Changing church service can
be hazardous, exciting and inspiring
Someone asked me this morning how I was
feeling, and it was so startling that anyone would care that I
responded without thinking. Im fine. Heard a wonderful Bach
fugue played on a big pipe organ at church yesterday, and it put
me up for at least a couple of days. Thats what I
told this friend who called just to say hello. So all day long Ive been thinking
about worship and how it sometimes gets into my bloodstream and
causes me to tremble with happiness. The thing that thrills me
about worship and keeps me coming back, I decided, is surprise. Ill tell you this: The ritual on Sunday
can get boring. For the most part, congregations sing about 100
hymns all during the year. Thats the truth out of
all those hymns in the big, fat song book only about 100
of them are singable. So year after year, the same 100 hymns are
sung, four each Sunday morning, through all eternity. And if a preacher or a song leader should
try to teach a new hymn, there is scant cooperation, and the new
hymn generally bombs miserably. And even worse is the teaching
of a new liturgy or a new structure that might surprise someone.
Because people just dont want anything to change on Sunday
morning. But I do want some innovation on Sundays.
It has become such boredom to always face the same sequence of
liturgical events that I almost cry out for something to change. First we pray, then we sing, and finally
the sermon happens and by that time the entire congregation
has slipped into an open-eyed doze. Well, a good example is last Sunday at my
church. Normally we have a band up front playing twangy music
and drawing us into a retro Christianity that existed in the 1930s
or 1940s electrified Hank Williams hymnody. We all like
this music a lot. But Sunday, I settled into a pew and saw
a fellow sitting at the great big pipe organ and looking as if
he could play a tune. This interested me because it had been almost
two years since I had heard the old pipe organ played. The band played, there was a fine guest
artist, and we sang and prayed. The excellent sermon wasnt
a surprise at this church. And finally, at the very end of worship,
this fellow began playing the Bach number. It was such a delightful change that not
one person in the sanctuary moved a muscle. We were free to leave,
go to our homes and spend a quiet evening, but no one moved. And
then at the end, the organist received a strong ovation. It was one of those moments we will remember
for a long time, and it happened in church while the people were
still in a worshiping mood. So I was wondering what would happen if
a congregation planted a labyrinth out in front of the church
and had people walking and meditating there as folks approached
the church. That would be a neat surprise. Then, would it be a deepening experience
if the labyrinth could be available every Sunday before and after
worship? Or what if a congregation set up meditation
chambers sort of like American Indian sweat lodges and
invited people to begin their worship on Saturday evening with
a quiet 20 minutes of prayer or meditation or even just a bit
of silence in a noisy world? I just wish churches would try to do something
on Sunday that would paste a smile on the faces of parishioners. Im thinking it might be fun to have
a brass band playing jazzy religious music as parishioners arrived
for worship. Or what if the congregational leaders formed a quartet
and sang old-time hymns before or after service on the steps of
the building? One little church had a lone flutist playing a tune
before worship, outside on the corner. Nobody wanted to go inside.
They stood on the steps and listened with grinning devotion. These little surprises are magical things,
and it does not take much imagination to create a few for the
worship hour. The only caution I have is for preachers.
You must not make surprises the status quo because people will
come to expect a jolt every week and then, of course, those little
magical moments will no longer be surprises. But brother and sister, I will tell you
this: A little creativity on Sunday sure feels good.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For August 3, 2000