A Guide to Being a Worship Coordinator for a Lay-led Service or a Service with a Guest Speaker

(Revised April 13, 2007) 

A Summary Checklist

 

_____ 1. Choose a date for a service.

 

_____ 2. Chose a topic or a guest speaker.

 

_____ 3. Put together the order of service.

 

_____ 4. Invite people to participate in the service.

 

_____ 5. Contact Paula Mayfield about the theme for the service and hymns for the service.

 

_____ 6.  Contact the Director of Family Ministries if children and youth will be present in the service.

 

_____ 7. Contact Mary Peterson if a worship assistant is needed.

 

_____ 8. If there is a guest speaker, contact the guest speaker about which elements

               of the service he or she will do.

 

_____ 9. If there is a guest speaker, give the guest speaker contact information for the

               worship assistant.

 

_____ 10. Send information about the service to the newsletter editor.

 

_____ 11. Send information about the service to the outreach chair.

 

_____ 12. Send information about the service to the church administrator.

 

_____ 13. Send a complete order of service to the church administrator.

 

_____ 14. If there is a guest speaker, confirm the service time and give directions to the

                 church to the guest speaker.

A More Detailed List

 

1. Choose a date for a service for which you would like to be the worship coordinator.

 

Reverend James keeps a worship schedule listing every Sunday of the year. Check with him to see which Sundays are open. It is best to start planning a worship service at least three months in advance.

 

2. Chose a topic or theme for the service or chose a guest speaker.

 

Remember that a topic or theme for a service should be religious! See Appendix A for “Seven Points on a Theology of Worship.”

 

See Appendix B for “A List of Themes from Recent Lay-led Services.”

 

3. Begin to put together the order of service.

 

At Saltwater Church, we have a standard order of service which we use most Sundays. See Appendix C for “A Standard Order of Service for Saltwater Church.”

 

When organizing a worship service for the first time, there is often a temptation to be creative and innovative and change the order of service or at least the seating arrangement. While minor variations are fine, major variations are discouraged. Most but not all people enjoy having a familiar order of service. The true challenge is to be creative within the structure of our standard order of service.

 

For most services, words for “Lighting the Chalice” and “Extinguishing the Chalice” are the same every Sunday. For most services, the music director is responsible for choosing the prelude, offertory, and the special music, though the worship coordinator is always free to make suggestions about these.

 

Thus the worship coordinator is only responsible for coordinating the following elements for the order of service:

 

            Opening Words

            Readings

            The Message of the Morning

            Closing Words.

            Three hymns

 

See Appendix D for “Resources for Worship Materials.”

 

A Special Note on Choosing Hymns:

 

Be careful choosing hymns. Many of the hymns in Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey are not easy to sing. Many are not familiar to the congregation. See Appendix E for “A List of Familiar, Sing-able Hymns.” 

 

A Special Note on the “Message of the Morning”:

 

There are several options for the message of the morning for a lay-led service. One option is to have one person give the message. See Appendix F for “Reverend James’s Top 20 Ideas about Writing and Delivering a Sermon.”

 

A second option is to have several speakers speak for a few minutes each about a topic. For example, have four speakers speak for five minutes each. Have them respond to a question, a reading, or just a topic.

 

A third, related option is to have participants alternate between short readings, spoken reflections, and music. (This replaces readings, special music, and the message of the morning in the standard order of service.)

 

4. Organize participation in the worship service.

 

Invite people to participate in the worship service. Worship services that have many people participating are usually more appealing.

 

It’s often easier to recruit an existing group within the church to help with a worship service than it is to recruit a bunch of individuals.

 

If there is time, publicize the need for participants in the newsletter or in announcements (e-mailed, on-screen, printed, and spoken.)

 

When inviting individuals to participate in a worship service, be as specific as possible as what you would like them to do. It is useful to give participants a time limit for any part of the service in which to invite them to participate. It is also a good idea to encourage them to have a written text.

 

Contact Paula Mayfield, our music director, at paula@saltwaterchurch.org several weeks before the service to let her know the theme of the service. Also contact Paula after you have chosen the hymns for the service.

