In some respects, then, I think the resurgence of interest in a printed order of worship is not only an attempt to be more “liturgical,” but a recognition of the deficiencies of screen-usage.  Hear me out, I’m not against screens.  I just think we’ve lived long enough with them in worship to feel the effects of what they do not offer.  (Marva Dawn has a helpful discussion of the pros and cons of screens vs. hymnals in A Royal "Waste" of Time [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999], 289-293.)

In an earlier post, I argued for the importance of branding and corporate imaging in churches.  Some people react that this just seems too off course from the “main thing” churches are supposed to be about.  I argue that we uphold the main thing when we eliminate unnecessary (the key is unnecessary) distractions that keep the watching world from seeing, hearing, and knowing the main thing that we attempt to preach and live.  One of those barriers to our mission is that some of us are ignorant about how our printed media comes across to a culture that is awash in marketing and design theory.  We are inundated with well-designed ads, well laid-out mailings, and perpetual exposure to various corporate identities through all the various media.  When our print and electronic material is a mishmash of oddly juxtaposed fonts, awkward spacing, inconsistent margins, and out-of-date design concepts (e.g. clip art), it actually creates a barrier toward achieving our end as we plan and lead worship services.  Our end is that people might exalt and glorify our Triune God as they glory in the Gospel, and the concern is that an ugly bulletin distracts from that end.

Here are some of the things I’ve learned.  I am by no means a design and layout expert.  I didn’t study this stuff.  So if any professional wants to veto some of my tips, no problem. 

• Realize you don’t need a pro designer to do this.  So many features in our standard programs are available that, once we understand them, we really do have 80-90% of what we need to make a great bulletin.  As I describe what is below, just Google some of these terms and concepts if you feel you’re in the dark.  There’s enough web material out there to conquer this.
• Pick two contrasting fonts (ideally, they are fonts which are used in your church’s print and digital material, to maintain a unity in your visual identity…again, so as not to distract from what’s most important—the glory and mission of God).  Contrast is usually achieved when one font is more rounded and one is more blocky.  One of the ways these fonts are often set apart as “serif” and “sans-serif” fonts (a “serif” is a flourish, or those little tails at the end of letters; see this wikipedia article for more info).  A good example of the contrast is Times New Roman (serif) vs. Arial (sans-serif)…though I wouldn’t recommend using those two (too common...it looks like you've put no thought or originality into it).  In the example of our order of worship, we’ve chosen to contrast Dominican (a purchased, non-standard serif font) with Century Gothic (a pretty standard sans-serif font).
• Decide what fonts to use where.  Typically, you’ll want to simply and cleanly juxtapose fonts.  Don’t overkill it.  Simplicity looks better.  Perhaps you can set apart the main elements of the liturgy by making them a different font.  Everything else may be some form of the other font.  This seems to me to be more art than science, so you should poll a few people you trust about how it looks.  Your visual goals are very much in line with your liturgical ones.  What are the primary elements of our worship service?  What do I want to emphasize the most?  Those emphases should be accented visually.  You can do that with font differentiation.  You can also do that with size (next point).
• Think also about font sizes.  Things are set apart visually not only by font selection but size selection.  Again, you don’t want to go crazy here, but size changes help others easily see what things are more important.  (See the example's size differentiations below.)
• Be consistent about what information goes where.  I see this problem a lot.  Sometimes the song title is right justified, across from the heading.  Sometimes it’s underneath the heading, slightly indented.  Sometimes composers/songwriters are put in different spots.  Sometimes instructional material (“stand up/sit down”) is left justified and sometimes it’s indented.  This is all visually confusing.  If your composers are right justified, they should always go in that spot.  If your song titles are in quotes, they should all be in quotes always.  If your instructions are indented an inch, italicized, and 8 point font, they should all be that way.  Create “locational categories” for all your information.  Everything should be in the same spot.  When it’s not, it’s hard to follow.  
• Utilize the “style” features in your word processing or design programs.  Even if you’re using Microsoft Word, and definitely if you’re using Publisher, Quark, InDesign or some more high-powered design program, you have access to something known as “styles.”  You can set any one feature of your bulletin (whether it be a liturgical heading, a composer’s name, a song title, or an instructional note) to always appear a certain way, with certain design parameters (e.g. spacing between it and the next line, its size, font, and justification [whether you believe in Piper’s brand or Wright’s brand…kidding…a little theological joke], etc.).  Setting and utilizing styles ensures that your bulletin has a consistent layout and feel.  And the beauty of this is that you’re not reinventing the wheel when you’re doing the bulletin next week.  Once you have your styles set, you can use the previous week’s doc as your template.  You’ve cut your layout time in half, if not more.
• Be anal.  I’m a firm believer that when someone is anal on the back end, people aren’t anal on the front end.  People notice when something’s wrong, but when it’s right, people don’t notice it.  And that’s our goal, right? We don’t want people fixated on a piece of paper; we want them captivated by God.

