We had a discussion after church today, following on from a conversation some of us had with the Super last week. Basically, we've agreed to do our own preaching plan, which can then be incorporated in the official one. The first step is going to be to get dates from Novette, the minister, as she obviously has to fit in her other churches as well. Then we plan whatever dates we want for our own preachers and worship leaders. We may be only a small church, but we have a tradition of getting people involved in leading worship, so we've no lack of talent available. One Sunday a month will be left for Paul to plan a preacher from the rest of the Circuit, so we're still functioning within it rather than trying to secede or become a law unto ourselves.
That should give us ample scope to develop our own worship style further. I'm preaching at Ladywood in a couple of weeks, and I may well let one of the Worship Leaders organise the service, and just preach the sermon. It's a common enough pattern in other denominations, and many of our people will be familiar with it from having previously been in one or other branch of the Church of God.
We've also agreed to have a barbeque in four weeks' time, on the 28th. That gives us ample time to plan, and we'll just have to hope the weather lasts. Only we don't want it to last without a break here and there, because the stream at the bottom of the allotment has dried up, and we'll be having major problems if it doesn't rain before then!
Sounds great. We call it LA (Local Arrangement)
ReplyDeleteOnce a month? Wow! that's a lot. My Super wouldn't allow that. We can only have once per quarter. We've got one coming up soon. This time the sermon will be preached by a member of the congregation. There are so many un-earthed talent in the church. This is one way we can find out.
In our Circuit, Local Arrangements are normally covered by Worship Leaders, to ease the burden on Local Preachers. We've got three of those, including Hans, who is offically 'On Note' with me, but who has actually been preaching for over 30 years in another denomination. Our services will be on the Plan as usual, the difference being that we'll be planning them ourselves.
ReplyDeleteIt'll make life a little bit easier for the Super when it comes to the Plan, and he's a sensible guy. We've got several churches which are almost all black people, and we're unlikely to be the only ones who don't find a traditional Methodist service very satisfying. We just happen to be the church which has already adapted its worship to some extent, and when I raised it with Paul, his reaction was that it ought to be looked at on a national basis, and perhaps we can show the way.