Church celebrates worship (2)
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.
Teams create potential
While pastors in The United Methodist Church are responsible for a congregation’s worship, designing creative, transformative worship experiences is usually a team effort, experts at the Prodigal Worship event said.
“Never underestimate the power of a team,” said the Rev. Mike Slaughter of Ginghamsburg UMC, where a team of “unpaid servants” meets regularly to determine the theme and design the content and atmosphere for the weekly services.
Brainstorming together as a team keeps pastors, music ministers and worship committee members from working in “silos,” worried only about their own particular areas and agendas.
Jason Moore and Len Wilson of Midnight Oil, a company that specializes in designing worship in a post-modern age, also emphasize the power of team and the possibilities that can arise in brainstorming.
Although the situation varies with each congregation, Moore and Wilson recommend that worship design teams be, optimally, between four and seven people, who leave their egos at the door, enter the planning process with open minds and prayerful hearts and be willing to be honest with one another.
They also recommend establishing, at the start of any brainstorming process, what the purpose of worship is. There are four general categories of worship, Moore and Wilson say on their Web site (www.midnightoilproductions.com):
+ adoration,
+ discipleship,
+ community and
+ outreach.
When the focus is clearly defined, creating the specifics around a theme becomes much easier.
The message needs metaphor
We asked several pastors what important ideas they took home from the Prodigal Worship conference and what their church’s next step in revitalizing worship might be.
Best ideas:
The idea of metaphor – the simplicity of a metaphor and the journey of finding the right one – was so helpful. The humor in Midnight Oil’s presentation was a gift, but an even greater gift was the way in which they made the use of video so accessible no matter how large or small a congregation or staff might be. … There is no one-size-fits-all approach to church growth or attracting young prodigals. – Donna Claycomb Sokol, Mt. Vernon Place UMC, Washington, D.C.
The reason we have empty pews on the inside is because we’ve been too long sitting in them. If we want the pews to fill on the inside, we need to connect with not just for the community on the outside. And once we get them on the inside, our worship needs to use Gospel metaphors relevant to our age, via images and music, to engage the un/de-churched in worship, ultimately leading them to commitment, discipleship and service to our Savior. – Clark Carr, Grace UMC, Hagerstown
After listening to the speakers and seeing examples of creative ways to shape and present worship, I have had a shift in perspective. My perspective used to be that worship wasn’t effective because the congregation didn’t get it. My perspective now is that worship isn’t effective because we, the church, are not presenting ideas in a creative, engaging and interesting manner. The use of metaphor as a vehicle for the transmission of ideas is a familiar concept. The use of metaphor as a vehicle for the transformation of worship was a revelation. I am excited about planning worship in a new way, as part of an intentional, focused creative team. – Leah Maloney, Director of Music, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
The most important idea I took away was the power of teamwork, and the need to broaden our planning model. I also appreciated the theme of transformation – and keeping the focus of worship on transformation, rather than pleasing the “club members” or entertainment; but also recognizing that we are in an experience-based culture, and using (exegeting) it to express the Gospel. – Charles Harrell, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
Most of the big ideas and concepts were things that I (and most pastors) already knew. What was useful was the skill that was employed in making these basic ideas more practical. In particular: the explanation that the projector should be used to project “images” more than “text” and the sense one gets from Mike Slaughter that personal mission involvement should be part of the discipleship challenge that we make to individuals. – Robert Barnes, Bedington UMC, Bedington
Our customer is un-churched people. Once you accept Christ you cease to be the customer, you become the missionary. At that point, we become the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. We are called to be the Gospel and do the Gospel for people in need. We are called to be a living witness to our faith. – Mary Dennis, Guide in the Western Region
We aren’t in a radio world anymore, but are now moving to a three-dimensional world. How can we imagine the message in the 3-D space of the sanctuary? We are not just telling a story, we need to find ways to experience the story as if we were there. Another important idea is making the worship experience feel more like a welcoming home party to the prodigal, more inviting, more celebrative, more uplifting – so that the event carries out of the sanctuary into the week and we make better, deeper, more compassionate followers of Jesus Christ. – Jeff Jones, Liberty Grove UMC, Burtonsville
Next Steps:
Next steps, I believe, would include sharing some of the energy, excitement and direction of the conference with the local church in word and practice – dreaming big, acting boldly, experimenting bravely, planning carefully and deliberately, recognizing diversity within our congregations (age, gender, ethnicity, traditions, needs), being faithful to the task of corporate worship, and being open and intentional about new directions and options for worship. – Chip Wright, Trinity UMC, Frederick
The whole idea of using metaphor blew me away. I would start with the metaphor concept – and ask a group of people to do altar displays combined with “give aways,” along with images projected on the screen. I don’t have a projector, so I’m going to be looking at images/items I can use in worship. – Vicky Starnes, New Hope of Greater Brunswick
Stop remodeling mess and launch a takeover. A takeover promotes innovation, rewards and creativity and invites collaborative thinking. – Rodney Smothers, St. Paul UMC, Oxon Hill
The first next step could be to decide not to be limited by what “is now”, but to be willing to embrace the opportunity for creative change and step out, even (especially?) if there are those who do not understand (read: approve). There is a world to be won for Christ, and a world to be transformed! –- Charles Harrell, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
Buy the DVD of the session. Watch it with your worship design team and others in the congregation. Let the conversations begin.
– William Chaney, Guide in the Western Region
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.
