Liturgy for the Whole Church: Multigenerational Resources for Worship
198
Liturgy for the Whole Church: Multigenerational Resources for Worship
198Paperback
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780898696028 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Church Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2008 |
| Pages: | 198 |
| Product dimensions: | 8.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
LITURGY FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH
RESOURCES FOR MULTIGENERATIONAL WORSHIP
By SUSAN K. BOCK
Church Publishing Incorporated
Copyright © 2008 Susan K. BockAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-89869-602-8
CHAPTER 1
Children and Worship
How can we keep the children from disturbing us as we worship?" Wherever I have served as priest, this question has emerged. I have noticed that, as I get older, the noise of young children is harder to embrace or ignore. I feel annoyed when I have to mentally "screen" the sounds of cries, laughter, or talk. And things dropping. Again and again. And patent leather shoes running down the aisles. The sounds seem loudest at the most poignant words in the sermon, you think, but you're not sure because you can't hear and besides, you're mad! The only thing worse than all this racket in church is worship where children are absent.
Worship without children presents a quietude that seems out of place, and always scares and saddens me. It's as though the Pied Piper has come and gone, taking our treasure away from where it most naturally belongs. Church is for the Child, and children belong in church. So, instead of the question above, we might ask, "How can adults and children worship together so that we all learn and love God as best we can?" Put another way, how can all worshipers be respectfully invited and meaningfully engaged, addressed, and called by what goes on in our worship of God? The gift of God in word and sacrament is for each of us, and for all of us together.
The earliest Christians, who found the patterns for their worship in their Jewish roots, worshiped with children. Early church writings suggest that children may have had a particular place to sit at worship. Sofia Cavalletti writes that, since it is the whole Christian community that proclaims Christ, the child must have meaningful contact with the whole community.
Here are some practical suggestions for worship that will be genuinely inclusive of children.
Guidelines for Pastors and Liturgists
* Be clear, firm, and as non-anxious as you are able to be. Children belong in church. Stay with it, modeling your own joy and welcome, and others will eventually learn this truth.
* Reassure adults and children that all people are welcome in worship. If church school is occurring at the same time as worship, let it be an option for children and parents.
* Provide guidelines in the pew rack for worshiping with children. Some of these will be listed below.
* Remind the congregation, again and again, that at each child's baptism it has promised support to children in their life in Christ. This means, minimally:
– never glaring at noisy children or their parents;
– non-related adults inviting children to sit with them, and then guiding and supporting them through the service;
– ushers providing children with the same worship materials, as appropriate, given to adults, and never passing things, along the pew, over their heads.
* Consider a children's service leaflet that includes the whole liturgy and eliminates searching through several books.
* Always consider non-readers when planning worship. This means incorporating the use of repetitive phrases and choruses.
* Never make worship silly or childish, frenetic or loud, for the sake of the children. Children are more likely than grown-ups to enjoy, for example, contemplative silences and chanting.
* Never speak about the children as though they are not there (such as, "Remember when you were a child ...").
* Recruit and train children for liturgical ministries.
* Teach children, in church school or in choir, special music or responses planned for a season. They can then help teach and lead the congregation in these changes.
Guidelines for Parents and Other Adults
These guidelines may be printed on card stock and placed in pews. They will be helpful to parents and other adults, who can be overwhelmed or frightened by the presence of children in church.
* Bring children to sit in the front, where they can see and hear liturgical actions and not just the backs of people's bodies.
* Engage young children by pointing things out. With all the bright colors, shiny things, movement, candlelight, smells and sounds and fabric, there is plenty to see, hear, and experience.
* Point to, or remind them of, responses that are about to be said or sung.
* Help distracted children out of the sanctuary so their needs can be attended to.
* Lead them back into worship when they're more ready to be engaged. Do this matter-of-factly, not punitively.
* Provide children with writing and drawing materials. They hear and see a great deal while using these things.