There might be some who don’t care for our order of worship in style or design.  Even more important, our style and design may not fit every context, so you definitely want to think missionally about what kind of design and look is appropriate for your demographic, neighborhood, or region of ministry.  Nevertheless, I think the guy who set this up (it wasn’t me) did a really good job achieving some of these goals, so I offer one of our bulletins as an example.  You can click on this image, which will take you to a PDF file.  (It's a folded booklet, so it might take you a second or two to figure out how it runs.)

Review of Jim Belcher, Deep Church: A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional (Downers Grove, IVP: 2009)
Chapter 7, "Deep Worship"

Our pastoral team has been reading through Deep Worship, by Jim Belcher.  We were intrigued by the subtitle, because we felt it captured our vision for our local church: “A Third Way Beyond Emerging and Traditional.”  Most of us had the opportunity to personally meet Jim a few weeks ago when he spoke at St. Gabriel the Archangel Episcopal Church just down the road from us for a conference on church, culture, and mission.  Our musicians were part of a joint worship service (you can read about our experience), and Jim actually got our CD and took it home to his folks.  Nice!

Deep Church is a book about church, culture, and mission…not worship, necessarily.  However, he does have one chapter that intersects with worship in a significant way, and I felt that it was worth chewing on.

He begins the chapter by recounting the worship wars in which many churches have been entrenched for decades.  As Belcher listened to both sides, he laments:

“I had grown weary of the thinness of contemporary worship, which seemed so lifeless and often done by rote. But I didn’t want to return to the traditional style I grew up with, which seemed devoid of the real presence of God and focused on the passing on of information” (p. 124).

While these are broad-brush generalizations, I believe Belcher captures the heart of how many young evangelicals feel about the state of worship in our churches.  In fact, I believe that this sentiment is at the heart of the hymns movement and the resurgence of interest in liturgy.  This has led Belcher and others to search for a third way, which he calls “deep worship” (playing off the “deep church” theme borrowed from C. S. Lewis).

Belcher explains the reaction of the emerging church.  He discusses Dan Kimball’s book Emerging Worship, and pauses to reflect on Kimball’s concept of multisensory worship.  Belcher then recounts his oddly “normal” experience visiting the church where Kimball is pastor--Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, CA.  Belcher describes the service as God-focused and Christ-centered, with singing, a meaty sermon, candles, and lots of visuals (I am simplifying).  Belcher mentions that it is important to emerging leaders like Kimball to re-introduce a sense of the sacred into worship spaces and that the sacred can be felt and understood through interaction with all of one’s senses.  This longing for the sacred, again, is at the heart of the rebirth of explorations in liturgics and hymnology among evangelicals.  Belcher would also admit (as I would want to point out) that Kimball’s brand does not come close to representing the broad-sweeping emerging church.  Some emerging churches are house churches who know nothing of “sacred sanctuaries” (except that, by the Holy Spirit, their homes have become such). 

As in other chapters and topics in Deep Church, Belcher then presents the opposing side’s reaction (he calls the opposing side the “traditional” church, though that word should not necessarily link one’s thought to traditional styles as popularly understood but rather the traditional ways of “doing” church).  He cites several authors critical of emerging worship, though he points out that the authors have built straw men rather than accurately representing the heart of the emerging movement.  Belcher’s conclusion to all said so far is interesting:

“The emerging and traditional churches have the same Achilles’ heel—a faulty view of tradition.  Both are committed to the low-church view of church-tradition.  This has locked them into a model of worship that is dated and severely influenced by the Enlightenment.  They are handcuffed by a style of worship contextualized during the Reformation that no longer connects with postmodern people” (p. 133).

A powerful indictment! He goes on to argue that we as evangelicals have pitted tradition against the sufficiency of Scripture, which we need not do.  After diving into tradition for the last 10 years of my life, while still being a committed sola Scriptura Protestant, I have to agree with Belcher’s assessment.  It reminds me of a recent conversation I had with someone in my church responding to the fact that we were going to be utilizing acolytes (children candle-lighters) in our worship services.  She had commented, in a humble, confessional kind of way, “It feels so Catholic,” as if just because something were rooted in a non-Protestant tradition it is somehow challenging our sense of Bible-centeredness.  There is so much value in recovering tradition, because we connect with believers across time and realize that the Church is bigger than this present age. 

Belcher then goes on to something that intrigues me and which I have wrestled with in regards to the free utilization of tradition.  From Jonny Baker (author of Alternate Worship), he borrows the pop-music concept of “sampling” as a metaphor for the way the emerging church has utilized tradition in worship.  “Sampling” is taking a musical segment from another song and inserting it, often repetitively, in a new song (think of Notorious B.I.G.’s “Mo Money, Mo Problems,” or 2Pac’s “Changes”).  From Baker:

“Post-modern cultural savvy, combined with an evangelical tendency not to defer to high church regulation, led alt worshipers to treat this treasure chest [i.e. tradition] as a kind of dressing-up box.”

It’s as if we’ve taken bits and pieces of liturgy from various traditions and played dress-up with them.  This certainly is cutting and provocative.  Belcher’s ultimate point is that when liturgy is sampled as such, it is being stripped of what makes it meaningful and powerful, namely, the “Great Tradition,” as Belcher calls it.  Belcher, having studied well the philosophical underpinnings of postmodernism, fears that the postmodern tendency to construct meanings will be at play here…We’ll take this aspect and that aspect of liturgy and give them a new spin or new significance they were never intended to have.  It would be similar to taking a Scriptural quote and using it out of context.

What I can’t figure out from Belcher is whether or not he is totally against sampling of this sort or whether he’s against uninformed sampling.  Personally, I can’t imagine that one would rule out all sampling.  I don’t see how taking an Anglican confession of sin from the Book of Common Prayer and utilizing it in a Presbyterian liturgy is somehow reconstructing its meaning.  A confession is a confession.  The text speaks for itself.  Perhaps Belcher is referring to certain types of sampling.  If so, I would like some clarifications or examples.  As I see it, the positive side of sampling is that it tears down some of the walls of our denominationalism without compromising our distinctives.  I would be uncomfortable with some aspects of Eastern Orthodox liturgy (e.g. certain ways of relating to the saints and Mary), but I’ve found many aspects of Orthodoxy worth incorporating (e.g. the “Phos Hilaron,” or one of their liturgies of forgiveness and reconciliation).  Is it somehow disingenuous to that tradition to do so?  Again, I’m betting that Belcher and I do not disagree, because his concept of the “Great Tradition” is really the notion of what all Christians rally around in belief and practice (for instance, the Apostles’ Creed).  But if that’s the case, then I don’t understand how sampling violates that Great Tradition.  Perhaps I have misunderstood Belcher at this point.  To give him the final word on this:

“If we are serious about reclaiming the Great Tradition, we must look beyond our own experience to the formative eras (apostolic or patristic) of the faith and not just for the practices” (pp. 135-136).

Belcher’s next section exposes the truth about tradition:

“There is no golden time to return to…There is no return to the pristine church, no true historic form; it never existed.  And it does not mean converting to Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy” (p. 136).

This is an important point, and as I have said before (and noted by many others), some disenfranchised evangelicals have abandoned the contemporary church, not for other more traditional evangelical churches, but for what they perceive as a more ancient and rooted brands of Christianity—Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy.  Belcher quotes theologian Thomas Oden:

“All of the traditions have an equal right to appeal to the early history of Christian exegesis….Protestants have a right to the Fathers.  Athanasius is not owned by the Copts, nor is Augustine owned by North Africans…The Orthodox do not have exclusive rights over Basil, nor do the Romans over Gregory the Great.  Christians everywhere have equal claim to these riches and are discovering them and glimpsing their unity in the body of Christ” (p. 136).

I used to feel “temporally inferior” as a Presbyterian Protestant, because I was not heir to the Great Tradition in a way that Catholicism and Orthodoxy were.  Then I read Hughes Oliphant Old’s The Patristic Roots of Reformed Worship, and I was given a glimpse into a larger view of Protestantism.  As is the case with Presbyterian worship (as argued by Old), it is the case that, with every Protestant tradition, while there may be varying levels of discontinuity with the past tradition, there are still points of continuity which link even us newbie Protestants to the one holy catholic and apostolic church.  And we have a rightful claim to that tradition.

Belcher ends the chapter by describing worship at his church.  He’s quick to point out that it’s not about showing off his church; it’s about showing how one Christian assembly attempts to flesh out “Deep Worship.”  His seven descriptors are:

1) Ancient and new – incorporating old elements and new elements (this makes me think, by the way, that I have misunderstood his critical comments on “sampling” above).  Here, to my pleasure, he mentions the major players in the hymns movement (Indelible Grace, Red Mountain Church, and Sandra McCracken) and looks favorably on what we love: setting old hymns to new music.

2) Biblical drama – liturgy reenacts the drama of the Bible; Belcher groups his worship in “calling, cleansing, constitution, communion, and commission”; I like this!

3) Joy and reverence

4) Priesthood of all believers – minimizing the disparity between “those on stage” and “those in the audience”…love it!

5) Profound but accessible sermons

6) Weekly Communion

7) Guest-friendly—doxological evangelism – a phrase taken from Tim Keller, carrying the idea of worshiping before the nations (Ps 47:1), such that the praise of God, because of its vibrancy and authenticity, becomes attractive.

