Improving Our Order for Worship

Pentecost Sunday is the birthday of the church, the day each year we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit to the apostles in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-21). On this Pentecost Sunday, May 11, the service at FPC will include some reordering of certain elements, designed to enhance our worship. The FPC staff and Worship Ministry want you to know that this is not an attempt to change the feel of our service, but instead to change the order of particular elements for the following reasons:

We want children to hear the reading of scripture. Scripture is the story of our faith. We want our children to hear these stories and a Conversation rooted in these stories. To accomplish this, the Conversation with Children will be moved to a point after the Scripture Lesson. Previously, children were listening to a Conversation based on Scripture, without having a chance to hear the lesson themselves.

We want our service to begin with a Call to Worship, not a set of announcements. Too often, the service starts with announcements that pertain more to the life of the church than to the worship of God. We want to begin with a focus on God, and later, as a response to the Word heard in the service, move to a focus on our life together. Moving the announcements will also give late-comers a chance to hear news about the life of the church.

We want to include an Affirmation of Faith in each service, to unite us as One Body. Except for baptismal Sundays, when we say the Apostles’ Creed together, we rarely stand as one community and affirm what we believe. The inclusion of an Affirmation of Faith will enable us to do this, in words ranging from the ancient Nicene Creed to the modern Brief Statement of Faith.

So, what will this service look like? The new order for worship will be:

Prelude

Introit

The Lighting of the Christ Candle

Call to Worship

Hymn

Call to Confession

Prayer of Confession

Assurance of Forgiveness

Response to Our Assurance (Gloria Patri)

Anthem

Prayer for Illumination

Scripture Lesson

Sacrament of Baptism (when scheduled)

Conversation With Children

Hymn (prayer cards passed)

Sermon

Affirmation of Faith

Community Announcements

and Prayer Concerns

Morning Prayer and The Lord’s Prayer

Offering of Christ’s People

Offertory

Doxology

Prayer of Dedication

Passing of the Peace

The Sacrament of The Lord’s Supper

(first Sundays)

Hymn

Extroit

Benediction

Postlude

As you can see, no important elements have been removed; they have simply been reordered. At the same time our new Order for Worship is introduced, a new bulletin format will be premiered as well. As always, the staff and Worship Ministry will be open to hearing about your experience with this new order for worship, as well as suggestions regarding the bulletin.