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An Introduction from Jennifer Baker-Trinity, Program Director for Resource Development

 

Greetings! My name is Jennifer Baker-Trinity. As a Deacon in the ELCA and the new Program Director for Resource Development here in the ELCA/Augsburg Fortress, I am excited to share with you a bit about this shared position and a little about me.

 

About this new position…

 

“Program Director for Resource Development.” After managing the 12-syllable title, you might wonder, what is that? This new position is creative in that it is shared between the ELCA worship office and Augsburg Fortress, part of 1517 Media. Since Augsburg Fortress works closely with the worship office in publishing materials for the church, it makes sense to have someone working in both worlds. On the Augsburg Fortress side, my position will include editing Sundays and Seasons and other worship/music related resources. With wonderful colleagues, I look forward to visioning together about resources to serve the church.

 

In the ELCA world, I will be helping to lead events and teach, thereby connecting leaders to resources that will help them along the way. For example, my first task will be in working with the upcoming Worship at the Center event: “Journeying from Ash Wednesday to Easter.” I am thrilled to be working with a talented team of presenters who will engage us in why and how we keep The Three Days (shameless plug: Registration goes up in mid-September at www.elca.org/Worship so stay tuned!)

 

About me…

 

I come to this position with a background in liturgy and church music and a love for interdisciplinary work. I found the training of musicians with pastors at the then Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia to be especially formative for my call as well as my involvement with the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM). Since seminary, I served as a writer and church musician, most recently from Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania.

 

Another hat I wear is serving as Co-Director for the Institute of Liturgical Studies at Valparaiso University. This Institute has continually been a source for my spiritual renewal, first as a college student in the previous millennium!

 

I am discovering a few of this state’s ten thousand lakes as I make my home with my spouse, three children and one cat in Shoreview, Minnesota. I work out of the office at 1517 Media in Minneapolis. I even got to see the eclipse out the 8th floor window on my first day!

 

I look forward to good conversations and partnerships in this church and beyond.

 

Engaging Children in Worship

 

Today’s post is from Shelly Satran, a pastor at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Vero Beach, FL.

 

How can we engage children in worship when we don’t know if there will even be any?

 

We regularly ask ourselves this question at the congregation I serve. We have families and children in our congregation, but spread across our three worship services, and given our demographic in a Florida coastal retirement town we never know if we might have two kids (“kids” used broadly here, one might be a toddler and one a teenager) or ten at a worship service.

This question presented itself to us eight years ago when we realized children’s sermons weren’t working in our context. We decided to drop them, but committed to involving kids in worship in any way we could. We still have work to do, but here are some things that have been successful.

The first simple way we engage kids in worship, is to ask them! This one is a no-brainer, but still worth stating. We wear ourselves out texting, calling, asking in person, instant messaging, anything we can think of to involve young people in worship. As a result, not counting the youth acolytes, there is rarely a Sunday service that we don’t have youth or children involved as ushers, greeters, readers, musicians (from talented high school instrumentalists to an eight-year-old playing the rain stick), or worship leaders. It is definitely harder work to get youth to commit versus an adult. We have more issues with no shows than we do with adults, but it is worth it. The more we ask our young people to participate in the regular roles in worship the more they feel worship is for them.

Secondly, and this falls into an important category for us of ideas we can add or omit depending on whether children are present, is to have a “kids’ question” in the sermon. This works similarly to how a children’s sermon question might work, but the kids are less on the spot, they can choose to raise their hand from their seats or not, and they are never on their own to answer because there are always adults who may whisper the answer or can’t help but blurt it out themselves. Plus we fold the questions into the sermon so that it isn’t a separate kids’ moment, but rather they are a part of what everyone else is participating in—God’s Word.

Our kids’ questions might involve an activity like: “Look through your worship folder/bulletin and count how many times the word “peace” appears.” As they are looking the sermon continues, but at some point I ask the kids for the answer and fold it into the rest of the sermon. Another kid’s question might be to circle all of the animals (or plants, or towns, or disciples, or anything that forms a small category) in the readings and show me after worship. Sometimes, not always, I have stickers or candy in my pocket as a prize.

