Thoughts on a day of preparation
30/03/13 02:16
A member of our church commented yesterday to me that he found it exciting and very unusual that our church was initiating so many new programs in recent months. “Usually after a pastor has been in a church for 15 or more years, he has a list of reasons why things won’t work and resists starting anything new, but we are seeing lots of new programs.” I don’t know what is usual about a pastor staying for more than 15 years. This is the only time I’ve done it. My previous pastorates were 7 and 10 years. But it does seem to be a season of change for our church. New programs like our young adults ministry, the “bring a friend to church Sunday,” and the intense worship schedule for Holy Week are all products of recent thinking and conversations. Grass roots ministries continue to bubble up from the members and we have started new Bible studies, new outreach ministries, and new connectional ministries all initiated by members of the congregation. It seems to be a good time for growth and change.
When I think of our Holy Week schedule, one of the obvious sources of the change is that sabbatical that we took in 2011. During our time away from active leadership in the church, we contemplated, researched and wrote on time and how some times seem to draw us closer to God. One of those times is Sabbath. The commandment about Sabbath and its deep connection to human freedom was an astute observation on human nature in its time and the truth that was discovered back then is as true today as it was when first revealed to a tribe of wandering herders in the ancient Middle East. When one does not set aside time for rest and recreation, one loses freedom. Perspective is also lost. It doesn’t take much for people to gain an inflated opinion about their own importance. During the 2011 sabbatical, I observed that many contemporary families have intensely over-scheduled lives with little, if any, time for true rest and recreation. Their time away from work is as full of schedules and demands as their time at work. This is especially true of families with teens. There is rarely a moment when the whole family is in the same place at the same time. They divide and conquer to provide transportation and presence for all of the activities. We have virtually no families in our church with teens that are able to maintain weekly attendance at worship. Many families with teens in our congregation attend about once a month or less on average.
Then I observed that families find ways to take time off when there is a death in the family. Schedules are suspended. Activities are canceled. They simply stop everything and enter into grieving. While I wouldn’t wish grief on anyone, I began to see that grief can bring families together for events that used to be common in everyday life: shared meals, conversation, telling stories, meeting relatives, entertaining guests, and telling one another that they loved each other. They power down the technology, withdraw from the hectic schedules and focus their attention on the things that are most important.
Then it struck me. In the church, we practice the process of grief every year. We go through a week of simply sitting with grief in the belief that because death and grief are inevitable, reminding ourselves that God journeys with us in the midst of the grief ought to be an annual practice. Holy Week offers the opportunity to practice a life skill that we all need. And, in the process, it offers Sabbath – time off from the every day.
We knew that it would not be practical for our families to take an entire week off from school and work, as is the custom in some other countries. So we began to imagine a week that offered a daily worship experience – an opportunity for an hour of Sabbath each day. We reasoned that even a single additional hour of Sabbath is preferable to none.
There are still two more days in our week. Three more special services are yet to occur. But the week has exceeded our expectations at almost every turn. The vast majority of the leaders of the congregation have availed themselves of opportunities for extra worship. More than a third of our regular participants have added at least one extra worship service this week. Mid-week attendance during Holy Week has already set records for our congregation. The number of visitors to our congregation has exceeded any week in the past 20 years. Each event has been rich in symbol and intensity. We’ve shared tears and laughter and heard life stories that had not previously been shared. We’ve drawn closer to each other and to God.
Of course there is the dynamic of church leaders, who rarely take Sabbath when they are responsible for leading worship. The ministers of the church are exhausted. We are looking forward to two days in a row off next week. We’ve moved furniture, set up and taken down all kinds of worship elements, printed bulletins, crafted liturgies, written prayers and worked as hard as we ever have in our lives to pull of the intensity of the week from the perspective of the church office. In addition to the special events of the week, we also produced a newsletter, made our calls and kept up with the usual business of the church. It has been exhausting, but so rich in meaning. Still, we need to take the commandment about Sabbath as seriously as do the families of our church. The week is rich in meaning not because we have added more activities and events, but because we have spent more time in prayer and more time sitting with the stories of our people.