Overall, this was a very good chapter that I think is worthy to be read by all worship leaders, at least throughout the next ten years as the emerging church continues to exert its positive and negative influence.  Perhaps if there were one thing I could wish for more of throughout Deep Church, it would be scriptural argumentation and interaction.  Belcher’s strong point, in engaging this debate between the traditional church and the emerging church, is his extremely thorough study and understanding of both sides.  More than that, he is intimately acquainted with many emerging leaders and has, in a sense, “grown up” with them as he was acquiring his theological chops.  However, in a thorough discussion like this, I would want a bit more scriptural interaction.  I know its insinuated and that Belcher’s primary concern is to dialogue with the voices on the issues who have done that interaction, but in positing a third way, I was hoping for biblical argumentation to be a bit more overt. 

1 – Sola  -  Zac Hicks, 2010
This is our song of the month. It is Christ centered and easy to learn. The congregation will soon be able to connect with it very well.

2 – Better Is One Day  -  Matt Redman, 1995
This song sounds archaic, yet precise. The congregation connects with this song a lot. I think, because it’s very well known, and they can allow themselves to get into the worship “mood” without losing the words.

3 – Exalt the Lord  -  Cindy Rethmeier, 1991
A more solemn moment of worship, Exalt the Lord is a simple song with a simple message: “He is holy”. The congregation seems to connect with this song as well because of its melodious simplicity, and contemplative words.

4 – God, Be Merciful To Me  -  Richard Redhead, 1853 / Christopher Miner, 1997
In this song, we take time to plead for mercy from God whom we have offended. We ask Him to “wash me whiter than the snow”.  It’s important to humble ourselves before God like this and not take His Mercy for granted.

5 – Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken  -  Henry Lyte, 1824, 1833 / Bill Moore, 2001
Our Lenten song reminds us to rest solely on Him who saves us. Not necessarily to give away all that we have, but to dedicate all that we have to Him in acknowledgement that He gave us everything we have.

~Robert

Read Part 1 here.

If you haven’t read the introduction to the previous post, do so, because I’m going to jump straight into Exhibit B.  In the 1920s, archaeologists unearthed an ancient, forgotten city—Ugarit—which lies on the northeastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, on the western coast of current day Syria.  The ruins of Ugarit, dating from between the 13^th and 12^th centuries B.C., were quite a find, because of their proximity (in both time and geography) to the Old Testament accounts and places.  Understanding the pagan city of Ugarit helps us better understand many things about the ancient Israelites of the Old Testament period.

One of the discoveries made at Ugarit were documents and artifacts that gave a window into viewing the way they worshiped.  They used stringed, wind, and percussion instruments similar to those cited in the Old Testament.  They engaged in solo, antiphonal, and unison singing, not unlike the practices of what went on in ancient Israel.

What?  Israel worshiped God in the musical and cultural forms of “the world”?  But I thought Israel was a holy nation, set apart by God!  I can’t believe that Israel would allow “secular” forms of worship to taint YHWH’s sacred worship!

Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet
Praise Him with the harp and lyre
Praise Him with tambourine and dancing
Praise Him with the strings and flute
Praise Him with the clash of cymbals

Praise Him with electric guitars.  Praise Him with overdrive pedals.  Praise Him with tube amps and reverb units.  Praise Him with the kick drum.  Praise Him with the snare.  Praise Him with microphones.  Praise Him with the djembe.  Praise Him with the cajon.  Praise Him with mandolins.  Praise Him with the shekere.  Praise Him with synths.  Praise Him with loops.  Praise Him with sound boards and XLR cables.  Praise Him with Aviom in-ear systems.  Praise Him with loud, booming subwoofers.

Evidently God doesn’t mind “secular” instruments in sacred worship.  Evidently He wants culture redeemed for holy use (you can see where I fall in Niebuhr’s Christ and culture spectrum).  Evidently, even in all its brokenness and sin, God hasn’t abandoned culture.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.  We’ll see you in part 3.

Bronwyn Anna Hicks
Born February 19, 2010, 11:51pm
7 lbs 5 oz, 20.5 inches

Bronwyn is a Welsh/Gaelic name, meaning “pure/fair.”  Anna (we had a last minute change this morning…God allowed us to be too tired to send this email last night, and we both woke up uneasy about her alternate middle name!) is after the prophetess told about in Luke 2:36-38.  She was a devout woman of God: “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”  Anna’s closeness to God was evidenced by her ability to look at Jesus as an infant and know that He was Messiah, Savior of the world.  Our prayer for Bronwyn Anna is that she grows to understand that all her purity and beauty comes from knowing and being known by Christ Jesus.

We’re so excited to have a little girl!  Thank God!

Zac & Abby

1 – Sola  -  Zac Hicks, 2010
This brand new song from Zac Hicks’ new album coming in 2011, textually emphasizes Christ as our leader through whom we worship God.  Musically, it has a processional “march” feel to it; very appropriate for an opening song.

