My Account

Guiding Worship

For those who plan and lead worship events.

A worship series on pilgrimage

by Kay Bontrager-Singer

As God said, "I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." II Corinthians 6:16.

Pilgrimage, journey and walking have been significant metaphors for my spiritual life. They are also important metaphors for Faith Mennonite Church. I believe there are reasons why folks at Faith see themselves as a pilgrim people and life as a journey. Faith Mennonite includes persons whose journeys are diverse. It includes middle class persons along with persons who are marginalized in our society, some due to social class or lack of education, others due to physical and emotional disabilities.

We certainly do not see ourselves as a people who have arrived. We know ourselves as people on a journey, taking one step at a time. Some of our folks know pilgrimage best in day to day living, rarely having opportunities to journey far from home, go on spiritual retreats or for that matter experience any sort of "time away."

Pilgrimage and journeying are metaphors we embrace and live into during both times of joy as well as times of suffering. The last four pastors who were called by Faith Mennonite have heard the confirmation of their call as the congregation sang over the phone the South African freedom song, "Come walk with us the journey is long." However, since I live only a few blocks from the church, the congregation physically journeyed to my house to extend a call. I sat on my porch and watched as adults, children and those with disabilities walked, biked, limped and leapt into my front yard singing, "Come walk with us the journey is long."

Soon after this, the journey did seem long when we as a congregation walked with a family who’s four year old child died within a few months of being diagnosed with an untreatable illness. Some people in the congregation wondered if we could adequately provide what was needed for this grieving family. We discovered we did know how to walk on this path together, we know how to sing and pray and eat together; every Sunday we share a simple meal of soup and bread following worship. These important aspects of worship prepared us for this part of our hard journey when each step was filled with pain and grief.

Last winter when we returned to our tradition of sharing faith stories between Epiphany and Lent, it seemed only natural to entitle our series, "The way is made by walking." In place of a sermon, individuals shared their faith pilgrimages. And as could be expected we grew to love each other more tenderly and compassionately. This is not because we have climbed mountains of success, but because we know shared journeys that included valleys of pain, suffering and failure.

In addition to hearing the stories of our faith journeys, in each worship service:

we marched around the church and in and out of our exits singing;
we read Praying with Your Feet during children’s time;
we sang and walked our offerings forward as we do every Sunday;
we gazed on the poster at the front of the sanctuary that read, “The Way is made by Walking;”
we viewed photos of Faith participants socks and shoes.

To end our worship series, we celebrated our annual membership renewal, affirming our desire to continue to journey with this community of Faith. To seal this commitment, we each received a sugar cookie in the shape of a foot. We sang our way forward eager to receive our foot cookie and munched it joyfully. We knew God's Spirit was with us; it was a holy moment.

We read Praying with Your Feet during children’s time.

This pilgrimage is not about success and accomplishments or meeting a goal. No, this is a journey of loving and sharing and being together. It is about caring for one another, encouraging one another and paying attention to both the stones and the flowers along the path. Deep in our souls we know that God walks with us, uphill and down, when we are full of joy and when pain cripples us like a sore blister. We are a pilgrim people and God is our faithful walking partner!

Kay Bontrager-Singer is a pastor at Faith Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana.