From: jim.speirs@canrem.com (Jim Speirs)
To: dannys@iis.ee.ethz.ch (Danny Schwendener)
Subject: The Spiritual Emphasis - How to Prepare a Formal Worship Service


Article #R150.
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The Spiritual Emphasis - How to Prepare a Formal Worship Service
The Rev. Neil T. Gregory
The Leader, February 1986


Scout Week is just around the corner and many groups like to include
at least one Church Parade as part of their celebrations. The easiest
way to do it, of course, is to get the group invited to a church,
synagogue or other place of worship for a scheduled service. Simply
ask somebody to invite you, or invite yourselves.

All the Scouter has to do in this case is make sure a certain number
of people are prepared to worship at the chosen place and will arrive
on time. Remember that some parents may not want their children to
visit places of worship other than their own, so it's important to
make attendance voluntary. When you know who will be there, common
courtesy asks that you tell someone at the place of worship which
service you will be attending and how many you will be.

It's also wise to ensure that everyone in your group knows what to
expect at the service. Ask one of the regular worshippers what the
common practices are, or invite the person to a section meeting to
explain what will happen and why things are done the way they are.

There are good reasons to prepare yourself like this. Nothing is more
uncomfortable for a visitor to a place of worship than not knowing
what to do. It's no fun to find yourself sitting when everyone else is
standing, or standing when everyone else is kneeling. It's even worse
when you realize that, in many places of worship, it's customary to
give guests the place of honour in the very front of the congregation
where everyone can see them.

Preparing in this way is also a real learning experience for your
section. Do you know how worship is conducted in a synagogue or
mosque? What the sweet grass ceremony is all about? What the
differences are between worship in a Roman Catholic church and a
Ukrainian Catholic church? To be "a friend to all and a brother to
every other Scout", a young person needs to learn to accept and
respect people's differences, and one of these differences is
religious.

If your Scout group is sponsored by a church, you will likely choose
to attend its Scout Week service and may be able to insist that
everyone be there.


Planning Your Own Service

If the group wants to organize its own worship experience, someone
will have to find and arrange to use a suitable location (public hall,
church building or, weather permitting, a place outdoors), and someone
will have to put together and lead the worship service.

Many Scouters are filled with fear and trembling when confronted with
the prospect of having to say something of a spiritual nature to a
Scout gathering. The only effective way to overcome this fear is to
seize the opportunity to lead a worship service when it is presented
to you. But how do you go about it?

First, sit down and decide a theme for your worship service. Since
Scout Week often falls within the Christian season of Lent, a
penitential theme (sin, repentance and reconciliation) is appropriate.
But I expect most groups will feel more comfortable with a theme that
praises and thanks God for the life of the founder, perhaps,or for
some specific events in the life of the group during the year.

The next step is to find appropriate readings from the scriptures. If
you are not very familiar with the scriptures of your religious
tradition, you may want to ask your own spiritual leader to help you
choose readings related as directly to your theme as possible.

Once you've set the theme and chosen the scriptures, you can pick
prayers and music and put the service together. Use a book of hymns
and a book of services as your resources.

I usually try to include as much music as I can. It's a great way to
cover necessary movement - of leaders, the collection of the offering,
or the speaker going up to the lectern. Standing up to sing hymns also
provides legitimate "wiggle time" that will help kids sit quietly
during other parts of the service.

Decide whether you'll take a service directly out of the book to adapt
for the occasion, or whether you'll put together a special service.
Although it may seem a formidable task, putting together a worship
service is really quite easy. The trick is to break it down into
manageable parts and handle each part as a unit. And what are these
parts? Quite simply, a beginning, a middle and an end.


The Beginning

The beginning of a worship service tells everyone why they are
gathered. A service often opens with a hymn or song of praise (check
the index or table of contents of a hymn book) and, after the hymn,
it's usual to have some kind of statement of purpose. Anglicans use "O
Lord, open thou our lips" and the response "Our mouths shall show
forth thy praise". People in other religious traditions may simply
say, "Let us worship God". Most modern books of services contain a
good selection of opening sentences.

>From there, you can move on to a short prayer, an act of praise or
both. This prayer from the Christian Eucharist is appropriate for just
about any Christian worship experience. Non-Christians will want to
adapt it to make it more in keeping with their own traditions.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from
you no secrets are hidden. Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the
inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and
worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Acts of praise can include reading all or parts of Psalms 24, 63, 67,
95, 100 or 145, or other portions of scripture.