2 – Blessed Be Your Name  -  Matt Redman & Beth Redman, 2002
I particularly enjoy this song, because it acknowledges the darkness of life. But, in the face of that, it blesses the Name of God. I also always find that the congregation connects with this song, perhaps because of its familiarity.

3 – Desert Song  -  Brooke Fraser, 2008
The Desert Song is a journey out of drought and into a bountiful harvest. At the beginning of the song the lyrics say “This is my prayer in the desert//And all that's within me feels dry//This is my prayer in the hunger in me//My God is a God who provides”. Gradually we travel though battles, and rejoice “in every season”. Finally we land in a harvest where “favor and providence flow”. Here we acknowledge that our earthly troubles are not over: “I know I’m filled to be emptied again”.

4 – Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken  -  Henry Lyte, 1824, 1833 / Bill Moore, 2001
As we approach Lent, we must focus on picking up our crosses and following Christ. In doing so, we must also leave behind everything else in our life. Though we encounter great sorrow, we can rest in our good condition for “God and heaven are still my own”.

5 – How Great is Your Faithfulness  -  Matt Redman 2009
We ended church on a high note this week. “How Great” is certainly a wonderfully happy song. The congregation usually connects with this song fairly well.

~Robert

*The history of the observation of a period of fasting, repentance, and preparation prior to the celebration of the resurrection is much older than the history of the celebration of Christmas.  In the late 2nd century, Irenaus of Lyons wrote of just such a season.

*Tertullian, who failed to mention any celebration of Christmas, wrote of a forty-day period of fasting similar to what we now observe, though even here there seems to be widespread variation on the exact length of the time of preparation.  

*There was such a wide variation in tradition, in fact, that the Council of Nicea (AD 325) expressly mentioned forty days as the suitable practice for this pre-Easter observance.  Unlike Christmas, a Lenten-like period of preparation was so widespread in the early church that the Council felt it necessary to weigh in on the discussion.

*From a purely historical perspective, then, Lent predates Christmas as a widely observed church season.

*Ash Wednesday is the beginning of the Lenten season--40 days before Easter Sunday, not counting Sundays, which are viewed as “mini” Resurrection Days.

*The imposition of ashes is seen as a proper external sign of an internal reality.

*“Lent” comes from the same root word as “lengthen,” which was chosen as a result of the time of year when days were lengthening.

*Seen as a period of repentance echoing the Gospel of Jesus: Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

*Preparation stemmed from the prescribed fast of candidates for baptism, which occurred on Easter.  

*40 because of Moses on the mountain (Exodus 24:18), Elijah (I Kings 19:8), and Jesus in the desert (Matt. 4:2).

*Penitential season—no alleluias in the liturgy.

*Time of more intense spiritual exercises and practices.

*The point is to walk the journey to the cross with Jesus.  The practices (fasting, confession, study, etc.) help one to die to self and live to Christ (Gal. 2:20).

*Historically, a time of common fasting.

*A season of open-handed surrender rather than tight-fisted discipline.

*Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  II Cor. 3:17

(Photos by Paul Adams)

This past Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to join hands with other churches in our neighborhood for a unique experience.  Our band was invited to participate in an Evensong service at St. Gabriel the Archangel Episcopal Church here in Denver.  Rector Chris Ditzenberger and I are friends and brothers through a small group of local clergy that gather for prayer and sharing once a month, and Chris asked us to come and be a part of their beautiful Anglican liturgy. Friends like Chris and experiences like these give me great hope for the mainline Episcopal church.  They’re going through so much right now.  Great renewal movements, like Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMIA), are doing a marvelous work, but I’m thankful as well for people who stick it out in the mainline and fight the good fight in hopes of a brighter day.

We put together an acoustic ensemble (guitar, mandolin, upright bass, and percussion), stripped down our rock-ness and re-arranged our songs for a more intimate folk feel.  We played our songs as special music, largely to cap off the season of Epiphany as it comes to a close this Tuesday.

The acoustic space was magnificent…not a soft surface in the room.  Wood pews, brick and wood floors, and a vaulted ceiling.  We played from the back upper balcony alongside a beautiful multi-racial children’s choir, dressed in full purple robes, from St. Elizabeth’s School in Denver.  As it relates to worship theology and philosophy, I want to recount in brief some of the things that stood out, refreshed my soul, and blessed me: 

1. It’s good to get out of the “hype” of the typical up-front worship leading environment.

Most who attend our church would consider our normal modern-styled services as pretty tame.  We aren’t on our “stage” (we call it a chancel).  We lead from slightly below and off-center from that point.  We don’t have a particularly kickin’ sound system.  We’re not exceptionally showy in the way that we lead.  Even still, the week-in and week-out grind of standing up in front of people as a rock band wears on the soul, and it was great to be leading from a spot where no one (except God) was looking at me.  There’s something humbling about that and reaffirming about my place as a worship leader.

