral home, the casket remains at the back and when I walk to the front, the director closes the casket and then the music stops and I begin.
At the church, the casket is wheeled to the front, I follow and make my way to the pulpit, and the family follows me… the whole church stands as the family enters and then sits only after the words of grace/greeting
For a graveside (more later) we all gather, the casket is closed and I start when everyone is present.

Words of Grace

Greeting

Invocation

Psalm 23

Song –

Common Scripture Lessons

Ecclesiastes 3: (1-8) 9-15 – use OFTEN for farmers, blue collar folks who enjoyed the work of their hands and were simple people.
Gospel Reading – John 14:1-3
I also let scriptures from the family direct the mood here – we’ve used the beatitudes, Christmas scriptures, favorite verses ( ask why!) , Revelation 21, etc.

Message (not long… 5-10 minutes)

Song –

Litany of Thanksgiving (adapted from Book of Worship and from materials at West End UMC, Nashville)

Gracious and loving God, we thank you for all with which you have blessed us even to this day: for the gift of joy in days of health and strength and for the gifts of your abiding presence and promise in the days of pain and grief. It is right and good in this our time of need to offer thanks for [Name]’s life among us. We take comfort in the memories of her presence and the wonderful ways in which she blessed our lives.

(If a family wants to have a time of sharing… this is where I do it – in the context of giving thanks for that persons life and celebrating memories… if no one stands, then I have these ready to go and prepared… if they aren’t doing sharing, we go through these anyways as a part of the litany/prayer)

We give you thanks and remember her faithfulness as a wife to [Name] for over 30 years.

We give you thanks and celebrate her love of her children, [Name], [Name] and [Name]and her grandchildren and grandchildren.

We give you thanks for the way she created her own family in the staff and residents at ____.

And we give you thanks for the work of her hands – her vocation as a homemaker and her love of crafts.

And now that [Name]’s race is complete and her struggle is over, we commend your servant [Name] into your loving arms, O merciful God. Receive her into the blessed rest of everlasting peace and into the glorious company of your saints. Fill us with your peace and abiding comfort, and keep us true in the love with which we hold one another. Above all else we thank you for Jesus, who died our death and rose for our sake, and who lives and prays for us. And as he taught us, so now we pray.

The Lord’s Prayer

Benediction

Song (especially if they want three – here is a good place to add the last one)

Graveside Only Service

(entire service is same as memorial service through the message… with the exception of probably NOT having music… this is where the committal becomes a part of the service, instead of separate)

Litany of Thanksgiving & Committal

We give you thanks and remember her faithfulness as a wife to [Name]’ for over 30 years.

We give you thanks and celebrate her love of her children, [Name]s and her grandchildren and grandchildren.

We give you thanks for the way she created her own family in the staff and residents at _____.

And we give you thanks for the work of her hands – her vocation as a homemaker and her love of crafts.

And now that [Name]’s race is complete and her struggle is over, into your hands we commend your song/daughter _____, in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life the Jesus Christ our Lord.

This body we commit to the ground… earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Now as we offer _____ back into your arms, receive him/her into the blessed rest of everlasting peace and into the glorious company of your saints. Comfort us, O God, in our lonliness, strengthen us in our weakness, and give us the courage to face the future unafraid. Fill us with your peace and abiding comfort, and keep us true in the love with which we hold one another. Above all else, we thank you for Jesus, who died our death and rose for our sake, and who lives and prays for us. And as he taught us, so now we pray…

The Lord’s Prayer

Benediction

I hope this is helpful for any beginning pastors out there…. or any of us more seasoned pastors who are looking for something to get them out of a rut.

Wedding Season =)

Posted on May 14, 2011Leave a comment

Deprecated: preg_match(): Passing null to parameter #2 ($subject) of type string is deprecated in /home4/salvagh0/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jetpack/jetpack_vendor/automattic/jetpack-image-cdn/src/class-image-cdn.php on line 682

I have to admit it… I love weddings. This is my fourth season in ministry and after today, I will have 14 weddings under my belt!

