Worship and Christian education are perhaps the two most central aspects of congregational life in Western churches. In my experience, however, congregations do not readily ensure that these two actions flow into and out of each other.
For example, much to my delight, two years ago my congregation adopted a lectionary-based Sunday School curriculum. Prior to that point, we had been using a more general thematic-based curriculum; as a result, Sunday School lessons were often unrelated to the lectionary readings for the day. By allowing both worship and education curriculum to be lectionary-based, kids enter worship and encounter the same readings they have just heard in class. Their education time flows into worship, and worship serves to reinforce the gospel that was proclaimed to them in the classroom.
This year, we're going one step further. We do a midweek service year-round, and are seeking to integrate even more the education and worship components on Wednesday nights. Our Sunday School curriculum includes age-appropriate music connected with the lessons. Our goal this year is to begin our wednesday service, now led by a band, with one or two of the songs that the kids will have encountered in their large group time.
For Advent and Lent, we'll shift gears to something more appropriate to the entire congregation rather than something specifically targeted at children and families, but our hope is to reinforce as much as possible a connection between worship and education.
How do your congregations connect worship and Christian education? If it's something you've never thought about before, consider these possibilities:
Encourage one or more of your adult bible studies to be lectionary-based.
Encourage worshipers to read through the texts prior to the upcoming sunday.
Consider using a lectionary-based education curriculum.
Use lectionary readings for devotional material for meetings, rehearsals, etc.
During Advent, lead an adult forum exploring that year's primary gospel.
As always, the possibilites are limited only by your imagination. If you have other ideas, please share them!
2 comments:
I have long been planning to offer some worship workshops for the kids in my parish. (Say, on a day off for a "teacher's institute." Haven't accomplished it yet but still hope to. A tremendous resource for planning something like this is a book edited by John Witvliet: "A Child Shall Lead: Young Children in Worship"
I use Augsburg's "Preaching to the Choir" series. Craig Mueller wrote the book for Year A. They're nice little reflections for choirs based on the readings (usually the Gospel) for the upcoming Sunday.
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