Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Our recent Vestry Papers article urged church leaders to shift their focus from “inside” to “outside,” and from church-sponsored outreach to individuals understanding themselves as “on mission” in their everyday lives. Last week we offered ways to Break Out.  Another one of the ways we Christians can “get the hell out of church” (the title of the VP article) is to Take Out – to re-frame our habits of prayer and liturgy to offer a “to go” alternative. Can we shift our thinking – whenever and wherever we worship – so that we are focused on the Dismissal, which sends us out to be the Church in our worlds of home and work and community?

One “take-away” opportunity is to celebrate liturgy in a non-church setting. In recent years, commuters and college students have been treated to “ashes to go,” when clergy have appeared on train platforms, near elevators, and on college campuses offering to smudge foreheads on Ash Wednesday, reminding each person “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” Eucharist in an outdoor setting or across the desk at a job site, baptism on the riverbank or in a swimming pool, and stations of the cross marking scenes of urban violence have all made news in the secular press. How do you expand your imagination to invite and welcome participation in such events, especially by those who are “not our flock”? How might you encourage reconnection once the event is over?

What about the church year, Advent to Pentecost to ordinary time. How effective are we in forming Christians who understand how the church year connects with their own lives? That not only is waiting during pregnancy an Advent-season of life, but also the liminal time of waiting for lab results to determine a diagnosis? Or how the Lenten journey connects with the hunt for a new job, or rehab, or the experience of relocation to a new place or friends or family. The real-life rhythms of the church year reach beyond the color-coded liturgical hangings and offer hope in the lived experience of daily living for many generations. They serve as powerful reminders of God’s good news – that our loving God is present with us. And they help us remember that we are the church, especially when we are scattered in the world.

Reminding the gathered congregation of that mission – to be the “church scattered” in their outside-the-congregation lives – can increase the “sending power” of the Dismissal. The renewal of baptismal vows can take on new meaning, when being sent out is the focus. The occasions of blessing of backpacks or observing Labor Day or blessing pets can offer opportunities to expand those occasions to recognize and celebrate the people involved and the daily work that they do outside the congregation. (See these examples.) Recognizing a different vocation each week in the Prayers of the People (e.g. law enforcement, education, medical care, transportation, etc.) can, Sunday by Sunday, strengthen the understanding that God acts through each of us, especially in those dimensions of our lives where we are decision-makers and service-providers. Hymns, real life illustrations in sermons, brief daily-life witness talks by lay people are other ways to enhance the liturgical focus on the Dismissal, so we begin to envision worship that breaks out of the church building. See more here. 

Jesus, in his farewell to the disciples, reminded them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). The church (Greek ecclesia – “the called-out ones”) falls short in its calling when “come” drowns out “go,” when attraction outweighs sending. After all, in the Eucharist we are given food for the journey for our daily lives. Work can become worship. Prayers and liturgy with “take out” dimensions can be life transforming. 

Don't miss a blog post! Subscribe via email or RSS, using the grey box on the upper right.