As the pastor of a small town church, we don’t have a lot of couples in the church who are getting married, but I often am called for ceremonies at local outdoor locations or even in the church for couples who simply want a church wedding.

I know some pastors that hate doing weddings. I am not one of those people.

I like being the mediator between families and helping them come together for a special day. I like working with photographers. I think secretly at one time I wanted to be a party planner, and so this is a little way to experience that =)

But what I love the most about weddings is not the flowers or the dresses or even the food (and we all know that I love food!).

It is actually the same reason that I love funerals… I get the chance to tell someone’s story.

Photo by : Harry Fodor

With weddings, I have spent many sessions preparing with the couple for the ceremony. I get to know how they interact, what they hope for, and from where they have come. And then in front of all of their friends and family, I get to help them begin this next part of their journey together. It is an honor to be a part of that moment.

Actually telling their story through the wedding ritual is the fun part. My first piece of homework for any engaged couple I meet with is for them to come up with a word or a phrase that describes their relationship. That word or phrase becomes the foundation, the metaphor, for the entire service. We find scripture readings that relate to their relationship based on that word. My message is based around that word. The liturgy is adapted to suit that word.

I have had easy words to work with like partnership and fire/passion. But some couples challenge me to really do some research with words like “symbiotic” and “osculate.” Sometimes only by grace, the story is woven together and their relationship springs out of the liturgy.

Today, I get to be a part of my best friend’s wedding. I get to help tell the story of her and her husband-to-be. And this is one of those days where I just pray I don’t bawl in joy at the beauty of it all and the amazing music they will make together in their lives.

how can we laugh at a time like this?

Posted on April 27, 20111 Comment

I’m sitting at my computer, looking out the 24th floor window of my hotel in Des Moines. I am currently attending our annual School for Ministry and learning all sorts of neat things about capital campaigns and what kinds of fonts to use on worship slides. We’ve had some good practical teaching this year… with some good theological underpinings. It usually is. I’m glad Iowa does this!

Anywho… here I sit, looking out the window at 12:26am at the quiet streets below. I’m still up because I’m trying to plan worship for Sunday so that I can send my organist the hymns. I’m exhausted. Both from Holy Week and now these days of sitting in a conference room with no windows for hours upon hours. I do not want to preach. I have two funerals ahead of me in the days to come. And someone mentions “Holy Humor Sunday.”

I’ve heard of Holy Humor Sunday… but never actually done one. It’s this tradition (a very old tradition) of laughing on the Sunday after Easter as we celebrate the cosmic joke that God plays on sin and death when Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. It is a day to laugh, to lift up our hearts, to thank God that we know already the end of the story.

I’m loving this idea. I’ve spent about an hour already looking up hymns and liturgy and of course, jokes to tell.

And then I realize that since I’ve been holed up in a conference room for the last two days that I have no idea what has been going on in the world. I check CNN, and I check weather.com… 72 dead from tornadoes in one town in Alabama… friends freaking out on facebook over tornadoes that barely clipped their own homes and the severe weather alerts that have them shaking in their boots every time the sirens go off.

I start to think about these two funerals that I have coming up this very weekend.

I start to remember the brokenness so many people in our communities are experiencing right now.

I start to look out on that quiet street before me and wonder who is sleeping in an alley tonight, instead of in a king size bed at the Marriott.

I know in my bones that God has already won. I know that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. I understand. I believe. But I find it so hard to keep that Easter joy in my heart because we haven’t reached the end of the story yet! We are inbetween times… in between the empty tomb and the new creation. It’s here, but not fully. It’s already, but not yet.

How on earth can we laugh at a time like this? How can we laugh as cities are ravaged by deadly winds and little ones go to bed hungry tonight? How can we laugh when people are staring death in the face and losing? How can we laugh when the disparity between the haves and the havenots is so stark?

Maybe the question is… how can we not laugh?

How can we not just take a deep breath and remember that God is in control… not us.

St. John Chrysostom preached in his famous Easter sermon:

If anyone is devout and loves God, let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast. If anyone is a wise servant, let him rejoice and enter into the joy of his Lord.

