I really enjoyed Baltimore Presbytery’s BIG EVENT last weekend. It was a well-organized and well thought out 2/3 daylong event themed Worship: Connect and Engage. I recommend the format of some combination worship, keynote, and afternoon workshops in quick succession to other folks thinking about possible presbytery events. One could take in more with a two-day event for sure, but I thought the start at 8:30 a.m. end at 3:30 p.m. model was a nice touch.

I mentioned previously that the workshop I led was entitled, “Worship that Welcomes the Spiritually Hungry” (not my title, but whatever). I thought the two sessions went fairly well, and no matter what, I enjoyed the planning process.

Some of you have asked, so here’s an idea of what we did.

Opening: get things going with an a cappella call and response song of one sort of another. I used “Glory to God” and a “Holy, Holy, Holy”

I’ve now viewed this Starbucks Church video ten times or something, and I still pick up something else each time I watch it. I totally recommend it for beginning a welcoming worship discussion. After the video, we used some small group discussion questions to debrief.

Exploring: We talked about the phrase, “Spiritual but not religious” and I used an excerpt from Carol Howard Merritt’s “Tribal Church” to try to get folks to open their minds to those who describe themselves as such. I heard Will Willimon once say that if the denomination of “I’m spiritual but not religious” was measured in a survey up against the mainline denominations, there’d be more “spiritual but not religious” than any other. He’s probably not far off. So, the church has a choice. We can say those who don’t speak our language of faith and tradition are not welcome in our congregations, or we can be the hospitable people Jesus wants us to be and get off our religious high horses for long enough to welcome the other — well, you know what I feel about that now

Money quote for exploring section: Edward Deming: “A system produces what it is designed to produce.” If our congregations are designed as welcoming systems, we will naturally be welcoming the other and our churches growing healthily. If not, we won’t. There is no magic involved (well, Holy Spirit does help out, but Deming is still right.)

Responding: small group discussions with quotes and questions to guide the conversation. Pick one of the three groups: Space/Building Issues, People Matter, Bulletin/Liturgy.

Closing: report back, final thoughts, end with rapid-fire helpful ideas:

• find someone who has joined your congregation in the last year. Take them out to coffee and ask them about their first experiences in worship. Have them speak to the worship committee.
• ask a non-church friend to visit your service and report how s/he felt welcomed
• parking matters; bike racks matter; nice-looking facade matters
• signage, signage, signage
• if your website isn’t welcoming I don’t expect your church to be
• singing simply welcomes the stranger
• don’t just say “hi” connect visitors to others; don’t just greet at the door, walk visitor to seat near someone with the spiritual gift of welcoming
• watch for insider language in the bulletin and explain it in text boxes or in sidebar
• sure, Jesus didn’t specific for the Lord’s Prayer to be printed in the bulletin, but if you want everyone — even visitors — to say the prayer Jesus taught then print it
• consider a yearly or semi-annual service that explains all the elements of worship and why we do them; helpful not just for visitors but for all
• name tags might be good, but not just for visitors for all; or maybe monthly

So there’s a bit of the workshop minus the handout, discussion, my captivating leadership, and all. I am happy to say I’m not traveling anymore for several months now. Hopefully I’ll have more time to blog…and read books not related to worship planning.