Strangers & Aliens

So, you've been asked to lead the church on a Sunday morning. Great. An awesome task, but a noble, pure and great one. Let me make two pleas for unity.

First, let me make a plea for unity of content
It doesn't really matter if your church is a hymn-prayer-sandwich kind of place or 'let's just move into a time of worship' place. Your content needs to have unity. Well, it doesn't need it in the sense that it cannot be valid without it, but your leading is about being helpful to those who are there. By unity I mean that it must flow in thought and logic. This is no different from a good sermon, and I don't see why it should be so anyway. Just as a preacher needs to remember that the people to whom he is preaching have not spent hours and hours studying a text, so you - as leader - need to remember that many people have not spent hours preparing a service. They asked you to lead so you would spend hours for them. Don't let them down!

Work around a theme. Let the readings lead into songs. Let the prayers be an appropriate response. Pray for subjects that naturally arise out of the subject. If you are singing about the justice of God, pray for injustice. Interview someone in your church who supports the Barnabas fund, for example. Don't just choose your favourite numbers, like a Channel 4 top 50 list.

And speak to the preacher. Know what he is preaching on, and don't just assume that you know what he is going to say. Ask him. Allow him to over-rule your plans. Ask him how the service should end in an appropriate way. Tailor your plans to his. Don't expect the opposite. Go for a flow - that's unity.

Second, let me make a plea for unity in the church
There are different factors that promote unity. They have differing amounts of significance - but here's a difficult truth: how services are led can have a profound effect on the unity of the church. Think carefully how your leading will impact different groups in the church. These could be age groups. You do have different age groups, right? You are not all 20s and 30s (if so, why? No octogenarians? Why not? Have you already driven them out, or never drawn them in? Fool!). It may be true that Christians should not be hypocrites (something they are not), but we are also to take account of each other, and that generally means that leading church should be fairly middle-of-the-road. It's always, therefore, good to ask, how people will react to what you do as leader.

So, for example, an outrageous statement may make some people smile and think how cool you are, but if it is going to antagonise some older folk, why do it? What purpose will it serve?

Remember, again, you're serving others - and in this case the entire congregation. Serve well.