The Challenge of All Saints Sunday

For many churches, worship on Sunday will be a remembrance and celebration of "saints." For some denominations, this will include a focus on particular "heroes of the faith." For others, it is a chance to focus on the "cloud of witnesses," the "invisible Church" of all times and places.

In my congregation, we have had a tradition for the last few years of celebrating Reformation and All Saints by planning our two Sunday morning services to be identical. Typically, we have an 8:30 "traditional" service and a 10:45 "contemporary" or "blended" service (depending on how you define those terms). On Reformation Sunday (last week), I included this note in the bulletin:

To celebrate our Lutheran heritage for Reformation Sunday, both services today are “traditional” in order to highlight the 500-year foundation on which our worship is built. In contrast, All Saints Sunday (Nov. 6) worship will be “contemporary” for both services as a reminder that our work as saints takes place in this particular place and time. Please use the communion cards to let us know where you saw God at work in worship today!

I include a similar note on All Saints Sunday. But here's the dilemma: Reformation Sunday is easy to plan as a pull-out-all-the-stops, high-church service; All Saints, on the other hand, is far from easy to plan with contemporary resources. The state of contemporary Christian pop music (at least the small slice of the available music that I'm able to keep up with) is notably lacking in "saints" language. The vast majority of it is highly focused on the level of personal relationship--what God does for me and what I do for God.

This is not necessarily bad, but it does pose problems for finding music for some days in the lectionary. All Saints Sunday is almost the opposite of that aforementioned theme. I would argue that, to a certain extent, All Saints is a recognition of what we do for each other. It's about passing on the faith to other generations; it's about being in service to the neighbor; it's about walking along side one another in the midst of suffering and trial. In some respects, it is the one day that the Church gets to celebrate its own self, the one day when the Church gets to celebrate what it means to be the Church. But in my opinion, that's a concept that seems to be foreign to the general theology of contemporary Christian pop/rock music.

There are some musical exceptions out there, and I'm hoping y'all can suggest more. I have been drawn to a couple of songs that work very well for All Saints in a contemporary context. One is "Let It Be Said of Us" by Steve Fry. The second is "Find Us Faithful" by Steve Green. As contemporary songs go, they're old, but they are the best songs I've found for getting at the heart of All Saints Sunday.

Perhaps you'll find them useful in your own congregations, and if you have other suggestions, please let us know in the comments below.