 

Contact the Director of Family Ministries several weeks before the service to let her know the theme of the service if this is a service where children and youth will be present.

 

The worship coordinator is not responsible for coordinating greeters, ushers, or projectionists. Mary Peterson, our Volunteer Coordinator, does this. However, if you need a worship assistant for the service, contact Mary at mary@saltwaterchurch.org several weeks before the service.

 

If you are somebody else helping you with the service decides to be the worship assistant, see Appendix G “Job Description for Worship Assistant” and  Appendix H “Tips on Being a Worship Assistant.”

 

If there is a guest speaker, send the guest speaker a copy of the standard order of service several weeks before the service. If the guest speaker is a Unitarian Universalist, especially a visiting minister, the guest speaker may want to do opening words, a meditation, readings, and closing words in addition to the message of the morning. Contact the guest speaker to see what he or she wants to do. If the guest speaker is not a Unitarian Universalist, the guest speaker usually only does the message of the morning.

 

When you know who the guest speaker’s worship assistant will be, give this information to the guest speaker.

 

5. Publicize the worship service.

 

Send a title for the service and the name of the person or people presenting the service to the following individuals:

           

            The newsletter editor (newsletter@saltwaterchurch.org)

            The outreach chair (outreach@saltwaterchurch.org)

            The church administrator (administrator@saltwaterchurch.org)

 

Send a complete order of service to the church administrator by 10 a.m. on Thursday the week before the service (or by 10 a.m. on Wednesday the week before the service during the summer.)

 

(If there is a guest speaker, make sure to let them know when you need information from them in plenty of time.)

 

 Appendix A:

“Seven Points on a Theology of Worship”

 

1.         Worship is a religious activity.

 

·         “Religion” is all about connection and meaning.

·         Religion literally means to “connect again.”

·         James Luther Adams: religion is about the search for “intimacy and ultimacy.”

·         Through worship we “connect again” to ourselves, to one another, to nature, to God/spirit/holy/divine; to the symbols and stories that give meaning to the events of our lives; to our highest values and ideals

 

2.         What worship is NOT…

 

·         People looking for just intellectual stimulation should stay home and read the New York Times or sign up for a community college class

·         A good worship service should inform, entertain, but most of all INSPIRE.

 

3.         Very broadly, a worship service should help us answer the question, “How should we live our lives?”

 

·         If there is a gospel of liberal religion, it’s not about pie in the sky when you die. It’s the promise that a more abundant life is possible in the here and now.

    

 

4.         Why worship is necessary from a liberal religious perspective

 

·         Not necessary to glorify God

·         Not necessary because we are sinful

·         Necessary because we are FORGETFUL

·         Necessary because we are DISTRACTED by competing cultural narratives telling us how to live our lives

·         Necessary because we get DISCONNECTED

·         Important implication of this: A sermon doesn’t have to tell us anything new. A good sermon reminds us what we already ourselves know.

 

5.         Good worship lifts us up, but good worship doesn’t necessarily, however, always have to be ecstatic…

 

·         Alice Walker: We come to church not to find God, but to share God.

           

·         A paraphrase: We come to church not always to experience that which is inspiring, sustaining, transforming, and redeeming, but to remind us these experiences are possible. We don’t come to church rather than spending time on top of mountains. We come to church to remind us to go back up to the top of mountains.

 

6.         People can even benefit from bad worship

 

·         Mark Twain: “I’ve never heard a sermon in which I could not find some good, though there have been a few near misses.”

           

7.         At its best, however, worship should be transformative.

           

·         Kendyl Gibbons, First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis: No matter what anyone tells you, everybody walks through the door of the sanctuary expecting to be transformed

·         Metaphor of baking a cake

 

                  Chef: Worship leaders

                  Ingredients: Members of the congregation, symbols and stories of  the tradition

                  Pan: The “containing” safe time and space of the church

                 Heat: The joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, existential anxieties and religious yearnings of members of the congregation

 

      The chef provides the expertise knowledge in mixing the ingredients. The pan provides the safe space to mix the ingredients that would “flood” the lives of participants if taken on in every day life. In the best of circumstances, like in baking a cake, what you start with ends up being transformed by the end of the   process.