My anticipation of Easter is higher than it has ever before been. I am looking forward to the Great Vigil, the sunrise and the resurrection celebration in ways that I have not felt for a long time. Our ability to feel the joy has its roots in our willingness to sit with the pain. If Holy Week were a play in three acts, we just completed the second act and are awaiting the opening of the third. It is appropriate that we will wait all day for our worship today. Not until 7 p.m. will we gather for the new fire. The day is about waiting and preparation. The anticipation is building.
There are more new things to be revealed – that is the nature of our faith. It is the promise of drawing close to God.
When I think of our Holy Week schedule, one of the obvious sources of the change is that sabbatical that we took in 2011. During our time away from active leadership in the church, we contemplated, researched and wrote on time and how some times seem to draw us closer to God. One of those times is Sabbath. The commandment about Sabbath and its deep connection to human freedom was an astute observation on human nature in its time and the truth that was discovered back then is as true today as it was when first revealed to a tribe of wandering herders in the ancient Middle East. When one does not set aside time for rest and recreation, one loses freedom. Perspective is also lost. It doesn’t take much for people to gain an inflated opinion about their own importance. During the 2011 sabbatical, I observed that many contemporary families have intensely over-scheduled lives with little, if any, time for true rest and recreation. Their time away from work is as full of schedules and demands as their time at work. This is especially true of families with teens. There is rarely a moment when the whole family is in the same place at the same time. They divide and conquer to provide transportation and presence for all of the activities. We have virtually no families in our church with teens that are able to maintain weekly attendance at worship. Many families with teens in our congregation attend about once a month or less on average.
Then I observed that families find ways to take time off when there is a death in the family. Schedules are suspended. Activities are canceled. They simply stop everything and enter into grieving. While I wouldn’t wish grief on anyone, I began to see that grief can bring families together for events that used to be common in everyday life: shared meals, conversation, telling stories, meeting relatives, entertaining guests, and telling one another that they loved each other. They power down the technology, withdraw from the hectic schedules and focus their attention on the things that are most important.
Then it struck me. In the church, we practice the process of grief every year. We go through a week of simply sitting with grief in the belief that because death and grief are inevitable, reminding ourselves that God journeys with us in the midst of the grief ought to be an annual practice. Holy Week offers the opportunity to practice a life skill that we all need. And, in the process, it offers Sabbath – time off from the every day.
We knew that it would not be practical for our families to take an entire week off from school and work, as is the custom in some other countries. So we began to imagine a week that offered a daily worship experience – an opportunity for an hour of Sabbath each day. We reasoned that even a single additional hour of Sabbath is preferable to none.
There are still two more days in our week. Three more special services are yet to occur. But the week has exceeded our expectations at almost every turn. The vast majority of the leaders of the congregation have availed themselves of opportunities for extra worship. More than a third of our regular participants have added at least one extra worship service this week. Mid-week attendance during Holy Week has already set records for our congregation. The number of visitors to our congregation has exceeded any week in the past 20 years. Each event has been rich in symbol and intensity. We’ve shared tears and laughter and heard life stories that had not previously been shared. We’ve drawn closer to each other and to God.
Of course there is the dynamic of church leaders, who rarely take Sabbath when they are responsible for leading worship. The ministers of the church are exhausted. We are looking forward to two days in a row off next week. We’ve moved furniture, set up and taken down all kinds of worship elements, printed bulletins, crafted liturgies, written prayers and worked as hard as we ever have in our lives to pull of the intensity of the week from the perspective of the church office. In addition to the special events of the week, we also produced a newsletter, made our calls and kept up with the usual business of the church. It has been exhausting, but so rich in meaning. Still, we need to take the commandment about Sabbath as seriously as do the families of our church. The week is rich in meaning not because we have added more activities and events, but because we have spent more time in prayer and more time sitting with the stories of our people.
My anticipation of Easter is higher than it has ever before been. I am looking forward to the Great Vigil, the sunrise and the resurrection celebration in ways that I have not felt for a long time. Our ability to feel the joy has its roots in our willingness to sit with the pain. If Holy Week were a play in three acts, we just completed the second act and are awaiting the opening of the third. It is appropriate that we will wait all day for our worship today. Not until 7 p.m. will we gather for the new fire. The day is about waiting and preparation. The anticipation is building.
There are more new things to be revealed – that is the nature of our faith. It is the promise of drawing close to God.