The kids’ question might be some very basic Bible trivia that even the youngest would know or it might relate to the bulletin cover art—“Listen to the Gospel reading and see if you can name the three people depicted on the bulletin.” The great thing about the kids’ question is that it works if there are 20 kids in worship or two or zero. We have a Saturday night worship service that is usually not attended by kids, except for one not-shy boy. I will often call the kids question the “Gregory question” at that service, or if no kids are present I will make the kids’ question into an everybody question. We don’t have the kids’ question in the sermon every week. Then it would lose some of its novelty, but regularly enough that the kids know to listen up and wait for it.

Third, and also in the category of easily added or omitted, during the sending hymn we gather up any youth in worship (again they may range from toddler to teenager) invite them up front with the pastors and worship leaders. By “gather them up” I mean one of us pastors walks out and gets them. Or at a service with more children, we send older kids out to do the gathering. Once the young people are all up front, two or twelve of them, we all recess out of worship together and then the children lead the final “Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.” sending from the baptismal font. We’ve never had any trouble recruiting kids for this role probably because being first to the back of the sanctuary positions them to be first in line for cookies after worship.

So if you are like us and you may only have a smattering of children in worship, don’t be discouraged. Wear yourself out to include them. It will be worth the effort. To them and the congregation, their presence will feel larger than the actual numbers. Hear it in the voices of children: “Go in Peace. Serve the Lord!”

 

 

A Ministry of Free Prayer

 

Today’s post is from Marie Sager, Pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, Hays KS.

 

Have you ever been to a coffee shop and seen people working on their computers? How about reading a book? You probably answered yes to both of these questions, but have you seen someone praying? A ministry that is starting to take off is Free Prayer.

I first heard about the ministry of Free Prayer via Facebook in a post that featured an article about The Rev. Thomas Rusert, a pastor in Pennsylvania. The article talked about why he offers “Free Prayer” at different places. The idea sounded interesting to me, so I decided to try it. I requested a Free Prayer sign, and I was off to the local coffee shop near me.

I have been doing Free Prayer, at a local coffee shop, since April 2016. It has been such an amazing ministry. I have received lots of inquisitive smiles, and those who do venture over to pull up a chair have had many different prayers. I have had a request from a kid eating lunch with their family about safety in an upcoming storm, to requests for family members in the hospital, to safe travel on road trips. There are no “small prayers” prayers.

Besides praying for people, one of the reasons I do Free Prayer, is to offer a ministry to the community. I sit in my clerical collar most Thursdays with my sign offering Free Prayer. In a predominantly Catholic and non-denominational community, I am one of the only female pastors. Therefore I also view my Free Prayer ministry as an evangelism tool, to let people know that women can and have been Lutheran pastors for around 45 years.

Lastly, I post on Facebook about this ministry as well. I have a pinned post on my PastorMarie Sager page with dates of upcoming Free Prayer times. I also post in real time as I am doing Free Prayer asking what I may pray for.

 

 

The Reformation 500 in Worship

 

During this year marking the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, many Lutheran congregations will plan, or have already planned, worship that focuses on this remarkable milestone. Congregational worship commemorating the Reformation often takes either the direction of a celebration of Luther’s accomplishments, or a joint commemoration with Catholics which uses the anniversary to spur ecumenical dialogue. Below are specific worship planning recommendations for each type of service as offered by Dr. Gail Ramshaw in Commemorating 1517 without dressing up as Luther with a hammer.

 

Celebrating Luther

To those who are considering using 2017 to celebrate Luther’s accomplishments, I suggest the standard order for Holy Communion as presented in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW), filled to the brim with Luther and Reformation-era hymns. The volume The Sunday Assembly (pages 59, 180-87) gives help here. For an opening confession and absolution, the assembly can sing “Out of the Depths I Cry to You” (ELW #600), Luther’s hymn praying for forgiveness. The Kyrie will be “Kyrie! God, Father” (#409); the hymn of praise “All Glory Be to God on High” (#410); the creed will be Luther’s version of the Nicene Creed, “We All Believe in One True God” (#411); the “Holy Holy Holy” be will Luther’s Sanctus, “Isaiah, in a Vision Did of Old” (#868); a full eucharistic prayer and the Lord’s Prayer will be followed by “Lamb of God, Pure and Sinless” (357).