He gives rest to him who comes at the 11th hour, even as to him who has worked from the first hour. And He shows mercy upon the last, and cares for the first.

Let all then enter into the joy of your Lord; and receive your reward, both the first and likewise the second. You rich and poor together, keep the feast. You sober and you heedless, celebrate the day.

Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast… Let all receive the riches of loving-kindness.

Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us free.

O Death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown.

Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and the tomb is emptied of the dead. To Him be glory and dominion unto ages of ages. Amen.

This world is broken and imperfect and horrible things happen all around us. But if we cannot laugh in the midst of our sorrows, then the Devil has already won. If we cannot laugh and lift up one anothers spirits, then there is no hope. If we cannot laugh and rejoice, then why keep going at all?

Christ is risen. Death is overthrown. Life reigns.

We don’t have to be afraid. We don’t have to be scared. We know the end of the story and we can laugh in the face of all that tries to hurt us.

Those words are so powerful… and so hard to believe in.

But maybe… just maybe… if we get together as a community and we laugh, we will find the faith we need to trust. Maybe together we can find the strength to laugh in the face of sin and death and to really and truly mean it.

cut and paste liturgy of JOY!

Posted on December 7, 20101 Comment

I am definately a cut and paste liturgical writer. I don’t have the time and energy most days to do the good hard creative work it takes to listen for God speaking and to craft liturgy. And there are other people out there who do it so much better than I do!

There are a few places that I typically turn for inspiration – the favorite of mine being Thom M. Shuman (TMS). Another favorite haunt is the United Methodist Church’s General Board of Discipleship and the Worship Planning Helps there. I use hymns and turn them into responsive readings. We sing. We pray. We make liturgy happen.

But sometimes, those pieces need to be all woven together. Sometimes a bit of this and a chunk of that speaks to me.

Recently, a colleague Sean McRoberts and I created a communion liturgy using the basic liturgy in the Hymnal, but incorporating the Charles Wesley classic: O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing. And when it came up as a possibility for music this Sunday as we think about the gift of JOY we await at Advent… I had to throw that into the mix, too.

So, here it is… in its fullness. The cut and paste liturgy of JOY!

Prayer of Confession

Ever Present Peace, you came to save us, but that is so hard to remember in this hectic season. Our impatience for Christmas to arrive gets in the way of listening to our children singing in their rooms. We let the blinking lights blind us to your quiet presence in a noisy world. We get so caught up in the stories of violence, we cannot hear your voice reminding us not to be afraid.

As you poured out your mercy on all who have gone before us, shower us with grace and forgiveness. Then, our eyes will be opened to all your wonders, our ears will echo with the anthems of the angels, and our emptiness will be filled with the life gifted to us through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. (TMS)

Words of Assurance

Dear ones of God, this is the good news: God comes to us to bring the healing of hope, the joy of justice into our hearts.
We need wait no longer. We will go and tell everyone what we have seen and heard! Thanks be to God. Amen. (TMS)

In Christ, your head, you then shall know, shall feel your sins forgiven;

Anticipate your heaven below, and own that love is heaven.

The Great Thanksgiving

The God who is coming to us be with you!
And also with you!
Lift your hearts to the One who turns barren deserts into seas of grace.
We lift them to the Lord!
Beloved of God, let us come to the table with songs of joy on our lips. (TMS, adapted)

O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King, the triumphs of His grace!

It is right to give you thanks and praise,
Great God of the Coming Dawn,
for in each new day you surprise the earth with splendor.
Your Spirit moves across the face of the waters and brings forth life.

At the dawn of all things in a garden you worked the earth.

Elbow deep in mud you fashioned us, gifted us, gave us work to do.
Made from the earth, Made by your hand,
We forgot who we were

We forgot who you were

and we tried to remake ourselves.

We rejected your love and fell into sin and death.

Yet even in our darkness you continued to speak light and life.

…And so we come to live on the edge of your new and promised day.

