My Account

Guiding Worship

For those who plan and lead worship events.

The order of worship

by Irma Fast Dueck

It took our church many years of discernment before we made the decision to engage in a major building program, including the building of a new sanctuary. And while there was much anticipation about the change, there was also a sense of dread about actually leaving the old sanctuary and moving into the new, more elaborate space. When the Sunday came that was to be our last in the old facility, we began the worship service in the way we always did: sitting in our familiar configuration in the pews, with familiar people leading us in recognizable ways. And when it was time, a group of church leaders picked up our pulpit and communion table and led us into the new sanctuary, and the congregation processed behind them, singing our way into the new space and finding our new places in the pews.

Worship is not a tool for change, but significant transformation can happen through worship.

As worship helps to lead us through times of transition and change, it is imperative that we remember that worship is first and foremost about God. And because worship is about God, we should be concerned when worship is construed in utilitarian, pragmatic, and manipulative ways for managerial kinds of ends. Worship is not a tool for change, and yet most of us know that significant transformation and change can and does happen through worship. The worship of God can help a congregation to move through transition and change in at least three ways:

1. Worship creates order for us.
Worship not only has an order of service, it helps to create order. When the regular order of things is broken in the life of the church, when the church experiences disorder through moral crisis or failure, through an unanticipated transition or through planned change, worship has a way of reestablishing order and stability. For centuries the church has used various rituals and liturgical acts to help guide people through difficult and life-changing times, orienting them again to God when they experience disorientation. Amidst the tumult and stress of the unknown, the worship of God can be an anchor for us. It follows then that it would be unwise to change the worshipping pattern of a church at the same time that it is experiencing transition or change in other areas of its life.

2. Worship reminds us of our identity under God.
A number of years ago our congregation experienced a difficult pastoral transition. As we were considering ways of helping the church through the difficulty, it wasn’t long before we began talking about worship. While none of us felt that we needed to process the issue further in the context of worship, amidst the change we did feel that we needed to be reminded again of who we were as a church, as a worshipping people, and of who God is. When we are in the middle of significant transition, we often do not feel like ourselves. Worship, when it is focused on God and grounded in Scripture, helps remind us of who we are as God’s people. Scripture has much to say to us about God’s promises, about wanderings and exiles, and about the calling of people in unexpected ways and toward unanticipated directions.

3. Worship creates a space for us to speak the truth in love.
Worship can be a place for reconciliation. Acts such as prayers of confession and the assurance of forgiveness can help us to deal honestly and truthfully with the reality of wrongdoing and brokenness. Finding corporate ways of expressing forgiveness also allows the possibility for moving forward without past wrongs controlling and predicting the future. Worship also provides a place for lament, for honestly naming the grief and the loss that frequently accompanies transition and change. Within the Hebrew worship tradition there was always a place for corporate lament.

The psalms of lament gave the Israelites permission to sing their sorrow and name their suffering and pain. Worship allows the possibility of corporately bringing our wrongdoings, our loss and disappointment, our suffering and pain before God.

The work of worship leaders and pastors is first to help the congregation to do what it longs to do (but sometimes forgets how): worship God. Through the act of worship the congregation can be helped to discover the leading and wisdom of God amidst transition and change.

Irma Fast Dueck, who teaches practical theology and directs the Institute for Theology and the Church at Canadian Mennonite University, is a member of Bethel Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, Manitoba.