2. It’s great to be awash in the Book of Common Prayer.

Anglican worship is so beautiful because of its structure and thorough thought from beginning to end.  Though I find myself most often in a free-church-meets-high-church worship environment, to return to the purity of the thorough Anglican liturgy from time to time is refreshing for the soul.  The Book of Common Prayer has so much to offer and inform us in our worship.  And it’s true that the thinkers behind the original Book of Common Prayer (e.g. Thomas Cranmer) most closely aligned themselves with the thought and traditions of Reformed Christianity…therefore, I’m not surprised that I personally resonate with the theological and pragmatic angles uniquely expressed in traditional Anglican worship.

3. It’s great to be in a diverse musical environment, housed in one service.

In my previous ministry, we strove for a blended worship environment.  Currently at Cherry Creek, we have a “traditional” and “contemporary” service.  I am definitely on board with the philosophical and missional reasons why we’ve chosen two services, but my heart aches for times and seasons where we come together and express a bit more stylistic diversity.  This evening was one of those evenings.  St. Gabriel’s choir sang some beautiful chant-and-response settings by Fritz Anders, their director.  He played their organ with beauty and passion.  St. Catherine’s children’s choir sang “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” with a heart-melting simplicity.  We led our music.  The congregation sang with a strong voice.

4. Our old hymns to new music were received positively.

Our music attempts to bridge old hymnody with an intentionally modern-styled music.  In doing so, I sometimes get the feeling that we cause both sides anxiety.  The old adage goes, “When you aim at everyone, you hit no one.”  Still, we played six of our hymn-settings from The Glad Sound and received positive feedback from people of a variety of ages.  This was comforting and encouraging, especially because there are seasons where it feels like our musical vision is a steep, uphill battle.

5. It’s great to be part of a worship service that is not dominated by a few personalities.

Evangelical worship, in its most basic form, lends itself to being two-person led.  The worship leader leads the music, and the pastor preaches the sermon.  Our second service (which I lead), though a lot more liturgically nuanced, can feel like this from time to time.  There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, and I’m convinced that everything boils down to the heart of the individual.  Nevertheless, I wrestle with seeking a Christ-centered humility when I am consistently in front of people and believe that there’s something good for the soul to be a part of a worship service where lots of people have key roles.  In that format it does run the risk of feeling disjointed and athematic (the Book of Common Prayer becomes much of the glue for Anglicans), but I found it comforting and powerful to be laboring in the midst of many others to pull off this service.

Hats off to the Anglicans!  I look forward to more joint efforts like this.

ASH WEDNESDAY ORDER OF WORSHIP

We Enter into Worship

Prelude  -  Lucille Reilly, hammered dulcimer

Explanation of the Service

Blowing of the Ram’s Horn

Call to Worship

Leader:         Blow the trumpet in Zion;
                     sound the alarm on my holy mountain!

Choir:           Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
                     for the day of the Lord is coming, it is near –
                     a day of darkness and gloom,
                     a day of clouds and thick darkness!

All:                Like blackness spread upon the mountains
                     a great and powerful army comes;
                     their like has never been from of old,
                     nor will be again after them in ages to come.

Leader:         Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your         heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;         rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Choir:           Return to the Lord, your God, for He is gracious
                     and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding
                     in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

All:                Who knows whether He will not turn and relent,
                     and leave a blessing behind Him, a grain offering
                     and a drink offering for the Lord, your God?

Leader:         Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast;
                     call a solemn assembly; gather the people.
                     Sanctify the congregation; assemble the aged;
                     gather the children, even infants at the breast.
                     Let the bridegroom leave his room,
                     and the bride her canopy.

Choir:           Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests,
                     the ministers of the Lord, weep.

All:                Spare your people, O Lord,
                     and do not make your heritage a mockery,
                     a byword among the nations.
                     Why should it be said among the peoples,
                     ‘Where is their God?’

Prayer

Hymn no. 257: What Wondrous Love is This

We Meditate on the Word

Scripture Reading: Psalm 51:1-17

Anthem: Lord, Make Me to Know  -  Johannes Brahms

Lord, make me to know the measure of my days on earth,
That my life is but frailty and I must perish.
Surely all my days here are as an handbreadth to Thee,
And my life is as naught to Thee.
Verily, mankind walketh in a vain show, even his best state is vanity.
He goeth about like a shadow.  
In his anxiety and in vain he heapeth up riches,
But knoweth, nay knoweth not who shall gather them.
Now, Lord, what then do I wait for?
My hope is in Thee!

Gospel Lesson: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Message for Children, Students, and Adults  -  Zac Hicks

Receiving Christ, We Enter into Lent

Holy Communion

Please know that the receiving of ashes is voluntary, not mandatory.

