We're using Doing the Math of Mission for our Council retreat this year, focusing on chapter 5. I hope we have a fruitful, faithful conversation on how we can care for the future of our congregation. Does anyone have any resources that can help us prepare for our retreat?
We hold a two-session orientation to the Lord's Supper for any children who ask to join the congregation in celebrating communion. We announce the sessions in the bulletin, the parents sign their kids up, we hold the two sessions on concurrent Sunday afternoons and we welcome them to the table the next time we have communion. We ask them to answer the question, "I want to participate in the Lord's Supper because..." and then we put the answers on an insert which is in the bulletin on the day they are welcomed to the table. Usually the sessions are made up of kids who are in Grade 4 and older since before that they are in Sunday School and don't experience communion very often. Once they are in worship for the whole service and experience worship they start asking why they can't join in. That's when the parents sign them up for the orientation. We run the orientation at least once per year. The first session focuses on the church as a family (how you join, what it means to belong, etc), and the second focuses on God's family at the table (where communion comes from, what it means, how it's done, etc.) Enfolding our children into the life of the congregation this way has been a real blessing for us.
Church order seems to be a distant thing in the day to day practice of church life. It's good to have in certain circumstances, say, in outlining the process of ordaining a pastor. But situations arise that Church Order doesn't address and a church has to deal with it. As one of those churches that substitutes environmental cleanup for a regular worship service, please be assured that we also have a short worship service beforehand. The ancient Christian pattern and the Church Order do oblige us to have a worship service on Sunday morning. We have a short service of singing, prayer, short meditation, an offering, and a blessing. Then we extend our worship by addressing community needs. It forces us to remember that worship and work must be one and that we exist for the sake of others. After all, Church Order 73 calls us to bring the gospel to all people at home and abroad, and Councils are enjoined to stimulate the members of the congregation to be witnesses for Christ in word and deed. How we do that is as unique as our own neighbourhood. Structure and flexibility are both very important in the way we organize ourselves as churches.
but Church Order serves the churches, not the other way around. The practices change over time and the CO eventually catches up (usually by inserting the word "ordinarily"). I don't like to think of the CO as merely "suggestions" but I also don't want it to bind us too tightly as we engage our local community.
we don't have a worship service to stick to the rules. We have a worship service to worship our Redeemer. We rest in his completed sacrifice. Sabbath is fulfilled in a person, not a day. That person calls us to be his feet and hands in this world. Sometimes we have to be shaken out of our comfortable patterns to remind us of this.
I don't know what to say to the rest of your post. Slippery slope arguments aren't always so convincing.
Posted in: Church Counting Tools: Not Adding Up?
We're using Doing the Math of Mission for our Council retreat this year, focusing on chapter 5. I hope we have a fruitful, faithful conversation on how we can care for the future of our congregation. Does anyone have any resources that can help us prepare for our retreat?
Posted in: Children at the Lord's Supper
We hold a two-session orientation to the Lord's Supper for any children who ask to join the congregation in celebrating communion. We announce the sessions in the bulletin, the parents sign their kids up, we hold the two sessions on concurrent Sunday afternoons and we welcome them to the table the next time we have communion. We ask them to answer the question, "I want to participate in the Lord's Supper because..." and then we put the answers on an insert which is in the bulletin on the day they are welcomed to the table. Usually the sessions are made up of kids who are in Grade 4 and older since before that they are in Sunday School and don't experience communion very often. Once they are in worship for the whole service and experience worship they start asking why they can't join in. That's when the parents sign them up for the orientation. We run the orientation at least once per year. The first session focuses on the church as a family (how you join, what it means to belong, etc), and the second focuses on God's family at the table (where communion comes from, what it means, how it's done, etc.) Enfolding our children into the life of the congregation this way has been a real blessing for us.
Posted in: Sermon Based Small Group Experiment
keep the updates coming. I'm watching this with interest.
Posted in: Leading From Behind
Church order seems to be a distant thing in the day to day practice of church life. It's good to have in certain circumstances, say, in outlining the process of ordaining a pastor. But situations arise that Church Order doesn't address and a church has to deal with it. As one of those churches that substitutes environmental cleanup for a regular worship service, please be assured that we also have a short worship service beforehand. The ancient Christian pattern and the Church Order do oblige us to have a worship service on Sunday morning. We have a short service of singing, prayer, short meditation, an offering, and a blessing. Then we extend our worship by addressing community needs. It forces us to remember that worship and work must be one and that we exist for the sake of others. After all, Church Order 73 calls us to bring the gospel to all people at home and abroad, and Councils are enjoined to stimulate the members of the congregation to be witnesses for Christ in word and deed. How we do that is as unique as our own neighbourhood. Structure and flexibility are both very important in the way we organize ourselves as churches.
Posted in: Leading From Behind
but Church Order serves the churches, not the other way around. The practices change over time and the CO eventually catches up (usually by inserting the word "ordinarily"). I don't like to think of the CO as merely "suggestions" but I also don't want it to bind us too tightly as we engage our local community.
Posted in: Leading From Behind
we don't have a worship service to stick to the rules. We have a worship service to worship our Redeemer. We rest in his completed sacrifice. Sabbath is fulfilled in a person, not a day. That person calls us to be his feet and hands in this world. Sometimes we have to be shaken out of our comfortable patterns to remind us of this.
I don't know what to say to the rest of your post. Slippery slope arguments aren't always so convincing.
Posted in: Leading From Behind
I'll have to ponder all these things in my heart