Just got back from a strategic planning/goal-setting exercise at the church. Aside from setting direction for the congregation as a whole and bringing my attention to the directions it is choosing (and exciting me about those directions), it really helped pull into focus one of my personal long-term goals for my life in the church: that of engendering a self-generating culture of lay-led worship.
One of the common roadblocks to accessing the sacramental/liturgical traditions of Anglicanism I have heard from participants in Evangelical/Charismatic traditions of Christianity (i.e. those that draw the greatest number of new young participants) is the view of authority. A quote I have often heard is "I don't need a priest to connect me to God." While I am currently unable to articulate my understanding of the role of ordained ministry and why it is of such great importance to me, this does spotlight a misunderstanding of our worship. Most particularly, I fear that there is a feeling of disenfranchisement, that the worshiper feels she has been disallowed access to the tradition, that authority is distant.
This fear of the lack of connection is an overarching obsession for the young among us. We now live and grow in a world not only with instantaneous access to all manner of knowledge and art, but also to the tools to create that knowledge and art. We are connected to the source and the product of all the data we consume and we are constantly reminded of that. We like that. A church that cannot find a way to reflect that connection (which, by the way, seems to me to be a fairly fundamental aspect of Christianity) cannot serve that population.
So I propose a start, a way to reflect that connection. I propose that we, remaining fully within the medieval/renaissance traditions of our church, build opportunities and tools for young people to lead worship. I think most immediately of the daily offices, which contain very complete liturgies for worship without the sacramental oversight of a priest needed. And what would this accomplish?
1. A stronger individual and personal connection to the practices of worship. The broader and deeper understanding that grows out of a broader and deeper practice will serve to heighten the connection a person has to congregational worship
2. Support the development of the qualities of leadership within the church. The confidence, accountability and self-critique that would come out of the processes of learning this ministry would be a boon to any person in any area of their life. The commitment to understanding the variety of roles necessary to accomplish a task could be nothing but helpful.
3. Provide a scriptural and traditional foundation for adult growth in the church. We are very good at providing for the growth of children through Sunday School and Youth Groups, and through this are able to connect very well to parents. The elderly among us now come from a different time that they are still able to access through the practices of worship. (I am, of course, not stating the obvious connection we have with church). But we all know that we are dealing with a new kind of adult: a massive population of people with no connection to Church, and those living the relatively new idea that we can "out-grow" our parents' church. This, coupled with a lack of consistent support within the church, leads even those with a strong connection to church through childhood to find fulfillment and relation in other places.
While a participation in lay-led services is not the only way to serve these needs, I can easily imagine it to be a successful one. And young adults are obviously not the only ones who would benefit from such a practice, but are, to me, in the most immediate need of service.
So. How to build such a practice.
1. Identify and assemble a pilot group. Starting out is going to require a lot more hands-on leadership than the ideal practice of this will require to sustain. In my own parish I think immediately of two distinct groups. The first, which does not fit as nicely into the need for service represented by young adults, is the group of participants in a series of evening discussion/education sessions on the Anglican tradition. This group of people showed an interest in furthering their understanding of the context of our worship and church. The second, which does fit my proposed target better, is a group of young people who participated in a pilgrimage to Taize, France. This trip was part of a youth group at our church and seems to have been taken as a cap to or graduation from youth programming as we have offered it. This is not a negative thing, except that we seemed to have little to offer them to follow up with this experience.
2. Gather leadership. The obvious choice here is the most experienced ordained minister of the parish. But the obvious choice isn't always the best one. We also have at our parish a new Curate, recently ordained as a Deacon. Having recently graduated from theological school, she is beginning to learn the practices of parish ministry, including worship leading, and I have often found that the best way to learn something is to teach it. Leadership for such a project would, of course, benefit from a range of experience and expertise, and all available resources should be considered.
3. Schedule. Schedule times to meet and learn. Schedule opportunities to lead. Schedule debriefings. Start with small, specialized deadlines and goals and provide opportunities for participants to take ownership. As the completion of a deadline approaches, have further opportunities ready for people to look forward to. Again, looking at my particular parish, I think immediately of the Advent season. With the increased attention that people give church during this time, we would be more likely to get an interest for people to participate in a service during that time than any other. It is also an accomplishable target to have a service prepared and run by that time.
4. Plan for and build self-sustaining practice. The ideal here is that such a group would be able to take ownership of its own growth and maintenance, asking for input and care when needed, but also able provide care and find information for itself. Work with a constant view to seeing the group attain this.
I am no longer able to sustain writing this, so I will close. I hope to return with notes on the development of this particular Ongoing Obsession.
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