Though Holy Communion and the Imposition of Ashes happen together, those not ready to take Communion are still welcome to receive ashes.  Likewise, some may come forward to receive Communion who do not want to receive ashes.

Elder:            The body of Christ, broken for you.

Congregant:             And I will live for Him.

Elder:            The blood of Christ, shed for you.

Congregant: And I will live for Him.

The Imposition of Ashes

We Go Forth in Repentance

Closing Hymn no. 252: Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days

Benediction

Dismissal

Leader:         May the peace of Christ be with you.

People:         And also with you.

Leader:         Go in peace.

Postlude

 

ASH WEDNESDAY WORSHIP NOTES

What is Lent?  “Lent” comes from the Old English word lenct (meaning “spring”), which named the season often associated with this time period.  Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a 40-day countdown to Easter, intended to symbolize the 40 day temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, recorded in the Gospels (e.g. Matthew 4).  Lent is a season of preparation, as we look and move toward Holy Week (that week symbolizing Jesus’ last week prior to the crucifixion and resurrection, where we celebrate days such as Good Friday and Easter). Traditionally, Christians take up practices during Lent which symbolize repentance, such as fasting.  More important than our works, however, is remembering Jesus’ work on our behalf.  Lent is a great period to continually reflect on the fact that Jesus not only died for us, He lived for us.  And His perfection and good works is the lens through which God looks at us when we put our faith in Him.  He certainly died to pay the penalty for our sins.  But He also lived to give us a righteousness we could never live out ourselves.

The Ram’s Horn, called “shofar” in Hebrew, comes from our ancient Israelite heritage.  It has been used to call the people of God into a solemn service of worship.  The shofar is not necessarily a musical instrument, but a warrior’s trumpet.  Perhaps, as we enter into this time of fasting and repentance, we can use this opportunity to challenge our hearts with Scripture’s admonition to make war against our flesh (Romans 7-8; 1 Peter 2:11)—the sin that, through the Holy Spirit, we have the power to subdue in our lives.

The use of ashes.  It was commonplace in ancient Israel to wear sackcloth and heap ashes on one’s head during times of mourning, lamentation, and repentance (e.g. 2 Samuel 13:9).  We mark the sign of the cross in ashes on our foreheads to symbolize a tension we must walk during the season of Lent.  This tension, for followers of Jesus, is that we enter into a time of repentance and inward examination (symbolized in ashes), all the while knowing that the punishment for our sin has met its end in the gracious work of Christ (symbolized in the cross).  There is simultaneous sorrow and joy, repentance and grace.  The symbol on our foreheads neatly summarizes the full journey from Lent to Easter.

Taking fasting seriously.  We live in a culture of excess.  Our society knows very little of self-restraint and moderation.  As followers of Jesus, we need to be on constant guard against the onslaught of culture in this area, knowing that we are awash in such sentiments that cut against the grain of who we’re called to be as simple and temperate.  Perhaps Ash Wednesday can be a wakeup call for us to examine those areas in our lives where we’ve let our excesses go unchecked.  Fasting is commanded by God and is a useful tool to help us keep our flesh “in check.”  It is a vehicle through which the Holy Spirit trains us to say “no” to the flesh and “yes” to Christ’s righteousness.  Consider what fasting could look like for you this Lenten season.

Preparing for Communion. How do we prepare to receive the Lord’s Supper?

First of all, by knowing Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Savior. We are to come with an understanding faith. We should know Christ, and we should know what this table is all about. That is, we should “partake in a worthy manner.” This meal involves a “participation in the Blood of Christ” (I Cor 10:16).

Secondly, by being reconciled with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Our union with Christ is both an incentive and a means to unity with others (Matthew 5:23-24).

Thirdly, by repenting of all known sin. This is not a meal for perfect people. There is only one with a perfect righteousness, and that is Christ. We are to come trusting in His righteousness, but we are to come with a renewed repentance and desire to live as His obedient disciples.

Scripture says, “A person ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.” (I Cor 11:28). If for any reason you are not ready to take the elements, it is always okay to remain seated, and to use the time to do business with God.

Sent out in peace.  The Benediction this evening could easily pass us by.  We could walk mindlessly through a few phrases and then be on our way.  Or, perhaps, we may let these brief statements soak in.  We live in a world of strife—nations war against one another; individuals “war” against one another; we war within ourselves.  There is an incredible need for peace in us as individuals and in us as a human race.  As Christians, we believe that such peace has no ultimate satisfaction apart from knowing Jesus.  Our dismissal sends us out as ambassadors, carrying “the peace of Christ” to a world that desperately needs it.  During this Lenten season, let’s recommit to being the peacemakers Christ has called us to be (Matthew 5:9).

