The Church's Worship--enactment done!

[beatrice_otter]

One of the classes that first-year students at LTSG are required to take is "The Church's Worship." During the first semester we study the theological and historical backgrounds for Christian worship in great detail. During the second semester we are divided into groups and plan and enact a worship service which the whole class can then critique; we also are required to turn in a 20+ page "rationale" for the entire service, including the theological and historical background/context. My question is this: why is it that people who have extensive background in worship leadership are allowed to use that in lieu of the classroom portion that focuses on the theology/history, but not out of the practical portion? Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it be more logical the other way around? I mean, you can lead worship services just fine for years without knowing the history and theology of it, but not the other way around.

Any way, for the enactment we're given a detailed description of a fictional congregation (and its surrounding community), and each group gets a different service to plan (Holy Communion alone, HC with Baptism, HC with a wedding, HC with a funeral, HC with a service of healing). My group was assigned Holy Communion alone, and our enactment of our service was today; we were the first to go. I've led worship services before, and I've helped plan them, as well; but standing up there and trying to lead a worship service while your teacher is sitting there writing comments is a nerve-wracking experience. We did okay, though there were some minor mistakes.

The fun part was the Children's Sermon. Rick (who was doing it) had brought his children along to use for it, but several of my classmates came up as well. One could tell that they've watched a lot of children's sermons, and pay attention to how little kids act ;). And, wouldn't you know it, the actual kids were better behaved?

I'm just glad it's over. That's one class I don't have to worry about anymore.

Comments

[synecdochic]

Randomly, I have a favor to ask of you, and this entry reminded me of it! I am marrying off two of my friends in a few weeks, and they asked me to write the ceremony from scratch. I haven't even started it yet, heh, but I'm hoping to get to it sometime this weekend; would you be willing to look it over and offer suggestions? I want it to be very special for them. (They're both of the spiritual-without-being-religious types, where bits and pieces and flavors of the Christianity they grew up with is okay and resonates, but anything too overtly of any one religion wouldn't quite work for them. It's kind of a challenge. *g*)

[beatrice_otter]

Um, I'll look it over for you, sure, but I have done exactly nothing with weddings so far besides being a bridesmaid once. BTW, in case you didn't know the standard classic phrasings of most American weddings are drawn from the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer, albeit usually at a couple removes. It might be a place to start. Note that the English still officially use the 17th-Century version produced for Queen Elizabeth, while the Episcopalians in the US have revised it several times, most recently in 1979 iirc.