* And most important, let children see you worshiping joyfully and eagerly. Don't project your boredom onto them! If worship is boring to you, help your leaders to change it.
A Meditation on the Child in Church
This meditation is for adults, and may be useful for helping them learn the importance of welcoming children into worship. It can be done at an adult forum, vestry meeting, or other small group gathering. You should have a paschal candle available. Incense would also help the meditation, but is not necessary.
I invite you to fix your gaze on the paschal candle and to relax. Breathe deeply and settle into your body. Let the chair, the floor, the Earth, who is our mother, hold you up. She loves to cradle us.
Silence and breathing
Watching the flame, breathe in peace, making a big space inside you for your imagination to roam and wander. Breathe out tension, anxiety, the need to "get it right," and any other grown-up thought.
Silence and breathing
This fire is like the one burning in you, deep and hot, since the day you were baptized. On that day you were marked with Christ: sealed, branded, seared. That day you were adopted by God, celebrated in God's heart. The Easter flame has a life of its own, just as God's spirit has her own life, hidden away in yours.
See how it leaps and darts? This flame would never say, "Oh, I can't dance!" Just like this flame, the Spirit burns and sighs and stretches and dances in a secret place deep within you, yearning to be known through you, through the particular person that you are.
Watch the flame until you can see it inside you and then, when you are ready (there's no hurry), close your eyes. And with your eyes closed, continue to breathe in a gentle and steady rhythm.
Silence and breathing
Take some deeper breaths, and, as you exhale them, softly blow away some of the grownup years. Imagine the flame, leading you back to a younger you. Gently breathe away a decade, ... and then another, ... and another.
Silence and breathing
Follow the flame back, back, to a very young you, one morning, in church. Maybe you can really remember such a day. The day of your baptism, perhaps. Maybe, as a very little one, you never were in such a place on such a day, but you can go there now as a child.
Just follow the flame, and tenderly breathe aside anything, anyone, any thought that stands in your way.
Silence and breathing
Can you see again how beautiful it was in there? The air smells sweet and strong. The space is dark, and cool, and hollow, but the sunlight is pushing its way inside, through deep, rich reds and blues, purples and greens. So many colors, shining gold and silver and creamy white!
Now your eyes are drawn, suddenly, forward and up, to something even more beautiful and bright than all that is around you. You've just got to go up there, to the tiny yellow flames, and silver, and the lovely cloth falling gracefully from a table, to see up close, to touch it.
Soon, someone touches your arm with love, and says, "Come on," and you are lifted high up into that person's arms, and your head is cradled on a soft shoulder, and together you are moving, ever so slowly. The huge white candle glows closer and closer, and brighter, and there is sweet, sweet song, and faces that are smiling so big, right at you!
You stretch out your cupped hands, and cool water is poured into them, and it splashes up onto the warm skin of your face and down onto your feet. Strong fingers are brushing your forehead with oil. A crusty piece of brown bread is placed into your hands and you eat it up, greedily and hungrily and happily. Dark ruby red wine washes it down your throat, where it lingers, stinging, and then warms you, deep inside.
And all of it—the bread, the wine, the water and oil, the sharp, burning smell—all of it washes over you like a wave of fierce love and belonging, and you know that you are wanted here. And safe. And that you will always come back for more. Again and again.
When you are ready, take a last look at the flame on top of the huge, white candle there in that holy place. Bring it into your heart, and follow it back, slowly, ever so slowly, quietly, to this room. Still breathing in a gentle, careful rhythm, invite the child you just were in your imagination to be with you as a companion and guide and healer.
When you are ready, open your eyes.
In response to your visit to that magical day in that lovely space, you may want to write, or draw, or sculpt, or create a poem. Here are some questions for reflection as you create your response.
* Before today, has the child in you ever been to such a place? What are your memories of it?
* How did you feel in that place, today, or long ago?