[We come to wait for your Son Jesus Christ our Lord]

[His] coming was announced by wilderness prophets
and [he] arrived to the song of angels
in the choir stall of a manger.
In Jesus you not only took our name but our flesh.
He was the One promised
He announced the new day and the acceptable year
When blind folks would see
And poor folks would rejoice
When captives would be set free
And the oppressed would once more walk upright in liberty.

In stories he spoke of waiting bridesmaids and prodigal sons,
With tears and compassion he brought a dead man to life
and gave a woman at a well the living water she sought.
With anger he overturned tables and challenged the powerful.
On the cross he revealed the power of weakness
and in the emptiness of the tomb
he gave us a glimpse of your tomorrow
that does not end in death. (AJ – see note at bottom)

He speaks, and listening to his voice, new life the dead receive;
The mournful, broken hearts rejoice, the humble poor believe.
He breaks the power of canceled sin, he sets the prisoner free;
his blood can make the foulest clean; his blood availed for me.

On the night when he was betrayed
he sat at a table with his friends.
He took bread, blessed it, broke it, served it to them, and said,

“Take this. Eat it. It is my body, given for you. Do this to remember me.”

In the same way he took the cup,
Blessed it, served it to them, and said,
“Drink from this every one of you.

This is my blood poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sin.

Do this to remember me.”

And so we remember.

And so we offer our praise and thanks and our very selves
As a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ’s offering for us.
[We offer our lives as he remembered that he offered his for our own.] (AJ)

I felt my Lord’s atoning blood close to my soul applied;
Me, me he loved, the Son of God, for me, for me he died!

May the gift of your Spirit, Advent’s Hope and Peace,

be poured out on the simple gifts of the bread and the cup,

and on those who come simply to find healing and hope.

And when we have been fed by your surprising grace
and filled with your peace, may we go forth to the world,
where our weak hands will become calloused by compassion;
where we will bend our feeble knees, reaching down to lift up the fallen;

where we will become fountains of living water for those parched by the wilderness of their lives.

Then, when sorrow and sighing have been chased away from us,

and we gather with all generations around your Table in heaven,

everlasting joy will be our song, and gracious hope will be our refrain,

as we sing to you through all eternity, God in Community, Holy in One. (TMS)

Glory to God, and praise and love be ever, ever given,

By saints below and saints above, the church in earth and heaven.

The Lord’s Prayer

Sharing the Bread and the Cup

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Benediction

Jesus! The name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease;
‘tis music in the sinner’s ears, ‘tis life, and health, and peace.

My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad the honors of thy name.

(AJ – Written by Alex Joyner. Advent Great Thanksgiving – Copyright General Board of Discipleship. www.GBOD.org Used by permission.)

The Liturgy of Iron Chef America

Posted on November 14, 20104 Comments

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of cooking shows. What can I say, it is hibernating season! Time to add the layer of fat for winter =)

Needless to say, I’ve seen my fair share of episodes of Iron Chef America lately. And as Alton Brown and Kevin Brauch and the Chairman lead us through the competition, I found myself saying their lines with them!

photo from: foodnetwork.com

There is something much different going on here than the formulaic structure of a sitcom or a drama with a problem that must be solved and the inevitable lightbulb moment about 35 minutes into the 42 minute arc. No, what I realized is that Iron Chef actually has created a liturgy to lead viewers through the experience.

I think the connection really stood out to me this past week because we are talking about the liturgy in the Disciple Bible Study I am teaching. The prior week, we discussed the giving of the law and the ten commandments… but then comes the instructions for worship, the setting of festival dates, the prescriptions for proper worship and proper attitudes. As our lesson pointed out, God gave us the law, and then gave us the liturgy, the worship, the practice that would instill those values into our lives, the method to overcome who we are and to purify ourselves.

Instrumental to this process is the liturgy – the work of the people – the litany of words and actions that create the worshipful experience.

There are many churches these days who frown upon liturgy or deny they have one. And yet, any time we create a structure for our worship, we have done so. Even if it’s four songs and a message and some more songs, it is still a liturgy.

