Copyright: © 2002 Paul F. Bosch.
This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit to the author and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

We begin, with this Essay, faithful reader, yet another series, this one having to do with the various ministries in Christian worship, their roles and responsibilities there. So you will know beforehand where I'm going, I'll list the subjects I intend to cover in this and subsequent pieces:

1. The ministry of Worshipers
2. The ministry of Presiding Minister
3. The ministry of Assisting Minister
4. The ministry of Acolytes
5. The ministry of Usher/Greeter
6. The ministry of Ministers of Communion
7. The ministry of Organist / Musician

In this, the first of my new series, I had originally conceived as touching on the various roles and tasks of those serving "up front": presiding ministers, assisting ministers, organists, acolytes, etc. But it's occurred to me with great force recently that the chief ministry in Christian worship is the ministry of those in the pew: the worshiping assembly, who are themselves, after all, The Holy Communion. (The term is a collective noun, n'est-ce pas?)

The chief "actors" in the "drama" of Christian worship, therefore, are the people in the pew; those serving "up-front" are merely the prompters for the peoples' praise. To change the figure: it's the people themselves who constitute the team on the playing field; the pastor and other worship leaders may be thought of as cheerleaders, encouraging and exhorting the true players.

How might worshipers prepare themselves for their important roles --their ministries-- in Christian worship? That's the question I want to ask and answer in these paragraphs.

1. Attitude: "Await from the Lord," as it suggests in the Vespers litany, "great and abundant mercies." That's first. You will fulfill your ministry as worshiper most successfully if you come to worship expecting something important to happen here.

2. "Group Maintenance": When you arrive at church, do not fail to greet other worshipers in the hall and narthex. These are your sisters and brothers in Christ. You should naturally be concerned about their lives, their joys and sorrows. The hall and narthex --large and hospitable, in many newer church buildings-- are the appropriate locations for chatting up your friends, and making contact with their lives, and they with yours. Don't hide yourself from this activity. Write a prayer in the Book of Prayers on the narthex table, if that seems fitting.

3. Preparation: Once inside the Church itself, unseemly chatter is probably not appropriate. Do late arrivals a favor and find a seat in the front of the worship space; leave the rear seats for late-comers, and for the minimally committed. (Act as if you're committed to this enterprise, even if you're not!) You might even take a seat in the middle of the pew, rather than at the aisle. To sit at the aisle is to force others to climb over your knees, or to send the signal: "I don't want anyone to sit near me." To sit in the middle of the row is to invite others to join you.

4. "Group Task": Among your very important ministries in Christian worship is your service of prayer, praise and thanksgiving: to pray and sing and participate fully in the action of the assembly. So, while waiting for worship to begin, you'll want to locate hymns and psalm in the hymnbook, and mark them with the bookmarks or ribbons provided. (Your parish doesn't provide ribbons for the pew books? For shame! See to it that they do.) The liturgy itself you should know by heart, and not need the book. But you'll want to be alert to strangers or visitors sitting near you, who may need help in finding the page, and offer your help unobtrusively.

5. Once the service begins, you might actually give evidence of enjoying your time at worship: eyes bright with expectation, face directed toward the ritual action, body poised and fully engaged in what is going on. You might even make a determined effort actually to look at the preacher, for example, during the sermon: Not hiding behind the head in front of you, but actually looking into the preacher's face, eyes warmly encouraging. This is your sermon, remember, fully as much as the preacher's; it is part of your responsibility as member of the worshiping assembly to help the preacher preach, by active engagement in the sermon's delivery. (If the sermon is a dud, it will be at least partly your fault!)

   Where I live, one frequently encounters Pastors who routinely end their sermons with the word "Amen." It's intended, I'm sure, as much a signal to the congregation that the sermon is finished than it is any kind of self-affirmation. But as a respected teacher maintains, that "Amen" at the sermon's end belongs to you, the worshiper, not to the preacher. The preacher should simply stop, when her sermon is ended. You, the people, are the one(s) who should rightly affirm the preacher's message, when she's finished, with a vigourous "Amen." "So be it!"

6. As noted above in (4), it should not be necessary during worship for you to keep your nose pressed into a book or bulletin. Christian worship is at its best when worshipers and worship leaders respect the "Post-Literate" qualities of what they are doing. Hymnbooks for every worshiper, bulletin inserts, printed guides-to-worship, printed worship pamphlets and supplements: All of these are relatively recent in Christian history --and relatively "First World" and middle class; all of them depend on a high degree of literacy among worshipers; and none of them, not even hymnbooks, are essential to vital worship.

7. Worshipers will take their cues, therefore, from worship leaders. You stand when the leaders stand; you kneel when the leaders kneel; you sing what the cantor sings.

8. The old Anglican rule of thumb was this: "Stand to praise; kneel to pray; sit to receive instruction." That simple injunction made some sense in an earlier age. But see the paragraphs above and below about the auferstehung, and the propriety of standing for all prayer, and indeed standing at the reception of bread and cup at the Holy Communion. Kneeling, that is, might well be reserved, in most parishes, for acts of confession only, and then only in specific seasons, such as Advent and Lent.

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