* Is there something you can do for the child in you to give him or her this sense of safety, belonging, and love?
* What does the flame in you look like? What does it feel like?
* Is there a child you could help to experience church like this?
Preaching for the Child
Preaching that is imaginative, that is rich with images and feelings, both everyday and fanciful, will be a proclamation that calls to the human spirit in children and grown-ups alike. That spirit, childlike and wise, listens for the truth it needs to hear. When "deep calls to deep," the age of the listener and the oratorical skill of the speaker matter barely at all. "Children's sermons," in fact, too often put young Christians on display, exploiting their attractiveness and reducing the gospel to cuteness and cliché. They are never necessary and rarely appropriate.
Anytime a speaker begins, "Once upon a time ..." everyone sits up and takes notice. There are endless variations to this call to listen:
* "It happened like this ..."
* "Imagine this!"
* "Have you ever dreamed a dream ... awakened in a cold sweat ... wanted something so badly ... waited forever?"
* "It may not have happened just like this, but I know it's true, just the same."
When the preacher begins, "Today is the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ..." you can feel everyone slipping away into somnolence. Alfred North Whitehead believed that the greatest witness to the strength of the human spirit is the enduring of religious education! These words leap to my mind every time a preacher begins to drone, thereby sedating the ever-optimistic faithful, who return week by week listening for fire.
Reading Jesus' sermons—always simple, clear, and provocative—one can hardly imagine bored, sleepy listeners. It was quite the opposite. People couldn't get enough of hearing his words, strung together in poetic economy, stirring up hours of thoughtful wonder.
Here are some suggestions for preparing and preaching sermons which are more right-brained and thus more accessible to the whole community of worshipers.
* Read the gospel early in the week and let it percolate. Ask children what they hear in it. Ask colleagues, neighbors, your mother, the un-churched, whomever!
* Spend some quiet time imagining yourself inside the text. What was Jesus feeling as he said the words or lived the moments? Imagine how you would have felt or responded.
* Remember the context of verses you're preaching about. How do the texts light each other up? In Mark 10, Jesus is assaulted by the deadly seriousness of the rich young man, who is urgently demanding the secrets to eternal life. Just before this, only moments, perhaps, Jesus has been with children, holding them, blessing them, enjoying their simplicity. He must have been shocked and bemused until the man slumped away, breaking Jesus' heart.
* Begin the sermon by drawing listeners into the text. Set a big stage, rich with imagery that is familiar and irresistible: "Remember the hottest day of the world, and you were so thirsty your tongue felt like sandpaper, and you would give all you owned for the smallest drink of cold clear water? One day, Jesus was sitting alone by a well in Samaria." This creates trust in the listeners, giving them time to open the ears of their hearts.
* When preparing, let the text preach itself to you. If the sermon doesn't happen in you or to you, it's probably not worth anyone's time.
* Ask yourself the "bottom line" question: In this text, what is the Good News? Ask it again and again. Ask it one more time. The Good News isn't necessarily happy news, or sweet. It may be hard news, but it will ring true deep inside you and it will, at some level, liberate you.
* Make it your aim to engage everyone, even if ever so briefly, at some level. Children and adults will tune in and out as they need to. You may trust both their concentrated listening and their blank stares to be signs that they are taking what they need from the preaching—unless it's a sea of blank stares for the whole sermon!
* Don't be afraid to repeat phrases that are simple, strong, and true. Both children and adults may take these away as "mantras" to get them through the week.
* Use your body and your face. When the text invites it, look up and shout. Whisper. Twirl. Sing. If you can, get away from the pulpit and your manuscript.
* Avoid:
– Telling people what they already know.
– Complicated words or phrases that take the mind away to interpret them.
– Complete sentences. (They're not listener-friendly.)
– Overused Christian phraseology.
– Explanations of theology or doctrine. (These can be reserved for adult education.)
* Find a few people whom you can trust for honest feedback including, always, children and teens. Keep learning and developing your own style. Seek genuineness and simplicity, not perfection.