For the hymn of the day, you might choose #505, a reformed translation of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” For the eucharistic prayer – please remember that Luther’s colleague Philipp Melanchthon praised the eucharistic prayer of the Eastern Orthodox Church – you might select either the prayer from the third or fourth century designated in the ELW as Form XI (ELW p. 69) or the prayer that the Lutheran scholar Luther Reed first published in 1947, designated as Form I. For the final blessing, Luther preferred the use of the Aaronic benediction (ELW p. 114).

 

2017 as Joint Commemoration

Let me now describe now my preferred option – that Lutherans use 2017 not primarily to celebrate Luther, but rather to commemorate, with Lutherans and Roman Catholics together, our common understanding of past, our collaboration in the present, and our hopes for the future. I hope we Lutherans can worship throughout 2017 as the time that it is: a time of international ecumenical conversation between Lutherans and Roman Catholics, a time of joint resolve to erase errors and to design collaborative projects. Recall that in 1999, the dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics released the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, which stated that the differing denominational emphases did not invalidate the commonalities between the churches on this central theological issue. This Declaration is available as a PDF file on-line. It is a time to forgive each other for past offenses, to rejoice in our common baptism, and to walk together into God’s future.

Those of you who are eager to design your own worship service can be inspired by the three-fold content of the booklet From Conflict to Communion: (1) we celebrate the shared joy we have in the gospel; (2) we acknowledge the pain over failures and sins and our need for repentance; and (3) we pray for the ongoing challenge to bear common witness to Christ throughout the world. That is: joy, repentance, and common witness. Be sure to balance each Lutheran quote or hymn with one written by a Roman Catholic. If you sing “A Mighty Fortress,” you might also appoint the splendid hymn written in 1983 by the Benedictine sister Delores Dufner, “The Word of God is Source and Seed” (ELW 506). “What Is This Place” (ELW 524) by the twentieth-century Roman Catholic Jesuit priest Huub Oosterhuis can be sung next to “Beloved, God’s Chosen” (ELW 648) by Lutheran laywoman Susan Palo Cherwien. The ninth- century chant “Ubi Caritas et Amor,” “Where True Charity and Love Abide” (ELW 642 or 653), would be a welcome addition, grounding our separate voices in their common past.

You might also pray the beloved seventeenth-century prayer for the church (ELW pages 58 and 73): “We pray for your holy catholic church. Fill it with all truth and peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it; where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in need, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.”

God bless your commemoration of 1517.

 

You can find the entire text of  Commemorating 1517 without dressing up as Luther with a hammer, a workshop presented by Dr. Ramshaw in July 2015 at the ELCA Worship Jubilee, along with many other resources for Reformation commemorations at https://elca500.org.  In addition, the Reformation 500 Sourcebook, available from Augsburg Fortress, is an extensive guide for 500th Anniversary Planning.

 

 

Recognizing Secular Holidays in Worship

 

Today’s post is an excerpt from the Worship FAQ “How do congregations recognize secular occasions and holidays in the liturgy?” The complete FAQ is available here.

 

A General Approach to Holidays

Lutheran worship ordinarily focuses on an ecumenically shared pattern of scripture readings (a lectionary) and prayer that is shaped according to seasons and days of the church year. This means that occasions of a secular origin will not ordinarily dominate the primary weekly services of a congregation. Yet there are many ways in which secular occasions may be acknowledged in the liturgy without their becoming the exclusive focus of the day. Oftentimes a secular occasion may provide an opportunity for preachers to illustrate how faith is active in the midst of our daily routines and commitments. Such occasions may also be opportunities to extend a congregation’s ministry of prayer.

