Worship is central to the life of Christ’s people. It is a privilege and a joy to gather around God’s gifts of Word and Sacrament where we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation, as well as strength for our journey of faith. All of this is done together with fellow believers in worship services that take place each week, primarily on Sunday as the weekly celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Every Sunday becomes a mini Easter. We gather together to pray, praise, and give thanks. We hear God’s Word. We sing hymns and songs. We bring our offerings to God. We confess our sins and receive the assurance that for Jesus’ sake God has indeed forgiven us all our sins. We rejoice when a new person is added to the family of believers through holy Baptism. We kneel at the altar and feast on the very Body and Blood of Jesus as he comes to us under bread and wine in his holy Supper. We greet fellow believers and give thanks that God has knit us together as the Body of Christ, his Church. We go forth in peace from the Lord’s house to serve the Lord by serving our neighbor. As Pastor Greg Finke, author of Joining Jesus on His Mission, puts it: “IN HERE is for OUT THERE.” The gifts received in worship are to be used to bless the lives of the people we meet each day as we demonstrate Jesus’ redeeming love in word and deed.

St. John’s has been blessed with a rich and varied worship life for many years. There are many people who serve visibly or behind-the-scenes in our weekly worship services. In addition to the Pastors and Director of Music, there are Lay Assistants, Communion Lay Assistants, Ushers, Acolytes and Crucifers, Altar Care, Welcome Ministry, Choirs and Musicians, Nursery Attendants, and others. We strive for excellence in worship remembering that people are coming to encounter the living Lord Jesus Christ, even as some Greeks came to Philip, one of Jesus’ disciples, with this request: “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). All that we do in worship is to help people see Jesus.

Worship is for all ages, from the newly baptized child to the eldest member of the congregation. Worship includes time-honored, beloved hymns and liturgies as well as contemporary expressions of music and orders of service. It is not either/or, but both/and. The freedom of the Gospel means that we have freedom to explore new ideas, always ensuring that what we do honors the Lord, is true to God’s Word, and builds up the Body of Christ. We trust that the Holy Spirit is still breathing new life into God’s people, inspiring and leading us to new expressions of worship. In May of this year, St. John’s Church Council authorized the formation of a Worship Life Task Force. The purpose of the Task Force is “to research and evaluate areas in which we might consider changes to our congregational worship life and make recommendations to the Church Council about ways to maximize our resource use and membership.” Over the summer, members of the Worship Life Task Force have been at work and have focused their attention on four primary topics:

• What is the best configuration of our Sanctuary’s physical space? If we refurbish, what improvements can we make with physical configuration and worship environment?
• How can we shape our liturgical worship services? Do we need two on Sunday? Should both be traditional? Why not keep the 9:30 summer service time for the remainder of the year? Does the JOY! service need review?
• How can time before, between, and after Saturday and Sunday services move toward our vision? If we have two services, the focus is on “between” time.

How can we use specific activities or ideas to invigorate and/or support individual spiritual journeys throughout the week? How do we intentionally bring Sunday forward?

Please know that much thought and prayer has gone into the work of the Worship Life Task Force, recognizing the sensitivity of these questions. These are not being asked to alarm people but are being asked in all earnestness for the sake of strengthening and building up the Body of Christ. Members of St. John’s will now be given opportunity to provide input on these questions. All of this is that important. Please watch for information that will be forthcoming about how you can participate in this process.

I ask you to be in prayer for wisdom and guidance from the Lord that we may discern what the Lord would have us do. As our risen, reigning, and returning Savior spoke to the seven churches in Revelation, so he speaks to us today: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 2:7, 11; 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). Amen!