I think in many ways, the liturgy invites people to participate. It provides the script for the activity. It tells you what you are supposed to do when. It creates insiders and outsiders. When you know the words, when you know the actions, you are a part of what is happening.

So every Sunday, when we gather to worship and begin with a call to worship, we are inviting participation. As we recite together the Lord’s Prayer, we are building community. When we sing together the Doxology, you know who is in and who is out. When we pass the peace, we invite others into that experience. And a good church provides ways for those who are new to learn the liturgy so that they, too, may participate.

I think we get so wound up about whether or not folks will understand what is going on in worship. We try to make everything really simple, dumb it down to the lowest common denominator. But in doing so, we forget that the liturgy is meant to be lived. That it doesn’t become a part of your life the first try. That you have to sit with it for a while, experience it, and in time, it becomes such a part of your life that you can’t exist without it. As I have experienced at the bedside of folks with dementia – when all else fails, Psalm 23 or the Lord’s Prayer is still there.

The first time I watched Iron Chef, it seemed a little cheesy, a little overdramatic. However, just because I wasn’t a part of the in-crowd the first time didn’t mean that I couldn’t watch or learn. And learn I did. I learned the liturgy. I know what the Chairman is going to say. I know the rules that Kevin will present. I remember how Alton will lead us into the verdict. And now when I need a break, I turn on food network, and I can join in the experience and it feels like home.

Does our worship invoke the same feelings? Does it invite us in with familiar words? Does it instill in us a sense of rhythm and direction? Does it ask us to participate? It should.

senseful worship

Posted on February 23, 2009Leave a comment

I am a strong believer in using all of our minds, bodies and souls in worship. And one of the primary ways that I try to encourage people to reach that place is by thinking of all of our five senses and the worship experience. What are the things we hear? What kinds of smells do the scriptures bring to mind? What does grace taste like? What does the gospel feel like? How can we use color and images to see God?

Now – all of that is much easier said than done. It takes so much work to craft worship experiences and to be honest, for the most part I stick to a basic liturgy and try to throw one of the senses we neglect in worship (taste, touch, smell) in every now and then.

I have been thinking a lot about wanting to pick this practice back up again for Lent – even if I focus on just one sense each week. The scriptures for Lent 1B include the promise of God to Noah in the rainbow, and two years ago, we used that scripture in our emerging worship service in Nashville to literally paint a rainbow among the congregation. We had six canvases set up around the worship space and people were invited to travel among them and write/paint images, words, colors that expressed their understanding of promise and covenant.

I would LOVE to do that with my congregation. It would incorporate touch, color, movement, engage our minds etc.

I’m having more troubles thinking of what to do with the next week and the Lent 2B scriptures. Our theme is “Challenge” and the focus is on taking the leap of faith to trust in God’s promises – using Romans 4:20-22 and Mark 8:34-35

Epiphany

Posted on January 6, 2009Leave a comment

Today I really got back into the swing of church work because our regular groups started meeting again in the new year. This morning, it was the Sharing As Caring Christians fellowship, or SACC. They meet around food and take turns sharing devotions and then a lesson for the day.

This is one group that I really feel blessed to be a part of, because normally, I’m just another member of the group. I don’t have to have my pastor or teacher hat on, unless I want to have it on. I can simply come and be.

For the next six weeks in the group, I will be leading our lessons based on Joyce Rupp’s “The Cup of our Life.” It is a study that I have been wanting to do with others for some time now, and I’m really looking forward to it. A hidden desire out of this is also to get the group to each bring their own mug for use each week, so that we aren’t constantly using styrofoam cups.

After SACC group, I took some time to finish work on the bulletins for Sunday. I am a very rudimentary piano player… I can pluck out a tune with one hand, and sometimes I can get some harmony in there if I am really slow about it. But it is always easier to pick hymns if I am at the piano and know what each one sounds like. It lets me know how easy they are to sing, how familiar they might be, and something that is also important to me – how well they each fit together.