* When you are finished, stop and sit down. Don't try to fill a time slot.
Sofia Cavalletti, in The Religious Potential of the Child, says that children are deeply and seriously religious, resenting triviality in matters of the spirit. Remember this as you preach for the child. Sermons to which children can listen, sermons they can hear, likely go to the "heart of the matter." What better thing can we offer to our sisters and brothers of every age?
Unless You Turn
A Skit for Grown-ups and Children
The small group of children are sitting on the floor and quietly playing. Tour grown-ups are turned away from them, ignoring them.
Voice 1 Jesus said, "Unless you turn ...
Voice 4 and become like a child, ...
Voice 3 you will never see, ...
Voice 2 you will never hear, ...
All all the truth you need to know!
Voice 1 The secrets of heaven!
Voice 4 The way to be human!
Voice 3 How to trust.
Voice 2 How to love.
Voice 1 How to see God.
Voice 4 How to live.
Voice 3 Abundantly!
All Abundantly!
Self-satisfied enjoyment of a truth, grasped; then dawning puzzlement.
Voice 1 What does that mean?
Voices 2, 3, 4 I don't know; Beats me; (etc.).
Silent pondering.
Voice 1 I know! We could read some books about children!
Voices 2, 3 We could form a committee!
Voice 4 We could pray. And study the Scriptures!
Just then, they notice the children.
Voice 1 Or, we could just watch them.
Voice 2 And listen to them.
Voice 3 And do what they do.
Voices 1, 2, 4 (horrified) You mean play}
Voice 3 Yeah.
Voice 1 (frightened) And ask questions}
Voice 2 And ask for what we want?
Voice 4 And tell the truth?
Voice 1 And show our love?
Voice 2 Our sadness?
Voice 4 Our anger?
Voice 1 And depend on others?
They all look at the children, look at each other, ponder, look very scared.
Voice 3 Well, we could try it.
Voice 1 That's kind of scary.
Voice 2 Real scary!
Voice 4 Why do children do all that?
Voice 3 Maybe it's because they can.
Voice 2 And still remember how.
They ponder some more, then slowly "turn."
Voice 1 Maybe we could just be with them.
Voice 2 Be with them?
Voice 1 Yeah. You know, just be with them.
Voice 4 Maybe they could help us remember.
Voice 3 Maybe they would show us how ...
Voice 1 to see ...
Voice 2 and hear ...
Voice 4 and wonder ...
Voice 1 and ask ...
Voice 3 and love ...
Voice 1 and live.
Voice 2 Abundantly.
Voices 1, 2, 4 Abundantly. Wow.
Voice 3 Yeah. Okay.
Voice 4 Just be with them. Okay. Cool.
All sit and join the children on the floor and begin to play together.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from LITURGY FOR THE WHOLE CHURCH by SUSAN K. BOCK. Copyright © 2008 Susan K. Bock. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1. Introductory Material: practical background and instruction about organizing and arranging intergenerational worship, with special emphasis on children's needs.2. Seasonal Introductions: Themes and ideas for each liturgical season including collects, confessions, etc.
3. Congregational Readings: simple group readings of Scripture that engage both reader and people.
4. Meditations: Quiet, imaginative reflections on scripture, or water, or fire, that lead listeners deep inside themselves, even at worship.
5. Simple Dramas: Biblical stories in which characters speak for themselves (martha and Mar, Mary and Elizabeth, Elijah and Elisha, etc.) to the worshipers; some are quite playful and some are more serious.
6. Stories: biblical stories told very colorfully and simply, sometimes in the first person of a character in the story.
7. Simple Sermons: simple, colorful, soulful, short sermons that even grownups can sit still for.
8. Tableauxs Vivants: "Living Pictures"- how to do them, and several pieces written and staged.
9 Appendices: Methods of storytelling and An instructed Eucharist