Teams create potential
While pastors in The United Methodist Church are responsible for a congregation’s worship, designing creative, transformative worship experiences is usually a team effort, experts at the Prodigal Worship event said.
“Never underestimate the power of a team,” said the Rev. Mike Slaughter of Ginghamsburg UMC, where a team of “unpaid servants” meets regularly to determine the theme and design the content and atmosphere for the weekly services.
Brainstorming together as a team keeps pastors, music ministers and worship committee members from working in “silos,” worried only about their own particular areas and agendas.
Jason Moore and Len Wilson of Midnight Oil, a company that specializes in designing worship in a post-modern age, also emphasize the power of team and the possibilities that can arise in brainstorming.
Although the situation varies with each congregation, Moore and Wilson recommend that worship design teams be, optimally, between four and seven people, who leave their egos at the door, enter the planning process with open minds and prayerful hearts and be willing to be honest with one another.
They also recommend establishing, at the start of any brainstorming process, what the purpose of worship is. There are four general categories of worship, Moore and Wilson say on their Web site (www.midnightoilproductions.com):
+ adoration,
+ discipleship,
+ community and
+ outreach.
When the focus is clearly defined, creating the specifics around a theme becomes much easier.
The message needs metaphor
We asked several pastors what important ideas they took home from the Prodigal Worship conference and what their church’s next step in revitalizing worship might be.
Best ideas:
The idea of metaphor – the simplicity of a metaphor and the journey of finding the right one – was so helpful. The humor in Midnight Oil’s presentation was a gift, but an even greater gift was the way in which they made the use of video so accessible no matter how large or small a congregation or staff might be. … There is no one-size-fits-all approach to church growth or attracting young prodigals. – Donna Claycomb Sokol, Mt. Vernon Place UMC, Washington, D.C.
The reason we have empty pews on the inside is because we’ve been too long sitting in them. If we want the pews to fill on the inside, we need to connect with not just for the community on the outside. And once we get them on the inside, our worship needs to use Gospel metaphors relevant to our age, via images and music, to engage the un/de-churched in worship, ultimately leading them to commitment, discipleship and service to our Savior. – Clark Carr, Grace UMC, Hagerstown
After listening to the speakers and seeing examples of creative ways to shape and present worship, I have had a shift in perspective. My perspective used to be that worship wasn’t effective because the congregation didn’t get it. My perspective now is that worship isn’t effective because we, the church, are not presenting ideas in a creative, engaging and interesting manner. The use of metaphor as a vehicle for the transmission of ideas is a familiar concept. The use of metaphor as a vehicle for the transformation of worship was a revelation. I am excited about planning worship in a new way, as part of an intentional, focused creative team. – Leah Maloney, Director of Music, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
The most important idea I took away was the power of teamwork, and the need to broaden our planning model. I also appreciated the theme of transformation – and keeping the focus of worship on transformation, rather than pleasing the “club members” or entertainment; but also recognizing that we are in an experience-based culture, and using (exegeting) it to express the Gospel. – Charles Harrell, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
Most of the big ideas and concepts were things that I (and most pastors) already knew. What was useful was the skill that was employed in making these basic ideas more practical. In particular: the explanation that the projector should be used to project “images” more than “text” and the sense one gets from Mike Slaughter that personal mission involvement should be part of the discipleship challenge that we make to individuals. – Robert Barnes, Bedington UMC, Bedington
Our customer is un-churched people. Once you accept Christ you cease to be the customer, you become the missionary. At that point, we become the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. We are called to be the Gospel and do the Gospel for people in need. We are called to be a living witness to our faith. – Mary Dennis, Guide in the Western Region
We aren’t in a radio world anymore, but are now moving to a three-dimensional world. How can we imagine the message in the 3-D space of the sanctuary? We are not just telling a story, we need to find ways to experience the story as if we were there. Another important idea is making the worship experience feel more like a welcoming home party to the prodigal, more inviting, more celebrative, more uplifting – so that the event carries out of the sanctuary into the week and we make better, deeper, more compassionate followers of Jesus Christ. – Jeff Jones, Liberty Grove UMC, Burtonsville
Next Steps:
Next steps, I believe, would include sharing some of the energy, excitement and direction of the conference with the local church in word and practice – dreaming big, acting boldly, experimenting bravely, planning carefully and deliberately, recognizing diversity within our congregations (age, gender, ethnicity, traditions, needs), being faithful to the task of corporate worship, and being open and intentional about new directions and options for worship. – Chip Wright, Trinity UMC, Frederick
The whole idea of using metaphor blew me away. I would start with the metaphor concept – and ask a group of people to do altar displays combined with “give aways,” along with images projected on the screen. I don’t have a projector, so I’m going to be looking at images/items I can use in worship. – Vicky Starnes, New Hope of Greater Brunswick
Stop remodeling mess and launch a takeover. A takeover promotes innovation, rewards and creativity and invites collaborative thinking. – Rodney Smothers, St. Paul UMC, Oxon Hill
The first next step could be to decide not to be limited by what “is now”, but to be willing to embrace the opportunity for creative change and step out, even (especially?) if there are those who do not understand (read: approve). There is a world to be won for Christ, and a world to be transformed! –- Charles Harrell, Trinity UMC, Prince Frederick
Buy the DVD of the session. Watch it with your worship design team and others in the congregation. Let the conversations begin.
– William Chaney, Guide in the Western Region
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