Notes on Worship

Some things to keep in mind

In what appears to be a month of thoughts and opinions about worship, I thought I’d take today to gather you all like a director does with the cast and crew after a rehearsal to offer some notes; some things I’ve noticed that I hope you change or at least consider before we get together next time. No, you can’t change out of your costume first, and no, you can’t make plans for where you’re going out after this while I’m talking, because we all know we’re going to Crowleys’s

¹

. Sheesh.

• First, I want to say I know you’re all exhausted, but this one hour a week is not the time to phone it in. Remember that you have a fresh audience visitors who are hoping to find a meaningful and vibrant place for their minds, bodies, and spirits.

• Worship associates, please please please read the poem or reading you’ve been asked to do. And by read, I don’t mean scan it with your eyes. I mean speak it out loud. Maybe more than once. Listen for the nuance, the pauses, the humor. It makes your worship leader’s heart sink when you rush through a piece and don’t let the congregation enjoy the beautiful meanings and delightful giggles.

• Preachers (clergy or otherwise), trust me, you talk faster than you think you do. Especially when there are nerves. Mark your scripts and notes with “pause” or “breathe” at appropriate spots, and mark phrases to emphasize. Just those two things will help you slow down some.

• Preachers - especially those who regularly preach in other places - make sure you’ve read through your sermon for references to other places, or to remember whether you put that section in or took it out this time. Your sermon should never surprise you. (Unfortunately, this one happened to me recently; I could offer reasons but there’s no excuse. I had time.)

• Everyone, take a moment to set yourself in front of the pulpit/lectern. Don’t just rush into speaking, get there, make sure your notes are appropriately set for you to see, take a breath, look at the congregation. I promise you no one will be offended, and you will start off more confidently.

• Everyone, when you are the preacher, or storyteller, or worship associate, or liturgist, or musician, or tech person: you are not there to worship; you are there to lead worship and hold the space. That doesn’t mean you don’t get fed by the process or the message or the energy in the room - but it does mean you can’t relax. Pay attention to the room, and to what comes next, and be prepared. Pauses and silence are okay when the service demands it. Pauses and silences are not okay when you are so caught up in it, you don’t know you’re next to speak (or sing).

• Tech folk, if there is a problem connecting to the folks watching online or some of the AV isn’t working right, please make sure you pause before the service begins to do a sound check for folks in the room. Then you can go back and troubleshoot the wifi or cabling issues or dodgy monitor.

• Oh, also for worship associates: if you are introducing a guest speaker, don’t just ask how to pronounce the preacher’s name, practice it and make a note that will help you remember. (This one really grinds my gears; I literally put a pronunciation guide to my last name in the bio I send for speaking, and I go over it with the person introducing me, and not ten minutes later, they mangle it as though they’ve never heard it before, and then either make a joke about hard names (ugh) or just assume it’s fine and keep going (sigh). It’s pronounced DEE-bis, by the way. Rhymes with ‘rebus’ and ‘Priebus’ and nearly with ‘Beavis’.) Same goes for any names you are asked to say. Learn how to say it and make notes to help you say it.

• Everyone, go through all the transitions - who is introducing the hymn? Who moves where to start the chalice lighting? When do we move? How do we end a thing? Where should the camera point? What mics should be on? There’s (again) a difference between a planned pause or silence (even with choreography) and awkwardness. One lets the congregation mentally ‘finish’ that previous element; the other takes them out of the world of the worship service as they wonder if everything’s okay up there.

That’s enough for today. Now go change out of those costumes, turn off the sound board, and I’ll meet you at Crowley’s. First round is on me.

1. Crowley’s was a great restaurant and bar, friendly to theater people, and fairly central for our theater community in Raleigh, NC - it was ‘our place’ more often than not after rehearsals and shows. I know it’s closed now. Sigh.