           

Appendix B:

A List of Themes from

Recent Lay-led Services

 

“New Year’s Resolutions”

 “Oscars and Me” (on favorite movies)

“Reflections on Marriage”

“My Favorite Bible Story”

“50^th Anniversary Memories

“Reflections on Science and God” (by an adult religious education class)

“Feminism and Motherhood”

“Reflections on Fatherhood”

“The Spirituality of Travel”

“Memories of War”

“Sissy Duckling” (readers’ theater)

“Q & A on Being Gay”

“What I’m Grateful For”

“What I’ve Learned So Far in Life”

“Christmas Memories”

"How We Met"

Appendix C:

A Standard Order of Service

 

Prelude

 

Special Music

 

Opening Words

 

Hymn

 

Lighting the Chalice

 

Welcome and Special Announcements

 

Meet and Greet Your Neighbor

 

Offering and Offertory

 

Candles of Joy and Sorrow

 

Meditation
 

Shared Silence

 

Meditative Hymn (Either #15 “The Lone, Wild Bird,” #95 “There is More Love Somewhere,” #123 “Spirit of Life,” #391 “Voice Still and Small,” or #1009 “Meditation on Breathing.”

 

For All Ages (first and third Sunday of the month only September - June)

(This is usually done by the Director of Family Ministries)

 

Children’s Recessional #413 “Go Now in Peace” (first and third Sunday of the month only September - June)

 

Reading(s)

 

Musical Interlude

 

Message of the Morning

 

Extinguishing the Chalice

 

Hymn

 

Closing Words

 

Appendix D:

Resources for Worship Materials

 

Printed Resources

 

Singing the Living Tradition, our primary hymnal, is an excellent resource for opening words, readings, and hymns. Please note the multiple topical indexes in the back of the book. Singing the Journey, our hymnal supplement, is also a good source of hymns, those many of these are still not familiar to the congregation.

 

Rejoice Together by Helen R. Picket is also a good collection of materials for worship. This is available in Reverend James’s office.

 

The Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association 1997 Worship Materials Collection is a good resource for opening words, meditations, and closing words. These are available in Reverend James’s office.

 

The UUA Meditation Manuals, especially the five volumes of Collected Meditations, are an excellent source for readings. This is available in Reverend James’s office.

 

Online Resources

 

The Worship Web is an online resource for worship materials at http://www.uua.org/worshipweb/main.html .

 

 

Appendix E:

“Familiar, Sing-able Hymns”

 

From Singing the Living Tradition…

 

