Church celebrates worship
BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF
On April 13, the Baltimore-Washington Conference issued a call to worship that drew more than 350 people to Trinity UMC in Frederick. They gathered to discover how to enliven the weekly sacred rituals that make up the lifeblood of their congregations.
“The magnification of God is the core of who we are. We worship so we can move people’s hearts and get their hands and feet moving in service to God,” said Bishop John Schol. “Worship is about giving our lives as a prayer to God.”
One of the Acts 2 goals of each of the churches in Baltimore-Washington Conference is to increase worship attendance by at least 2 percent each year. The Western Region Guide staff created the Prodigal Worship event to assist churches in meeting this goal and to equip church leaders to develop worship that has an impact on congregations and communities.
“We live in a region where two-thirds of our people are unchurched,” said the Rev. William Chaney, who spearheaded the Prodigal Worship event. “Are we ready to engage a world outside our walls that’s dangerous? That’s different? That’s diverse? People are searching. They’re hurting. Worship is the best opportunity we have to connect people with God.”
The event featured four plenary speakers and an opportunity for participants to attend two of 10 workshops. A common theme that ran through all of the sessions was that worship should be designed for the unchurched. Those already in the pews are not our customers, several of the presenters said. They are the missionaries. They are the apostles – called to be sent out to bring others to Christ.
But implementing a “seekers model” that can water down one’s faith is not the answer, said the Rev. Mike Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio.
Slaughter, who grew his congregation from 118 to 4,000 weekly worshippers, is a nationally known speaker and author of “Change the World: Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus.”
“When you think about strategizing worship for the unchurched and dechurched, you want to be culturally relevant and biblically uncompromising. This is hard,” said Slaughter, who believes The United Methodist Church has the right theology for this post-modern time but “its methodology is broke.”
One of the greatest challenges, he said, is to create worship that doesn’t seem boring or irrelevant to those in the community. But to do that, Slaughter stressed, the church needs to get outside of its four walls and meet the needs of the people they are seeking to reach.
“Liturgy means the work of God’s people,” said Slaughter. “Worship calls us to God’s work. It calls us to God’s mission. … The real temptation is for the local church to hunker down in comfort in the sanctuary and fail to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.”
The Rev. Olu Brown, another of Prodigal Worship’s plenary speakers who pastors Impact UMC in Atlanta, agreed. In four years, Brown grew a church from 12 to 1,100 members by “doing church differently.”
Our buildings are empty on the inside because we’ve refused to go outside,” he said. “If you have empty buildings you’ve been inside too long. They’re not coming inside, until you go outside.”
But just showing up in the community with good intentions won’t make a difference. “We need to be in ministry with, and not for, people,” Brown said. “There would be no room left in any of our churches if we were serious about going out and reaching people where they are. There’s always a response to true ministry.”
In addition to shedding the comfort of the sanctuary, congregations also need to enliven their worship with metaphor, sensory experiences and by moving beyond the cognitive ideas of faith to the experiential living of God’s Word, the presenters said.
Stressing the importance of worship design teams to spark creativity in worship, the Prodigal Worship presenters encouraged participants to be authentic and bold as they planned how to bring abundant, life-transforming worship to their communities.
“The purpose of the church is to connect people to God by living Christ’s life,” said the Rev. Jim Walker, of Hot Metal Bridge, an innovative United Methodist congregation in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Each church will do that differently. But there are three key elements for everyone to consider: “Communion with God, compassion to the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel – as you practice these, Jesus shows up,” Walker said.
As the conference closed, Brown led those present in a pledge.
“I am a leader,” the people said in one voice. “I am called by God. I have the authority. I have the passion and I have the faith to go out in the community, not wait on the community to come to me. Because now is the time to speak the witness of Jesus Christ. Now is the time to make real the witness of Jesus Christ. Now is the time. Now is the time to do ministry outside of our walls.”
Planning for next year’s Prodigal Worship event has already begun. It will be held April 1 and 2, 2011, at Glen Mar UMC in Ellicott City.
