What Do You Do in Your Church?

[Josiah]

If you are active in a congregation/parish, what (if anything ) to do you there (besides worship and maybe attend various studies)?

I'm the chairman of the property committee (aka Trustees) and thus serve on the Church Council, I teach the Teen Sunday School class and I sing in the choir. Those are my official positions. I often serve as the lector or usher - positions we volunteer for on a week to week basis.

How about you?

 

[psalms 91]

I am on missions and outreach committe, lead person for Bountiful Blessings, and help with the food bank. Also at another church am heavily involved with a campground they have

 

[Rens]

I warm the chair.

 

[Josiah]

I am on missions and outreach committe, lead person for Bountiful Blessings, and help with the food bank. Also at another church am heavily involved with a campground they have

Awesome! Thanks for all you do for Christ and His church...

 

[Josiah]

I warm the chair.

... I'm sure with lots of love, lol Joking aside, there IS a ministry of presence, of being faithful and joyous in worship!

 

[Rens]

... I'm sure with lots of love, lol Joking aside, there IS a ministry of presence, of being faithful and joyous in worship!

Last week they were happy with me. Some had to work and two left the church, so I was the only other adult and the kids got a nice kids sermon. They loved it.

 

[Lamb]

I'm the cantor at our church. I'm very bashful and hate being in front of everyone so I don't do it too often, mostly to help out with Matins since this congregation doesn't know it very well and I have it memorized! LOL I also help with some of the difficult hymns and will stay seated to help get through communion because we're a tiny church and it goes quiet with everyone up at the altar!

I was recently asked to be on the board of evangelism but we haven't had our first meeting yet.

 

[tango]

If you are active in a congregation/parish, what (if anything ) to do you there (besides worship and maybe attend various studies)?

I'm the chairman of the property committee (aka Trustees) and thus serve on the Church Council, I teach the Teen Sunday School class and I sing in the choir. Those are my official positions. I often serve as the lector or usher - positions we volunteer for on a week to week basis.

How about you?

Sometimes I lead the service, I'm looking at working the sound and video systems (I know essentially what needs to be done and did both at my previous church, just getting used to the way they do stuff at my current church). I'm part of a couple of small groups and both have expressed an interest in having me lead them. I've been approached to be an usher but don't want to end up committed to being an active part of every single service - sometimes I like to just sit in the pews and take part in the service rather than being intrinsically involved in some specific part of it.

 

[Lamb]

What do you do to lead the service, tango? Is it when the pastor isn't present?

 

[tango]

What do you do to lead the service, tango? Is it when the pastor isn't present?

The pastor never leads the service. The leader opens the service with greetings and prayer and then essentially introduces each stage of the service as it happens. So where we have a time where we can bring announcements, prayer requests etc to the church the leader announces it, calls the ushers forward to take up the offering, reads the Scripture before the sermon and so on.

The role is sometimes called "worship leader" but I dislike the term because to me it implies something it isn't - I'm not specifically leading people to worship, people attending will worship or not based on what is in their hearts rather than what is in mine. (I also don't like calling the band the "worship team" because it merely propagates the idea that singing and worship are one and the same)

 

[Josiah]

The pastor never leads the service. The leader opens the service with greetings and prayer and then essentially introduces each stage of the service as it happens. So where we have a time where we can bring announcements, prayer requests etc to the church the leader announces it, calls the ushers forward to take up the offering, reads the Scripture before the sermon and so on.

The role is sometimes called "worship leader" but I dislike the term because to me it implies something it isn't - I'm not specifically leading people to worship, people attending will worship or not based on what is in their hearts rather than what is in mine. (I also don't like calling the band the "worship team" because it merely propagates the idea that singing and worship are one and the same)

Cool! I can see how that would be helpful particularly to guests....


Anyone else? What do YOU do in your parish?

