Learn, Reflect and Discuss Worship Before You Plan
November - December 2008
Give your congregation the opportunity to renew its worship life by taking the time to examine your worship practices well in advance of the church seasons.
The task of worship planning is enormously detailed work, intensified by deadlines of the advancing church year. It is easy for details to overcome the reflection, education and evaluation of worship practices essential to the vitality of worship throughout the church.
Before your worship planning gets mired in the details of Ash Wednesday, Lent, Holy Week and Easter activities, take a step back and set time aside to review what you do and why during those seasons. Review, reflect on and discuss the liturgies of the season. Ponder the source of worship and, in connecting to the Book of Faith Initiative, ask how worship practice during this liturgy or season is shaped by the Bible.
It may be helpful to assign members to do some research before a group meets or to gather resources for the meeting. Explore the notes and appendices of the pew and leaders’ editions of
Evangelical Lutheran Worship for helpful information. Read through the Sundays and Seasons seasonal reflections (available from
www.augsburgfortress.org). Delve into the
Using Evangelical Lutheran Worship series, which includes three supporting volumes for
ELW: The Sunday Assembly, The Christian Life (Baptism and Life Passages) and
The Church’s Time (soon to be released). A worship dictionary or Bible concordance may also be helpful.
Education, reflection and evaluation of the worship practices of a community may not lead to a change in that practice. The process may simply revitalize and renew current worship practice so that all may hear the Word of God and be strengthened by the Body of Christ in worship.