206      Amazing grace

124      Be that guide

86        Blessed spirit of my Life

23        Bring many names, beautiful and good

88        Calm soul of all things

188      Come, come, whoever you are

89        Come, my way, my truth, my life

136      Come, thou fount of every blessing

346      Come, sing a song with me

55        Dark of Winter

305      De colores

388      Dona nobis pacem

361      Enter, rejoice and come in

207      Earth was given as a garden

17        Every night and every morn

352      Find a stillness

128      For all that is our life

21        For the beauty of the earth

163      For the earth forever turning

114      Forward through the ages

402      From you I receive, to you I give

347      Gather the spirit

389      Gathered here in the mystery of the hour

390      Gaudeamus hodie

413      Go now in peace

348      Guide my feet

360      Here we have gathered

4          I brought my spirit to the sea

396      I know this rose will open

338      I seek the spirit of a child

116      I’m on my way

100      I’ve got peace like a river

6          Just as long as I have breath

29        Joyful, joyful, we adore thee

51        Lady of the season’s laughter

311      Let it be a dance we do

331      Life is the greatest gift of all

149      Lift every voice and sing

15        lone, wild bird in lofty flight, The

131      Love will guide us

1          May nothing evil cross this door

38        Morning has broken

397      Morning has come

8          Mother Spirit, Father Spirit

108      My life flows on in endless song

368      Now let us sing

47        Now on land and sea descending

12        Oh Life that maketh all things new

74        On the dusty earth drum

168      One more step

134      Our world is one world

199      Precious Lord, take my hand

358      Rank by rank again we stand

395      Sing and rejoice

295      Sing out praises for the journey

146      Soon the day will arrive

123      Spirit of Life, come unto me

19        sun that shines across the sea, The

322      Thanks be for these

95        There is more love somewhere

159      This is my song

118      This little light of mine

34        Though I may speak with bravest fire

301      Touch the Earth, Reach the Sky!

391      Voice still and small

298      Wake, now, my senses

170      We are a gentle, angry people

349      We gather together

354      We laugh, we cry

169      We shall overcome

318      We would be one

121      We’ll build a land

407      We’re gonna sit at the welcome table

18        What wondrous love

113      Where is our holy church?

356      Will you seek in far-off places?

83        Winds be still

 

From Singing The Journey…

 

1000 Morning Has Come

1002 Comfort Me

1008 When Our Heart is In a Holy Place

1009 Meditation on Breathing

1010 We Give Thanks

1014 Standing on the Side of Love

1018 Come and Go With Me

1021 Lean on Me

1024 When the Spirit Says Do

1053 How Could Anyone

1074 Turn the World Around

 

Appendix F:

Reverend James’ Top 20 Ideas about Writing and Delivering a Sermon

 

1. A sermon should be religious. It should address in some way the ultimate of religious question, “How shall we live our lives?”

 

2. The purpose of a sermon is not to inform or to entertain - - though a good sermon often does both of these - - but to inspire. A good sermon transforms how people see the world. A good sermon is like a good joke. It shifts our perspective.

 

3. A good sermon doesn’t necessarily say anything new. Rather, it reminds people of what they already know. 

 

4. Write out a manuscript. Very few people preach well extemporaneously. One of my typical sermons is 4-5 pages single-spaced and last 20-25 minutes. A sermon shouldn’t be shorter that 15 or longer than 30 minutes.

 

5. My secret formula for sermon writing: Tell one story. Explain what’s wrong about it.  Tell a second story. Explain what’s right about it.

 

6. Whatever you say, people will often hear what they need to hear from a sermon. Give them a chance to do this. A good sermon shouldn’t be written so tightly that people can’t drift in and out of it.

 

7. A sermon is always a relational event. It often helps to write a sermon for a particular person or group of people even if that person doesn’t show up to hear it.

 

8. Include YOU in the sermon, but don’t make it all about you. Make room for everybody listening.

 

9. Don’t bleed on your audience. You probably shouldn’t talk about stuff you’re going through now.

 

10. Be sensitive. Remember that it’s possible or even likely that somebody listening to your sermon has just found out his mother is dying, just found out her spouse is cheating, just found out he’s losing his job, or just found out her child isn’t doing well at school.

 

11. Land the plane. It’s okay to talk about the heights or depths of human experience, but don’t do this unless you bring people back to a place of hope where life is affirmed despite its limitations.

 

12. Use statistics sparingly. Avoid extensive quoting. Avoid blanket statements. Avoid making assumptions about your audience. Avoid inappropriate language or humor. When in doubt, leave it out.

 

13. A common mistake among beginning preachers is to try to include everything they believe about everything in one sermon. Don’t.

 

14. When I get stuck, most of the time it’s because I’m trying to fit something in - - a story, a quotation, and idea - - that doesn’t fit.

 

15. If you get stuck writing a sermon, get up and take a walk. Try talking to somebody else about what you’d like to say.

 

16. When you print out your manuscript, print it out double-spaced with a large font. I usually use a 20-point font. It also helps to print only on the top half or two-thirds of the page.

 

17. Practice reading your sermon out loud several times before giving it. Speak slowly. Don’t mumble. Practice using a mic.

 

18. If you’re a little nervous about giving a sermon, that’s a good thing. The sermons I get most nervous about turn out to be my best.

 

19. Never apologize for a sermon, before, during, or after giving it. You may say something that is transformative for somebody. By apologizing, you belittle that experience.

