Guiding Worship
For those who plan and lead worship events.
Worship during Seasons of Discernment
By Mary Lehman Yoder
Several Sundays into a summer worship series on the Anabaptist heritage, someone approaches you, a member of the worship committee. “I need to tell you,” he says, “that I think you were really stacking the deck when you chose this Anabaptist theme.”
Perplexed, you respond, “Tell me more.”
“As a congregation, we’re working through some difficult decisions, and here you seem to be bringing up Anabaptist history to remind us of our prophetic heritage—you know, challenging the status quo and taking risks. It feels like the committee is trying to influence our decision-making process, and I don’t appreciate that.”
You tell the member that this thought is completely new to you. “We chose this series because it’s what the Jubilee curriculum has for this summer’s cycle,” you explain. “We try to coordinate closely with the children in the summer. We really did not in any way try to relate it to the congregational decision-making process, but if I understand you correctly, you are saying it’s hard to separate the two these days. I’m sorry about that, and I appreciate your coming directly to me.”
This conversation illustrates the challenge of guiding worship during a time
of congregational discernment. When convictions, opinions, and feelings run
deep, worship planning and leading can feel like walking through a field
of land mines.
In recent years our congregation, like many others, has found its way through
several challenging decision-making processes. We have learned that some
things can be misunderstood despite the best intentions. But some thoughtful
decisions that we made ahead of time served us well in making the discernment
process healthy and life giving. Here are some things we learned:
1. Treat worship as the place to reaffirm what holds us together.
Worship is always about praising our Creator, learning to follow after our Lord Jesus Christ, and seeking the guidance of the Spirit as we bring healing hope to a troubled word. These realities must stay front and center, particularly during challenging times of discernment. Worship needs to connect us with God and each other beyond the issues we are facing.
In one of our processes the leadership agreed that no Sunday morning time would be used to address agenda. Alongside our hard work in small groups and evening meetings, our Sunday morning gatherings were planned as times of praise, encouragement, and even rest. Many people expressed appreciation for this intentional delineation.
2. Bathe both your worship and work in prayer.
One of our discernment times began with a call to 40 days of fasting and prayer before we began to focus and plan. The church building was opened for small gatherings of prayer, all of which used a set format (drawn largely from the Psalms) that sought openness of heart and mind.
Further along in the process, during Holy Week, we called
for another season of prayer. We wanted to create more space to listen to
the Spirit rather than re-hash our own positions. To this end we called a
moratorium on any discussion—in or outside the church—on the
topic. One of our worship planners had recently attended a Laurelville worship
conference [see page 51] and learned of the power of the Triduum, the three-night
sequence of services beginning with Maundy Thursday and ending with the Easter
Vigil. Doing the Triduum in the context of our discernment drew us deeply
into the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord in a very moving
way. Following Easter, we thus felt new energy to return to our work of discernment,
knowing that the Risen Christ was going ahead
of us.
3. Involve a wide variety of people in worship.
Particularly when the polarities are strong, worship planners must take care to involve persons on “both ends” as well as those in the middle. Involving members who represent only one point of view can politicize worship in a most unhelpful way. Worship is one setting where pastoral care happens in congregational life. Make sure that all feel cared for in the hymns and prayers that are sung and spoken. Leaders must work for the good of the whole body.
4. Make use of resources from beyond the congregation.
Following the lectionary can prevent worship from being hijacked by individual pet topics and texts. Conversely, it may free a preacher to speak from a potentially explosive text that does in fact address the issue at hand. Choosing denominational resources can help avoid the narrowness of vision that so often comes in the midst of a conflict.
5. Recognize the power that you have as a worship leader and use it wisely.
Regardless of which area of congregational life they are charged with, say the authors of the Anabaptist resource, Leading from Within, servant leaders make “people feel strong, capable, informed and connected. Leaders enable others to act, not by hoarding the power or authority, but by giving it away.” A time of congregational discernment can be the occasion for mistrust and distancing, sapping people of energy for God’s work. But it also holds great potential for deepening commitments to life in the body of Christ. Strong worship is key to making that happen.
Mary Lehman Yoder is part of a three-person pastoral team at Assembly Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana. She has primary responsibility for worship and pastoral care.