Hughes Oliphant Old has written a practical guide to help ministers teach their congregations the language of prayer. In a warm introduction, he tells family stories of how a life of prayer develops.
[The narrator stays behind the pulpit. Jesus stands to the front, left, the priest to the front, right, Pilate moves back and forth between Jesus and the priest. The lights are dimmed.]
Narrator: Judas has done his job. Jesus has been arrested, and his disciples have scattered. Only a few hours earlier, he was questioned by the high priest. His face shows the bruising and swelling from a beating he received from the temple guard.
I remember when I was a kid and sometimes Christmas and New Years Day fell in a particular year on a Saturday Because we were a pious church-going family, we would attend all the services the church offered. That meant worship on Saturday morning for Christmas service, and then again on Sunday morning and evening. But the real kicker came the next weekend.
This service was adapted from The Services of the Christian Year, vol. V of The Complete Library of Worship, edited by Robert Webber Used by permission of the publisher, Hendrickson Publishing, 137 Summit Street, PQ Box 3473, Peabody MA 01961-3473.
RW would like to review some new children's Christmas programs. We're especially interested in those that were integrated into a worship service (rather than used as a separate program). Have you developed any? Or do you know of someone who did? Please send information about the program (including a script, if possible) to us at Reformed Worship, 2850 Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, MI 49560, or communicate on Internet to brinke@crcna.org. Thanks!
This service is becoming a Good Friday tradition at Grace Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a relatively new congregation in Madison, Alabama. The service is entirely spoken; there is no music at all. The people gather in silence, entering a church that has been stripped of all movable ornamentation at the conclusion of the Maundy Thursday service. Lighting is subdued, but adequate for the people to participate in Scripture readings, litanies, and prayers.
A. I will here limit my answer to the wearing of special worship "vestments" (although the polo shirt versus the business suit is also an interesting issue). As often when discussing worship questions, it's helpful to be aware of a bit of history.
What Pastor Reg realized one night after a worship committee meeting was that nobody read the Gazette's Saturday religion page as devotedly as Christians. At least the members of the committee seemed to know everything everyone else was doing.
Beth Olson said the Lutherans were showing the new Billy Graham film up on the side of the church and urging everyone to bring lawn chairs—homemade pie, coffee, and punch would be served. No offerings. "Wouldn't that be great?" she said. "Why didn't we think of that?"