The Middle

There are two sections to the middle part of the worship service. The
first is the proclamation of the word of God through readings of
scripture and the meditation or sermon. The second is response to the
word of God through prayer and action (the offering). I like to
include a couple of hymns here as well and try to pick them to
reinforce what I've said in the sermon.

The proclamation of the word of God is a process of verbal
communication, which implies both a sender and a receiver. I remember
watching a children's religious program on TV once. A fellow was
sitting on a stool explaining a bible story to a bunch of little kids
sitting on the floor around him. What I found most interesting wasn't
what the fellow was saying, but what the kids were doing. Some were
looking around the studio, some were fooling around, and some seemed
to be fast asleep.

Those kids had the same look we've all seen on the faces of some of
our own young people when we begin to talk about spiritual matters. It
doesn't have to be that way. All it takes is a bit of practice and a
few little technical tricks.

Let's look at the scripture reading. First, if you're going to read
something, you'll have to be able to see it, which means you want the
print to be large. If you can't find what you want to read in large
print, get it enlarged on a photocopier. If that isn't possible, copy
it by hand in big black print with lots of space between words and
lines. Then, practise reading the material. Read it aloud to yourself
several times before you read it in the service. Finally, read slowly.
If you are reading at a speed that sounds slow to you, it will
probably sound just about right to your listeners.

Now let's look at the sermon or meditation. Once I have an idea of
what I want to say, based on the theme and scriptures I've chosen, I
sit down and write out my message word for word, as if I were talking
to someone. After I have a rough draft, I go over it and edit. Here
are some guidelines I use.

Keep it short. Five minutes of sermon is often plenty. The mind can
only absorb what the seat will tolerate. When I write my talks word
for word, I find I get about five minutes worth from two typed sheets
(double spaced).

Remember that most kids have a lot more intelligence than most adults
give them credit for. They do not need you to explain stories
(biblical or otherwise) to them.

Keep in mind whom you are talking to. By this I don't just mean the
obvious differences between a colony of Beavers and a company of
Venturers. Try to be aware of what is going on in the daily lives of
these kids. It may mean engaging them in a dialogue rather than
talking to them (which sometimes is little more than talking at them).

For example, suppose I think it would be a good idea to talk about God
as a loving Father. I have to consider that, in any group, there may
be a kid whose father beats him, or whose father is dead, or whose
parents are divorced. There may be any number of other factors that
make the concept of God as loving Father difficult for the child to
understand. I might decide to start by simply asking the youngsters to
tell me what they like most about their father, or to describe what
they think a perfect father would be like. Then I can take what they
say and relate it to my understanding of God as loving Father.

Adults don't always have to be telling kids things. If we take time to
listen, we soon discover they have a lot of good ideas about spiritual
realities that are not always easy for them to express. Furthermore,
by listening to what young people say and making a real attempt to
understand what they are trying to tell us, we demonstrate our respect
for them as persons. And that will have very positive results in the
long run.

You may want to use an object as the starting point for your sermon.
One of the best talks of this kind I've heard was given at the 28th
Prairie Wood Badge course Scouts' Own in 1984. The speaker held up a
rusty spike and pointed out how bent and battered-looking it was. Even
though it didn't look very good, he said, it could still be used. It
could be straightened out and had enough strength to hold together
many things. His conclusion was that many people are a lot like that
spike. We may be bent out of shape and we may not look very good, but
we are still useful to God.

After the meditation or sermon comes the offering, and finally the
prayers of the people. The offering is much more than a means of
raising funds. It is a symbolic act of offering oneself to God. and I
believe it should be included in every worship service. It needn't
always be an offering of money. At church camps I've asked the
children to write on a piece of paper some act they can do for God or
some kindness they can perform for others. At the time of offering,
these pieces of paper are collected.

The form of prayer that follows the offering isn't terribly important,
but it is important that everyone knows what is expected and what is
being prayed for. You might pray for your church or community of
faith, the world and its leaders. the local community and its needs.
or those in need both at home and abroad. Remember to give prayers of
thanks as well as requests to God.


The Ending

Many modern liturgies include a definite form of dismissal and a
closing hymn. The leader might say, for example, "Let us bless the
Lord" or "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord", and the
congregation responds: "Thanks be to God." You can also conclude with
a suitable sentence from scripture: 'The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. be
with us all evermore", for example.

Then comes the singing of the final hymn. At that time, I like to have
all those who took part leave. It gives a clear and visible sign that
the service is over.

And that's all there is to putting together a worship service. It
isn't terribly difficult, but it will require a considerable amount of
preparation time to do well, especially for the first time. But then,
you did promise to do your best when you became a Scouter. And your
section deserves your best, doesn't it?