Teaching our children “uncommon godliness.”  As noted above, the concept of fasting swims hard against the current of culture.  We should not think that our children are incapable of understanding this or even training themselves now in the war against the flesh.  Perhaps parents can go home from this evening and engage their children in a conversation about what kind of fast could be meaningful and appropriate during Lent.

Some people think this is frivolous pandering to culture.  Some people think it is “selling out,” making the church more of a corporation than the body of Christ.  To the contrary, I think branding and corporate imaging are important pieces to the church’s current missional puzzle.

“Branding” and “Corporate Imaging” are marketing terms for consistent visual presentation of oneself.  In the market, it is making sure that your “brand”—the way you present yourself visually—looks and feels the same in every type of one’s electronic, projected, and print media.  If you are deviating from the brand in a piece of communication, it is intentional, not accidental.  The basics of branding and corporate imaging involve logos, fonts, colors, and “styles” (the design “extras” that include everything from text-formatting to image accents and flourishes).

Why is branding and corporate imaging important for churches?

1. We live in a visual culture.
Even for churches, such as mine, who believe in the primacy of the written word (the primary form of communication between God and humanity is a book), to miss the fact that we live in a culture that is awash (for better or worse) in brands, styles, and advertising, is to miss a key part of exegeting the way culture thinks and operates. 

2. Branding and Corporate Imaging speaks more subliminally than overtly. 
When branding is consistent, it’s not as though people think, “wow, that organization is well-branded.”  But when it is inconsistent, in our visual day and age, it speaks a subconscious message.  Disunified media (random fonts, mismatched color patterns, and pictures/imagery) communicates in a subconscious way about an organization.

3.  Branding and Corporate Imaging communicate along the lines of the “big picture”—the visionary level.
Branding speaks to these realities:

• Do we have a consistent message?  (We should…we’re the church.)
• Are we unified around our vision and mission?  (We should be…we’re the church.)
• Do we communicate well internally?  (We should…the church can’t move forward without open and honest communication.)
• Are we passionate about engaging with culture?  (We should be…this is mission 101.)

When branding and corporate imaging are inconsistent, it says to culture, “We’re disunified.  We can’t even keep ourselves straight.”  And we need to remember that whether or not this is true, this is what is communicated (because of reasons 1 & 2 above).

4.  Branding and Corporate Imaging either affirm or deny what is actually communicated.
This is communications 101...the old body language vs. words issue.  We may use the words, “We are a place that has the most relevant message anyone could ever hear,” but because of reasons 1-3 above, if our visual message speaks of disunity and inconsistency, we are contradicting ourselves, saying, “No, we really don’t have the most relevant message anyone could ever hear.”  Corporate imaging and branding are our communicative “body language.”

5.  Branding and Corporate Imaging allow an organization’s presence to present itself more often and in more places, allowing people to make positive points of connection.
Imagine you’re putting on an event that you’re wanting to open up to the community.  You create fliers or posters to be put in public places.  When a person sees those fliers or posters, even if they are not conscious of the organization, it’s a moment that makes a visual “stamp” on their mind.  The next time they encounter another communication piece from that same organization, the visual “identity” (fonts, colors, logos, styles) might just be recognized again.  It creates a point of connection.  If the imaging were not consistent, that opportunity to communicate and re-communicate would potentially be lost or have to start again at ground zero.  Just as, in meeting someone, we hope that they will have memorable associations with us so that the next time we talk, we’re not rehashing the basics, so, in communicating with your people and the world, you want to build on your reputation, not start at the beginning every time.

For example: We’re in the middle of producing brochures for a wonderful arts series at our church.  If the brochure matches our visual identity, people who attend one or two events of our arts series will now have that visual identity stamped in their minds and associate it (even if subconsciously) with the experience of the event. They will associate a passion for good art and music with that identity.  In the event that they are exposed to another communication piece of our church (say an invitation to come to our Easter services), if our visual identity is the same in that piece, they might then associate the positive experience of the arts series and be more inclined to accept this seemingly “cold turkey” invitation.  Corporate imaging, then, enhances one of the goals of the arts series, which is to make a non-threatening connecting point between our church and our community which will hopefully open the door to further interaction, drawing people toward Christ and fellowship with His Church.  Branding has a visionary and missional impact, helping us achieve our important people-oriented ministry goals!

Of course, branding and corporate imaging are not the be-all and end-all of mission.  In fact, I’d have to say that they’re not even central to mission.  Mission is about people hitting the road with the love of Christ and message of the Gospel.  It's ultimately about getting out more than attracting in.  However, when a church’s visual identity is not thought about, it becomes an unnecessary barrier to mission.  Personally, I believe that this is a place where many churches need to do a better job exegeting and communicating with culture, and in our day and age with the inexpensive resources available to us, a few simple principles (which you can learn from anyone with a marketing and design background) can go a long way in eliminating that barrier so we can get on to the truly important stuff…things like vision, mission, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.