UMCONNECTION STAFF
On April 13, the Baltimore-Washington Conference issued a call to worship that drew more than 350 people to Trinity UMC in Frederick. They gathered to discover how to enliven the weekly sacred rituals that make up the lifeblood of their congregations.
“The magnification of God is the core of who we are. We worship so we can move people’s hearts and get their hands and feet moving in service to God,” said Bishop John Schol. “Worship is about giving our lives as a prayer to God.”
One of the Acts 2 goals of each of the churches in Baltimore-Washington Conference is to increase worship attendance by at least 2 percent each year. The Western Region Guide staff created the Prodigal Worship event to assist churches in meeting this goal and to equip church leaders to develop worship that has an impact on congregations and communities.
“We live in a region where two-thirds of our people are unchurched,” said the Rev. William Chaney, who spearheaded the Prodigal Worship event. “Are we ready to engage a world outside our walls that’s dangerous? That’s different? That’s diverse? People are searching. They’re hurting. Worship is the best opportunity we have to connect people with God.”The event featured four plenary speakers and an opportunity for participants to attend two of 10 workshops. A common theme that ran through all of the sessions was that worship should be designed for the unchurched. Those already in the pews are not our customers, several of the presenters said. They are the missionaries. They are the apostles – called to be sent out to bring others to Christ.
But implementing a “seekers model” that can water down one’s faith is not the answer, said the Rev. Mike Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg UMC in Tipp City, Ohio.
Slaughter, who grew his congregation from 118 to 4,000 weekly worshippers, is a nationally known speaker and author of “Change the World: Recovering the Message and Mission of Jesus.”
“When you think about strategizing worship for the unchurched and dechurched, you want to be culturally relevant and biblically uncompromising. This is hard,” said Slaughter, who believes The United Methodist Church has the right theology for this post-modern time but “its methodology is broke.”
One of the greatest challenges, he said, is to create worship that doesn’t seem boring or irrelevant to those in the community. But to do that, Slaughter stressed, the church needs to get outside of its four walls and meet the needs of the people they are seeking to reach.
“Liturgy means the work of God’s people,” said Slaughter. “Worship calls us to God’s work. It calls us to God’s mission. … The real temptation is for the local church to hunker down in comfort in the sanctuary and fail to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.”
The Rev. Olu Brown, another of Prodigal Worship’s plenary speakers who pastors Impact UMC in Atlanta, agreed. In four years, Brown grew a church from 12 to 1,100 members by “doing church differently.”
Our buildings are empty on the inside because we’ve refused to go outside,” he said. “If you have empty buildings you’ve been inside too long. They’re not coming inside, until you go outside.”
But just showing up in the community with good intentions won’t make a difference. “We need to be in ministry with, and not for, people,” Brown said. “There would be no room left in any of our churches if we were serious about going out and reaching people where they are. There’s always a response to true ministry.”
In addition to shedding the comfort of the sanctuary, congregations also need to enliven their worship with metaphor, sensory experiences and by moving beyond the cognitive ideas of faith to the experiential living of God’s Word, the presenters said.Stressing the importance of worship design teams to spark creativity in worship, the Prodigal Worship presenters encouraged participants to be authentic and bold as they planned how to bring abundant, life-transforming worship to their communities.
“The purpose of the church is to connect people to God by living Christ’s life,” said the Rev. Jim Walker, of Hot Metal Bridge, an innovative United Methodist congregation in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Each church will do that differently. But there are three key elements for everyone to consider: “Communion with God, compassion to the poor and the proclamation of the Gospel – as you practice these, Jesus shows up,” Walker said.
As the conference closed, Brown led those present in a pledge.
“I am a leader,” the people said in one voice. “I am called by God. I have the authority. I have the passion and I have the faith to go out in the community, not wait on the community to come to me. Because now is the time to speak the witness of Jesus Christ. Now is the time to make real the witness of Jesus Christ. Now is the time. Now is the time to do ministry outside of our walls.”
Planning for next year’s Prodigal Worship event has already begun. It will be held April 1 and 2, 2011, at Glen Mar UMC in Ellicott City.
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