The word “liturgy” is one of those churchy words that we United Methodists love to use when discussing our worship life. We have a liturgy for Sunday morning worship. We have another liturgy for weddings, a liturgy for funerals. Our liturgy often changes depending on the liturgical season (i.e., Advent, Lent, Eastertide). The liturgical season is determined by, you guessed it, the liturgical calendar. Taken together, these liturgical seasons combine to form the liturgical year and form our common life as Christians as we journey through these holy days together.
One of the best and most overlooked facets of liturgy may be the root of the word itself. The word liturgy literally means “the work of the people.” Yet how often do we find worship in our local congregations planned solely by the appointed clergy or assigned lay supply? To put it another way, how often is “the work of the people” really “the work of a person?”
A previous Ministry Toolbox article discussed how important it is to plan the church calendar in advance. We can see how true this is in the worship life of a congregation. It is so easy for each Sunday’s worship service to simply be last Sunday’s worship service with a different call to worship, hymns, and scriptures, a copy of a copy of a copy, if you will. Dr. Lester Ruth at Duke University Divinity School describes this practice as “plug and chug.” To put it another way, the liturgical year is less of a journey the congregation makes together and more of a loosely connected collection of fifty-two Sundays.
We will discuss team worship planning in another article. This article will discuss the advantages of and best practices for evaluating not only your congregation’s worship life but all the ministries that make your congregation who it is.Here are four best practices that will keep your congregation growing in grace:
- Don’t Wait (and write it down)!
There is truly no time like the present to record what did and did not work for anything your church plans. This will keep important things from falling through the cracks. Ask:
- “What worked?
- What didn’t work?
- How did God show up in surprising ways?
- What did we not do this year that we need to make sure we do this year?
- What did we do this year that we most definitely do not want to do next year?
- What did we learn?”
This kind of reflection is best done as a holy conversation that acknowledges the presence of God in the room with you. Whatever you do, make sure you are keeping a record of the conversation. Not only will doing so help you in number five below, it will also make it much less daunting for new leaders to assume their new roles because you will have provided them with a place to start.
- Think Seasonally
While evaluation of ministries (including worship) is helpful in real time, what works best is seasonal evaluations, mainly because it helps plan your congregational life seasonally. It is one of the nicest benefits of how the liturgical calendar shapes the year. After Easter, look at how things went in worship, missions, education, etc. during Lent. Before Lent, make sure you have done a thorough review of Advent and Christmas. Ask the kind of questions listed in number one above and write it all down!
- Make it the Work of the People (Including those who are not staff)
There will always be a temptation to have the work of evaluating ministries done by the people closest to it. In most cases, this means the church staff and/or the team or committee who planned it. This is understandable. Who knows better about how something should work than those who designed and built it? The problem is that these groups can easily become echo chambers where everything is “fine” and there is nothing to record because there is nothing to improve upon. Instead, think of the people in your congregation whose opinions matter to people beyond the staff or church leadership – the people who other people listen to. Listen to them and record what they say. You never know who the Holy Spirit will use to help you learn and grow.
- Review Early
So now, you have compiled a list of dreams (and things you have learned from). As you plan for these seasons next year, you have snapshots that will help you plan and dream grander and more magnificent dreams than you did the year prior. This is how you can continue to grow your ministries in ways that glorify God in increasingly excellent ways.
This week’s Ministry Toolbox article comes from guest author Rev. Doug Forrester, Assistant to the Bishop and Chief Operating Officer for the Virginia Conference.