Edith Bajema

This article is the first of a series featuring churches that highlight the intersection of worship and ministry. RW is grateful to the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, for funding this column with support from Lilly Endowment Inc.

—ERB

We were a hodgepodge group of volunteers who found ourselves serving on a committee dealing with a huge and complex issue for our church. We varied widely in gifts and temperament. After our leader unexpectedly quit, it was unclear what would happen. Whose vision would prevail?

The 930 a.m. service has ended, and the organist slips off the organ bench with her Handel and Bach pieces. Downstairs, the choir members are hanging up their robes. The director congratulates them on having sung a difficult arrangement of "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." A few members come back up to the sanctuary and begin setting up for the 11:OO service.

Prayer is the heartbeat of worship— our living, vital entrance into the presence of God. It is also often the part of the worship service in which most people's minds go to sleep.

Is it possible to write prayers for worship that powerfully bring people into God's presence? Can written prayers help us to shake off the lethargy of our congregational prayers? Yes, it is possible—if some basic spiritual principles are followed.

In this pair of articles, we looked over the shoulders of a worship coordinator and a worship consultant as they together planned a congregational worship seminar in 1992. After the seminar, Edith Bajema agreed to share with RW the materials she had prepared for it, including this letter. We were impressed with her letter, and asked Dave Beelen to write his response for RW so that other congregations could also "attend" the seminar and perhaps gain insights into similar questions they are asking.

For years Protestant churches observed the Easter cycle during the span of one week, beginning on Palm Sunday with a sermon on Jesus' triumphal entry and followed by a service on Good Friday. The observance ended with a service on Easter morning in which the congregation sang all the great resurrection hymns. Trumpets rang out, lilies flooded the pulpit area and the narthex, and choirs sang Easter choral arrangements and cantatas.