What does worship look like here?

A year ago, when the churches began worshipping together, several changes to our worship services had to be made. The question for the worship ministry team was how to combine worship traditions in a seamless fashion that honors both the Disciples of Christ tradition and the Presbyterian tradition.

We began by identifying the elements in our liturgy that are the same. (Liturgy is the word for the elements of worship and the manner in which they are organized. You might think of it as the script for a Sunday service.)

The two traditions shared many elements in the liturgy. Things such as the prelude, postlude, call to worship, reading of scripture, and closing were easy. It was the more denomination specific elements that caused us pause.

The prayer of confession and assurance of pardon are not parts of a typical Disciples of Christ service. They are, however, very important to our Presbyterians. The ministry team decided that we would keep that portion of the liturgy.

The Disciples have communion every week as part of their worship. Even though that was not part of the Presbyterian style of worship, a compromise was reached. The congregation does Disciples style communion most Sundays. The first Sunday of every month, we do a Presbyterian style communion.

There were some differences in order of service. The team decided to use the Disciples style of communal prayer. They also decided that the church would recite a creed even though not saying a creed is part of the Disciples’ identity. A compromise there was that we would not always recite the Apostles’ creed. We have used many different creeds to help our Disciples’ siblings feel more comfortable with the practice.

We are also careful to tell everyone worshipping with us that they are free to participate in worship as they are comfortable.

Blending traditions is not always easy. One of our ruling elders said once that “compromise makes sure everyone is unhappy.” We have decided that compromise is necessary to do the work God would have us do in the world. Our focus is on knowing God and making God’s love known to the world. We do that by reaching out to our siblings in Parsons and beyond through our shared missions.

Check out our activities page for an idea of the missions we support. If you have other questions about worship, you are welcome to ask. We are always striving to serve God with excellence and humility.

Blessings,

Jennifer