One of my passions in worship is a well fit together service. I want the message in the music to match the message in the written word, to match the message in the spoken word, to match the message in the prayers. Then, at least in one way or another, the congregation will have the gospel come to them, and hopefully reinforced.

What makes that difficult, is that it takes a lot of time to put a service together. And because I change the order of worship and the liturgy to match whatever season we are in, it also is a challenge each time a new season begins to craft the structure for the next few weeks. The upside is that the congregation never fully settles into a routine in worship, and at least while I’m here, they can’t ever say “but we’ve always done it this way…”

Friday Five

Posted on August 15, 20083 Comments

For this Friday’s Five, share with us five transformations that the coming fall will bring your way.

Bonus: Give us your favorite activity that is made possible by the arrival of fall.

I’m really gearing up for fall at the church – our big kick off is a week from Sunday! It doesn’t seem possible that students are heading back to school already and that fall is almost here – especially when August is usually so hot. We are actually in store for a very early fall according to some accounts – a frost is expected by mid-september, which will wreak havoc on the already late crops here in the midwest. lots of prayers needed here!

As for the five biggest transformations of this fall:

#1 – We are getting another kitty! We love Turbo so much that we think he needs a friend. There are kittens at the local vet and we are going on tuesday to pick one of the gold ones up. He will be about 6 weeks old then and is getting his vaccinations on Monday. I can’t wait to have another addition to our family!

#2 – I will be teaching confirmation this fall and spring at my church. They normally do confirmation for 5th/6th graders, but there are a number who were missed a couple years ago, so we have about 9 kids spread out from 5th – 9th grade. I’m looking forward to working with them!!! and i’m going to be trying out the claim the name resource… but i can’t decide if i want to do it just for the fall or for the whole year. we are doing confirmation during sunday school time – which means that they will be there for church for sure, but if we do the whole year long program, i won’t be involved in any other sunday school stuff all year long. This is my FIRST time doing confirmation… eek!

#3 – My biggest personal goal for this fall is to transform my body. I really need to exercise more and need to build some kind of routine. And I think transformation really is the right word for it, because I need to change inside and out. I’ve done it before, so I know that it is possible… but it will definately take more willpower than I’m currently exhibiting.

#4 – My biggest transformation around the church will be in my personal visitation ministry. While I may seem to others like an extremely outgoing person, I am so anxious about visiting people. I talk myself out of it most of the time. I have been fairly consistent about visiting people in the hospital (when i know they are there) and in the nursing home (I do a service there monthly and spend time after visiting) and somewhat with people who are homebound – but I really need to get out and start making the rounds with the whole church. Especially those people who are members but I have never seen or met in the almost eight months I’ve been there. I know it will make a huge difference, but I can’t work up the guts to do it. I’m pretty sure once I do it, I’ll wonder what the big deal is, but its a step that terrifies me about ministry.

#5 – One thing I have tried fairly hard to do since I have been in this church is to change up the order of worship with every new season. We had one liturgy for the season after epiphany, another for lent, another for after easter, and now we are in another for the season after pentecost. I’m starting a new sermon series with our fall kick-off, and think it’s a good time to change up the liturgy again. that way we don’t get too tied to any one way to worship and it helps the church to be a bit more flexible. I’m excited to think about new possibilities and ways to incorporate prayers, hymns, etc., into the service. For example: in this season after ephiphany, we have sung our prayer for illumination as “Spirit of the Living God” – but during Epiphany we sang “Thy Word.” Other times, it is a spoken prayer. One of my big changes this fall is to add a mission/stewardship moment before the offering each week and to invite people from the congregation to share about an way our offerings and our pledges this fall help to support the ministry of the worldwide/local church.

Bonus: I’m actually pretty excited for high school and college football to start back up! I’m a big fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes and so I can’t wait to catch a few games (we often had the SEC games when we lived in Nashville) – either on tv or in real life… and my family has tailgated in Iowa City at the games, so we might go join them a few times. It will also be neat to see what the spirit is around this small town with their local high school for football games. I’m looking forward to getting more involved with the students in their school activities and showing up a bit more.