 

Incorporating Secular Concerns into the Prayers

People who are responsible for leading prayers of the congregation (oftentimes a lay assisting minister, or perhaps a pastor), rightly prepare for that task by looking not only to the scripture readings that will be used at a given service, but also to calendars that list secular holidays as well as special community observances. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, high school graduations, and national holidays (Memorial Day, Independence Day, Veteran’s Day) are all examples of occasions that can be reflected in the congregation’s prayer petitions. Here is where the liturgy readily provides a natural opportunity for these occasions to be recognized, without them necessarily becoming the focus for an entire service.

While worship leaders may be eager to celebrate those occasions that have wide acceptance within the larger culture, they will also want to take care that these occasions are not used to divide the worshiping assembly inappropriately. Not everyone at worship on a given day will be part of the group that is recognized. It’s not just fathers who worship on Father’s Day (there may in fact be quite a number of men in attendance who are not fathers). Not all worshipers at services close to Independence Day will share a similar patriotic enthusiasm, though prayers for the country and for careful exercise of freedom will certainly be appropriate. Worship leaders who are sensitive to the fact that some worshipers will expect to have their favorite occasions honored, while other worshipers may be uncomfortable at these times, will help both types of people by acknowledging the occasion in modest ways, yet without departing from the church’s own liturgy and calendar at these times.

Recognizing Groups within the Assembly

While mention in the prayers of the church is a significant way to include a variety of occasions and secular holidays, there may be other ways to honor people within the assembly. Some congregations may present special gifts to people on various occasions (perhaps flowers for mothers on Mother’s Day, or a book for graduates), an action that is probably best handled quite simply before the service as people gather, or during a time of fellowship that follows the service. In this manner undue attention is not placed on those who do not represent certain cultural norms (for example, women who have never been mothers or whose children have died, or those who have not graduated from school). If mention is made of these days in preaching or otherwise, it will be helpful to note that people live out their vocations as parents, students, veterans, etc, in various faithful ways.

Resources

Primary worship resources of the church suggest a number of occasions for which readings and prayers might be included to recognize various secular holidays and other events in people’s lives (see in particular the list of occasions in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, pp. 61-63; and the many different occasions for prayer given in Evangelical Lutheran Worship: Occasional Services for the Assembly and Evangelical Lutheran Worship: Pastoral Care (such as prayers/readings at the birth of a child, adoption, vocation in daily life, birthday, separation or divorce and blessing for a home).

 

Celebrating God’s World with Outdoor Worship

 

Today’s post is from Ellen Acconcia, staff at Christ the King in Great Falls, VA.

 

Pastor Hank Langknecht, of Christ the King Lutheran Church in Great Falls Virginia, recently asked his congregation the following questions:

How does a tree praise? How does a tick praise? A raccoon? The south wind?

The questions came during his sermon delivered on June 11 at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston, Virginia as the congregation worshiped in the outdoors. Not simply, “moving the indoor worship outdoors,” as Pastor Hank noted, the service focused on the group’s natural surroundings, the moving waters of Colvin Run; the listening for a bird call, the organic elements used in the preparation for the service.

 

 

Langknecht noted that worshiping along the run allowed him to reflect on the fact that the waterway is currently being remediated by a wetlands conservation engineering firm. “It was an interesting (though unspoken) background symbol for how humankind interacts with natur,” said Langknecht, “Problems arise (human generated or not) and we try to fix them … do we always make things better in the process?”

 

Pastor Hank concluded his sermon,

The fulfillment of God’s mission occurs

when all of creation gathers at the river

the crystal tide forever…

… that flows by the throne of God

… and flows out to bring life and healing

to everything …

Shall we gather at the river?

We shall!

 

 

 

The group then gathered for fellowship and a picnic lunch at the service’s conclusion.

 

 

 

Photo Information: With a focus on their natural surroundings, Christ the King Lutheran Church, Great Falls, Virginia gathered on Sunday, June 11 to worship. Images courtesy Christ the King Lutheran Church, Great Falls, 2017. www.gflutheran.org