 

20. Remember that sermons are transitory things. For better or worse, people usually don’t remember very good ones or very bad ones for very long, yet they do make a difference in people’s lives.

 

Appendix G:

Job Description for Worship Assistant

(As of April 13, 2007)

 

Preparation

 

1. Arrive at least 30 minutes before the service.

 

2. Greet the speaker.

 

3. Go over the order of service with the speaker. If you haven't already done so, find out a few things about the speaker to be able to give a very brief introduction at the beginning of the service.

 

4. Pick the announcements that you plan to read aloud.

 

5. Before the service begins, ask a member of the congregation to light the chalice for you during the service.

 

Script

 

1. Opening Words

 

"Good morning! I'm __________, a member of Saltwater Unitarian Universalist Church. While our minister, Reverend James Kubal-Komoto, is away, we welcome __________ to our church this morning." Give a very brief introduction of the speaker.

 

At this point, either the worship assistant or the guest speaker may provide opening words. Opening words can be found in the back of our hymnal.

 

2. Hymn

 

"Our opening hymn this morning is _____ . Will you please stand as you're able to sing."

 

3. Chalice Lighting

 

"Will you please remain standing as we light our chalice this morning?"

 

Use the Chalice Lighting printed in the order of service. 

 

"Please be seated."

 

4. Welcome and Special Announcements

 

"'If you are visiting us for the first time this morning, I’d like to offer you a special welcome.

 

"Saltwater Church is is a Unitarian Universalist congregation. Unitarian Universalism is a liberal religious tradition that seeks wisdom in all the world's religions while affirming individual experience and conscience as the ultimate authority for one's beliefs.

 

"If you'd like to find out more about Saltwater Church and Unitarian Universalism, please stop by the Newcomers Table in the Welcoming Room and help yourself to any of the material in our literature racks. If you haven’t already done so, I’d also like to invite you to fill out a visitor card at the Newcomer’s Table. Finally, please join us for refreshments and conversation in the Welcoming Room after the service.

 

"I hope you will read through the announcements in your orders of service. I'd like to highlight just a few announcements". (List three announcements at most, highlighting events happening today or in the coming week.)

 

5. Meet and Greet Your Neighbor

 

"At this time, I’d like to invite you to take a few moments moment to greet and introduce yourselves to the people seated around you. Please make a special effort to say hello to anyone who is new."

 

(Ring the bell after one minute.)

 

6. Offering and Offertory

 

"The religious community that we share together depends on the generosity of those who support it, the members and friends of Saltwater Unitarian Universalist Church. It is now time for this morning’s offering."

 

7. Candles of Joy and Sorrow

 

"This is the time in our service when we light candles of joy and sorrow, and we do this because we believe that a joy shared is a joy made greater and a sorrow or concern shared is made easier to bear.

 

"When you come forward to light a candle, please tell us your name and briefly share your joy or sorrow.

 

"Would anyone like to come forward to light a candle?"

 

(After people have finished lighting candles): "I light this last candle for all of those unspoken joys and sorrows among us."

 

8. Meditation

 

"As we reflect on these candles of joys and sorrow and reflect on the joys and sorrows of our own lives, let us now be together for a few moments of shared silence, opening ourselves to those sources of love, joy and peace within us and amidst us. After a the shared silence, we’ll sing __________ (check the order of service)."

 

(Signal the pianist to begin after about one minute.)

 

9. Readings

 

When we have a guest speaker, either the worship assistant or the guest speaker may do the readings.

 

10. Musical Interlude

 

Sit and enjoy.

 

11. Message of the Morning

 

Sit and enjoy.

 

12. Closing Hymn.

 

"Our closing hymn this morning is _____. Will you please stand as your able to sing?"

 

13. Closing words

 

Either use closing words from the hymnal or the following:

 

"As we leave this place of worship, may we do so with ever more awareness of the sacred around and within us, with ever more compassion and acceptance for ourselves and for all those with whom we share this world, with ever more gratitude for this precious gift of life we share, and with ever more commitment to making our world more loving in just. Go in love, go in joy, go in peace. Amen."