Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

St. Lydia’s, the church I attend in Brooklyn, is both experimenting and following in a long tradition. As I’ve written about here before, we combine liturgy and a meal. The practice is a very old one, but you won’t find many churches doing that these days. Our pastor tweaks ancient liturgies or develops new prayers. It’s a creative endeavor, but one rooted tradition.

God’s first act in the Bible is to create. It’s important that we, made in the image of God, continue to engage in creative acts. God, however, makes the heavens and earth out of the void. We are fortunate to have some materials to work with: Our experience of the world around us, scripture, and the religious tradition that has developed over thousands of years. St. Lydia’s is a helpful model for finding the balance between creative action and structure, allowing us to be creative within a framework, using the elements passed down to us.

During the sermon at St. Lydia’s parishioners are invited to participate, but are encouraged to share stories, rather than opinions. This allows people to think and tell stories but keeps the sermon sharing time from spiraling out of control or becoming a debate. Of course, not every church will want it’s members to participate in the sermon, but every church should think of ways to engage its members in new ways, to help them say and think and do things they haven’t before. This might be within the context of weekday services or singing groups or book studies or art classes. Whatever it is, it should allow people to share some part of themselves, challenge themselves, or create something new, while also giving them some guidelines to work within.

People like to have guidelines. It gives us a reference and helps us understand what is acceptable when we participate. This is true when singing and praying or making art for the parish hall or event planning. If a church leader can give some guidelines to the song leader or guest speaker or Sunday school teacher, they may actually feel more free to try new things, and secure in their choices. (Also, you’re less likely to end up with liturgy or music that the congregation won’t like.) 

It also keeps liturgy and church activities fresh without making them completely unpredictable. Generally, I appreciate knowing what to expect when I attend a church service. I like knowing I won’t have to play charades for example (I hate charades) or speak in front of people if I don’t want to (which I usually don’t). It makes church a safe place. 

At the same time, when a church ceases to innovate, to allow its members to use their gifts, it can become boring. And boring is bad. Boring means that either the church has disconnected itself from God’s creativity and the world around it (think of an engaged reader reading a boring novel), or that its members have disengaged (think of a bored teenager reading a great novel). In either case, something has to change.

The church must find the balance between growth and stability, innovation and tradition. Working within the framework tradition, the church can use the elements passed along to it – liturgy and scripture and theology and music - while also creating new things – new music, prayers, artwork and events – to complement the liturgy and enrich the liturgy and communal life that has sustained so many over centuries.