Toolbox For Faith

Some sermons and Sunday School lessons stick with people for a lifetime, while others are forgotten almost as the words are spoken. Chip and Dan Heath in their book, “Made to Stick,” explore the reasons why some ideas are sticky and others are not. The book offers a model for how you can make your ideas (read sermons and teaching) more engaging and more memorable. I have tried using a few of their six principles in my writing and speaking and they work. The six principles are known as the SUCCESs model: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional and Stories. The book is wonderful and their website contains lots of free helpful resources.

For pastors and their spouses, the week or two after Easter is a wonderful time to take time off for re-creation after all the Lenten, Holy Week and Easter services. We waited a week before heading off for a few days to Williamsburg. One of our favorite adventures while there was a musical and historical presentation at one museum about hymns.

What intrigued me most was the observation that the hymns were not originally written for a specific tune but most could be sung to a variety of tunes. That is why in so many of the older hymnals, no music was included but only words. We sang “Amazing Grace” to one of the original tunes to which it was paired because the one with which we are all familiar was composed over 50 years after the words were penned by John Newton.

The other interesting observation was how the hymn composers of the pre-colonial era used familiar tunes when they did set the words to a specific melody. The story was shared of how John Wesley and his Method Club members were meeting in a room over a tavern when three sailors decided to interrupt the meeting by singing a bawdy sailing song. The next night, Wesley’s group was meeting again when the sailors came by and to the amazement of the sailors, they heard the same tune that they had been singing the night before set to Christian words that Wesley had written after the meeting the evening before. Wesley ended up composing over 6000 hymns.

Afterwards, I kept thinking of how much fun we had learning things that we didn’t know.

Logan is a five year old member who enjoys coming to church and especially enjoys giving the pastor a big high five. At our congregation, we have open communion and Logan takes communion.

About six weeks ago when Logan came forward for communion, he did something different that mortified his mother. After I gave him the wafer saying, “The body of Christ given for you,” Logan reached up, gave me a high five and said, “Yeah!” I loved it but tried not to laugh as I moved to the next person, his mother, and saw her eyes squeezed shut as she clinched her hands. I knew what she was thinking—Am I going to survive this child?

Mom and Logan had a long talk after the service with him promising not to give me a high five during communion but, of course, being a typical five year old, he forgot. The next Sunday as he came to receive the bread, I was anxious to see what would happen. As soon as he received the bread, he gave me another high five but must have remembered the conversation with his mother so he gave me a very reserved “Yeah!” His mother, right behind him, nearly collapsed.

Now, I get a high five before and after worship but that was the last high five he has given me after receiving the bread. But we have reached an understanding. Now he looks ups and smiles when he receives the bread.. I know the smile indicates that I will get my communion high five and “Yeah” after the service.

I just finished my part of the Easter Sunday bulletin, the last of four bulletins that we are doing during Holy Week. I had copies of the Easter bulletins for the last two years at the church where I am interim pastor and could not help but notice how vastly different the bulletins were because of the changes I made last year.

Two Easters ago, my church had an “everything but the kitchen sink” Easter service where every option, especially the longest and most formal, was selected. Some items that were included were not even in the hymnal or worship guides with which I am familiar. The result was a service that was not easy to follow and took much, much longer than usual. I do not have a time limit for our worship but I want the time we spend in worship to be meaningful. The “everything but the kitchen sink” approach was the way I learned to do Easter worship 39 years ago when I entered the ministry. The service included everything so that it would be a correct festival celebration to the glory of God. I was taught that Easter worship should be complex and involved. The same went for Christmas. I did it that way until about 20 years ago.

I changed my approach when I realized how many very marginal members and guests who were not familiar with our liturgy were at the service. I was concerned about reaching all people who worshipped together on Easter. The result was that I simplified our service to make it meaningful to everyone in our mission field who voted to come to Easter worship. I am convinced that simple does not indicate a lack of meaning. Simple can be powerful, moving and meaningful. I want us to have a wonderful service that reaches all people who attend. I want everyone to hear the Easter message without being overwhelmed with how complicated the service is to follow and/or overwhelmed by a service that continues forever and ever, amen.

Each year on Palm Sunday instead of a sermon, we read the story of the Passion as a congregation using a responsive reading with multiple readers. The response from the congregation is always very favorable. If you haven’t seen the booklets you can use for worship, you can get them from Augsburg Fortress. Here is the link for the Passion according to Luke.

In the Hands-On Holy Week service that I posted on Friday, I referenced a booklet for kids entitled, “Three Amazing Days”. The booklet is well done and focuses on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and an Easter Vigil. It is available in two formats: Pre-Reader and Young Reader. There is also a booklet that focuses on Lent and Easter. It too is available in Pre-Reader and Young Reader. The booklets were designed to support the current Lutheran hymnal, but they are very general and would probably support most liturgical hymnals.

Here’s a copy of a Holy Week for Youth Service. I use a series of props (nails, crown of thorn, etc.) for the kids to hold and look at during the service. It is very informal and has worked well. I have always done it with a group of 20 or less, but I imagine you could do something similar with a large group.

Journey to Jerusalem Youth and Family 2010

Congregations are always looking for helpful ways to gather information about new worshipers. For a while everyone used the “Visitor Book” and then we all switched to the “Friendship Pad” at the end of the pew. At St. Michael we use a version of the “Welcome Sheet” that my father used in his ministry.

Each week, we place an insert in the bulletin that captures information from all worshipers. There is a spot for name, address and email address. There are places for prayer requests and communion information. There is also a box which is changed each week to gather information on short term ministry opportunities. You can see an example of the “Welcome Sheet” here. The “Welcome Sheet” allows everyone to have something to put in the bulletin and has proven to be a very useful tool for gathering information from both new and long-term worshipers.

For years, my Worship Committee has discussed the balance we strike in our bulletin between hospitality and care of creation. On one hand, we would like to print the entire service in the bulletin so that new worshipers can follow along easily. On the other hand, we feel like printing the entire service in the bulletin uses entirely too much paper. Each time this conversation has come up, I have mentioned that I could envision a day when the hymnal and bulletin were replaced by electronic tablets that are loaded with everything you need for the service. The group would always laugh and talk about the amazing cost of doing something like that and then move on.

With the introduction of Apple’s I-pad and the growing popularity of e-readers and tablet computers, I have begun to think that my idea may not be that far off. I can easily imagine a time when we email our entire service to the congregation on Friday. People download the “e-bulletin” to their tablet computer and then use it to follow along with worship. I can also imagine someone showing up at worship and downloading the “e-bulletin” from the church’s wireless network right before service begins. I certainly don’t think this will happen next week or next year, but if textbooks, newspapers and magazines all migrate from paper to e-readers and people start carrying their tablet computers the way they carry their phone, then the “e-bulletin” won’t be far behind.