WORSHIP LEADER GUIDE

Thank you for agreeing to plan and lead worship at CCMC. This document offers some general guidelines and helpful information, a summary (in checklist format) of the responsibilities that fall to the worship leader, and Time & Talent responses for the current year to assist you in finding worship participants. If you have any questions please contact a member of the worship committee. Contact information all people who may serve as resources to you is found at the bottom of this document.

Music & Hymnals:

Worship Participants:

Other Resources:

Arriving Sunday Morning:

Liturgy Available:

WORSHIP LEADER CHECKLIST

During the week(s) prior to the service:

By the Wednesday before:

On Sunday, before the service:

On Sunday, during the service:

TIME AND TALENT RESPONSES FOR

CONTACT LIST

Music & Hymnals:

If you would like assistance selecting hymns for the service, check (in advance!) with the pastor or your song leader and ask if s/he is willing to consult. You may also check with Glenn Martin Klaassen or Philip Kendall who may be willing to assist. Our instrumentalists enjoy as much lead time as possible, so please send them the list of hymns as soon as possible. If you have a special request of an ensemble, accompaniment instrument, or music group, please contact them with as much advanced notice as possible to submit your request.

We have two supplemental hymnals available for use: Sing the Story and Sing the Journey. We keep them on the shelves at the back of the sanctuary. If you plan to use hymns from either book, please distribute them before the service (place them on chairs or as people come in) and then ask folks to stack them in the back again after the service. You may consider limiting your selections to one or the other since distributing and collecting both sets can be rather hectic.

Worship Participants:

As you plan the service, please consult the appropriate sections of the Time and Talent Survey (see below) to find people interested in helping with worship. When you agree to lead worship, you will be given access to a Google Docs worship grid outlining the lectionary texts, preacher, musicians, and visual artists for the Sunday you are scheduled to lead worship.

Other Resources:

In general, we ask that worship leaders try be as inclusive as possible and suggest that you use inclusive language for God and people. Consider reading through hymns and making suggestions to change wording as needed, and using the inclusive Bible for New Testament and Psalms available in the library. Also, please do not use incense during the service as a number of people from our congregation and First Church have asthma. We have developed a consistent ritual format for lighting the Peace Lamp. We have provided some helpful guidelines for planning children’s time and involving children in other parts of our worship. We have also provided some sample words of welcome, prayers, calls to worship, benedictions and also sample words of introduction for our time of sharing. Please consult our “Sample Worship Script” as a good place to start with your planning; everything else can be found on separate pages under the "Worship" tab on our website.

Arriving Sunday Morning:

A person will be designated to open the door by 8:00 am.

Communion Sunday:

If you are leading worship on a communion Sunday, you are responsible for bringing the “elements” (i.e., grape juice, grapes, and bread). Celeste Groff is coordinating with members of the congregation to bake a gluten-free common loaf to use for bread, but you should contact her to verify that someone has agreed to bake the loaf and bring it to church that week (contact info in list at end of document). You can also ask that person to bring the loaf forward at the appropriate point in the Communion liturgy. There is grape juice at the church.

Liturgy Available:

If you would like to use a printed liturgy as a worship outline, you may use "A liturgy for life in the city," which is printed on green paper and available in the mailroom-library. If you would like to adapt it and print new copies, contact Celeste Groff for a computer document.

WORSHIP LEADER CHECKLIST

During the week(s) prior to the service:

Touch base with the person giving the meditation, to coordinate worship theme(s), confirm which scriptures they’d like read, and confirm their primary preaching text (if not the gospel).
Plan prelude, offertory, and postlude. You may play a selection of recorded music, or arrange special music with musicians listed on the Time and Talent information below. Please inform the pianist in advance if you would like them to play something. Please note that pianists do not always have music readily available.
Select hymns. (Song leaders are often willing to serve as a resource in hymn selection if you ask in advance.) Work with the preacher to see if s/he has suggestions, especially for the “hymn of response” immediately following the sermon. Pass along the list of hymns to song leader and instrumentalists as soon as possible.
Arrange for the scriptures to be read.
Ask someone to light the peace lamp. We encourage you in recruiting a peace lamp-lighter to consider it an opportunity to surprise someone - of any age - who might not usually have a role in front during worship.
Arrange for special music, dance, singing, storytelling, scripture memorization, etc. If you have a vision of including any of these elements, people would welcome as much advance notice as possible.
Think about visuals. If you have a vision for a special altar treatment, please share that with the person assigned to the altar for that day. Or, discuss themes with the altar person for guidance. Otherwise, the altar person will do something of their own creation!
Prepare the children’s time leader with themes for children’s time. In doing so, they should keep in mind that the children who come forward are primarily under the age of 5. Stories and such should be developmentally appropriate for the youngest of our youngsters.
Plan (or delegate): Words of Welcome, Call to Worship, all Prayers (including prayer following sharing time), responsive or unison readings, Benediction (check with the person preaching to see if they would like to provide the benediction). Some samples and resources for each of these sections are on the website.
If it is the last Sunday of the month, plan the Communion portion of the service. Communion requires two people to lead the liturgy and two people to bring elements forward (only three people stand up in the front when you hand out the bread and juice or grapes). Celeste Groff currently coordinates with bakers to make the common loaf, and there is a store of grape juice at church. Ask someone to lead Communion with you or ask two people to lead if you’d prefer not to do so. Pastor Alison Brookins, Celeste Groff, and Jan Lugibihl are all willing to lead Communion. There are small black binders for both leader portions of Communion, located in the church library. See "Planning Communion" on our website. Worship leader purchases grapes and asks someone to hold them and say a blessing for children and others who wish to receive grapes instead. Designate someone to bring the cup with juice & grapes forward at the appropriate point in the Communion liturgy. The baker may be able to bring the loaf forward; if not, designate another person.

By the Wednesday before:

If you haven’t already, now inform song leader and instrumentalists of hymns. Also send the order of worship to the person arranging the altar.
Send bulletin information to Kurt Frymire (kurtfrymire@gmail.com). Bulletin information is less detailed than your worship leader script, and should include only the items for the order of worship that will be seen by the congregation in the bulletin. See previous bulletins on the website for examples.

On Sunday, before the service:

If the last Sunday of the month, bring grapes. Grape juice is available near the communion set in the shelves in the library. Arrange communion elements on our communion set and place in the nursery near the south door of the sanctuary. If haven’t yet received bread from baker, ask the baker to place on the plate upon arriving.
Set up the front of the church including any visuals you are responsible for. Place extended wick and candlesnuffer and place on altar.
Get out Inclusive Bible, mark passages for readers, and put on stand.
Get Children’s Time quilt out and place on a chair to the side.
Distribute hymnals evenly throughout the sanctuary. Place Sing the Journey and/or Sing the Story books on chairs if you plan to use them. Please be certain to include the balcony.
Pass each of 5 baskets to 1 person in each section (2 side sections, 2 center sections, balcony). Ask that person to be responsible for ensuring everyone in her/his section gets the basket during offering time, and then bring it forward to the worship leader.
Set up sound system (directions are near sound booth).
We encourage you to invite all worship participants to gather with you 10 minutes before the start of worship to review the order of service and then to pray together.

On Sunday, during the service:

Before the start of the prelude, “gong” the singing bowl three times to signal the start of worship. *see below for image of how this is best accomplished
Make smooth transitions between the various parts of the service
Co-lead the communion portion of the service (if a Communion Sunday, last Sunday of the month) unless you have asked someone else to do so
Include all the ritual language detailed in the “Sample Worship Script.”