 

[Josiah]

db

 

[NewCreation435]

in the past i have been involved in numerous ways including teaching and preaching. i do attend a small group men's group, but mainly my ministry is as a counselor in a mental health agency

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

Well, right now, I just usher. I haven't been asked to lector for awhile now and I guess I'm not needed in that capacity at the moment. In the past, in Jacksonville, I worked with the Altar Guild, I even helped distribute Communion and I read for the congregation. When I got back home, I did a couple of weeks at VBS as a teacher and I volunteered for Christian Ed as a Sunday School teacher for a few months. I spent a lot of time as a Church Council Secretary ( I just finished my run recently and the position is now held by the wife of one of our elders).

 

[Lamb]

Well, right now, I just usher. I haven't been asked to lector for awhile now and I guess I'm not needed in that capacity at the moment. In the past, in Jacksonville, I worked with the Altar Guild, I even helped distribute Communion and I read for the congregation. When I got back home, I did a couple of weeks at VBS as a teacher and I volunteered for Christian Ed as a Sunday School teacher for a few months. I spent a lot of time as a Church Council Secretary ( I just finished my run recently and the position is now held by the wife of one of our elders).

That's a well-rounded participant I have never known a man to be on altar guild! How did you like it?

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

That's a well-rounded participant I have never known a man to be on altar guild! How did you like it?

That's when I was still married. My wife and I put all the communion wafers into the paten, arranged the Bible stand and the Bible on the Altar ( after we put the altar cloth on the altar just so.. the details were a little harrowing for me, but important to our supervisor), squirted the wine into the Communion cups and put some of that wine into the chalice. After the service, I'd go out and pour the wine onto the ground, we'd collect the Altar supplies, roll up the cloth and put everything away for the following service was Communion would be distributed.

I thought some of the emphases on the detail were a little pedantic and the pastor pretty much said that all he cared about was making sure things were where they were supposed to be for the service, but the lady who headed the guild insisted that everything be properly presented to the very last detail. It was actually very educational for me. A lot of energy and effort goes into making sure a Divine Service has everything the liturgy needs and that everything be presentable.

 

[NewCreation435]

Well, right now, I just usher. I haven't been asked to lector for awhile now and I guess I'm not needed in that capacity at the moment. In the past, in Jacksonville, I worked with the Altar Guild, I even helped distribute Communion and I read for the congregation. When I got back home, I did a couple of weeks at VBS as a teacher and I volunteered for Christian Ed as a Sunday School teacher for a few months. I spent a lot of time as a Church Council Secretary ( I just finished my run recently and the position is now held by the wife of one of our elders).

I'm not sure what being on the altar guild means?

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

I'm not sure what being on the altar guild means?

It's something that usually only the ladies of a parish would do. They put the cloth on the altar and arrange the appropriate materials on the altar, including the elements for Holy Communion. Hope Lutheran Church in Jacksonville was a mission parish when my ex wife and I went and so everybody needed to contribute however best they could ( there were maybe a dozen people who would attend on any given Sunday) and for me, part of that involved working on the Guild. Now that I'm back home, attending a regular parish, the women have charge of the Altar Guild and I just do little things like usher, or maybe help out when I'm asked to in helping to get certain spaces ready for events, that sort of thing.

 

[Lamb]

That's when I was still married. My wife and I put all the communion wafers into the paten, arranged the Bible stand and the Bible on the Altar ( after we put the altar cloth on the altar just so.. the details were a little harrowing for me, but important to our supervisor), squirted the wine into the Communion cups and put some of that wine into the chalice. After the service, I'd go out and pour the wine onto the ground, we'd collect the Altar supplies, roll up the cloth and put everything away for the following service was Communion would be distributed.

I thought some of the emphases on the detail were a little pedantic and the pastor pretty much said that all he cared about was making sure things were where they were supposed to be for the service, but the lady who headed the guild insisted that everything be properly presented to the very last detail. It was actually very educational for me. A lot of energy and effort goes into making sure a Divine Service has everything the liturgy needs and that everything be presentable.

I've never been on the Altar Guild but I know the ladies who have served and they treated their duties with reverence The Lord's body and blood deserves all those nitpicky details I think, don't you?

 

[Confessional Lutheran]

I've never been on the Altar Guild but I know the ladies who have served and they treated their duties with reverence The Lord's body and blood deserves all those nitpicky details I think, don't you?

Knowing now what I didn't know then, I do indeed, Lammchen.