A lot of people assume that planting a liturgical church is the kiss of death. “Do the contemporary thing, it’ll draw in the young people” they say. But planting a liturgical church is doable and its dividends are great, though it takes some up-front planning. So here are some tips:
- Prepare your launch team to sing in parts and be familiar with your music (hymns and Psalms) before you officially launch the church. There is nothing sadder than seeing a poorly executed liturgical service.
- Since you will likely be in a rented facility, create a “church on the go” with a collapsible but high-quality wood pulpit and communion table. Tower Stool made a custom communion table for us that folds up into a 4 inch wide package that fits in any trunk and they can do puplits or lecturns too.
- Buy a good-quality basic set of paraments (runners and scarfs) in the four basic colors (green, purple, white red). This splash of color will draw the eye toward the center of activity, the communion table. I like Chagall Design. They are a Catholic supply house but have great prices and great quality products. Most Protestant-oriented church supply houses seem to have their much cheaper products made in China. Marc Chagall makes his products right here in Los Angeles and if you call him or visit him, he probably has some very affordable clearance items available.
- Purchase high-quality, and if possible, stoles that match your paraments (here you can see matching table runner, puplit scarf and patoral stole). Again Chagall Design is the place to go. I got some very nice wide stoles that would run me about $200-$300 from the regular suppliers but paid under $50.
- Obtain some high-quality, war-like banners for the front of the sacred space you are creating. We purchased our banners without artwork at Praise Banners and then added our own artwork (shown here before and after) because the stock artwork was cartoonish and did not convey the vigor that we wanted. You probably have an artist in your congregation that can do a bang-up job. Why not something really different? How about a banner that has a sandaled foot crushing a serpents head with Genesis 3:15 next to it? Can’t find that one at the banner shop!
- Rehearse your liturgy several times before your launch date. This is, after all, a command performance before the King.
- Keep your liturgy fast-paced, loud, and vigorous. Err on the side of shortness when laying out your order of service. You don’t have throw everything in now, you have years to grow into it.
At the end of the day you’ll have a more cohesive and mature church. Your beefy liturgy and worship is creating a substantial symbolically-oriented culture which will act as pivot for your parishioner’s lives.
Garrett,
I run into a similar refrain with new churches, in that they put off much of the “high church” aspect of their worship, even though they may want to move in that direction, because of their meeting room. They say that they will start to kneel when they have kneelers, or that they will wear vestments when the room is appropriate.
At first I thought this was reasonable, but the more I think about it, the more I think it is backwards. The church-plant stage of a congregation is when it really develops its identity. If it goes three or four years until it can purchase a building (which is really quite an optimistic schedule) then it will have already developed a style and direction. Instituting change later will come with resistance and perhaps even confusion.
Do you have any advice for encouraging young congregations to go for it, even if they’re meeting in a store-front or conference room?
One rule of thumb is that no matter where your church finds itself worshipping, it should, as far as possible, look like a visible manifestation of heaven on earth. In that sense it will and should look weird and other-worldly and people inately know this. If your congregation can catch that vision, you’re there.
While the two are not mutually exclusive, I wonder if focusing on liturgy to the extent that you forget about love/community is a possible danger.
I guess it’s a concern about whether to focus on style over substance. I imagine that’s a concern with any church plant.
Pete,
Liturgy should be a visible expression of our love for community. We are royalty and priests interceding on behalf of the world through our worship. In addition, the liturgy should not be an end in itself but as the Divine Service ends with commissioning, we are commissioned, in part to carry out visible acts of love/community which should include a Lord’s Day full of communal feasting and begin a week of service to our community.
Hope that helps.
As a Continuing Anglican priest, I have had nearly 30 years experience in “starting up a liturgical church.” I have done it, in fact four times. Three of them are thriving today.
1. Get over the fetish about singing in parts. IF you have the musical expertise, it’s nice. But the only real liturgical music, plainchant, is never harmonized and is sung a capella.
2. As for kneelers: go to a carpet store and ask them for the samples they throw away. Stack these two or three deep to make an improvised hassock. (Hassocks are more “liturgical” than kneelers fixed to pews anyhow.)
3. Don’t waste any money with church supply houses; they are ALL a bunch of crooks. Take their catalogues, rip out pictures of what you want, cut off the price info, and take to
a local cabinet maker or amateur furniture builder. You’ll be delighted with the results as well as the savings.
4. Don’t get hung up on liturgical colors for paraments. Keep it simple! Better to have an all-seasons frontal for starters. Liturgical colors have very shallow historical roots.
5. Put your money into quality altar silver: STERLING only for chalice, paten, and ciborium. But you can get suitable glass cruets at KMart.
6. Insist on SILENCE in the meeting place before worship.
You cannot have genuine Christian liturgy after a gab-fest.
“the only real liturgical music, plainchant, is never harmonized and is sung a capella.”
The use of musical instruments is a sing of the coming of the kingdom of God, beginning with King David. The Bible’s hymnbook commands us to use instruments (e.g., Psalm 150; do you really want to sing that a capella?). The angels in Revelation use instruments. I would say that according to the Bible, the only real liturgical music in the kingdom is that which is accompanied (loudly) with musical instruments.
“Insist on SILENCE in the meeting place before worship.
You cannot have genuine Christian liturgy after a gab-fest.”
Why? Because liturgy is supposed to quiet and contemplative? Israelites went to worship in a loud procession with music and dancing. Why shouldn’t we do the same? It would probably be better to have music before the liturgy begins that will draw people into the S/spirit of the occasion.
Good idea about the carpet squares to assist in kneeling.
I’m going to have to agree with Mike about the silence thing. I encourage people to gab and visit and enjoy one another before the service. I just don’t understand why noisy, social interaction before the service detracts from worship. We come to worship as a body, not as individuals. The silence tradition seems to ignore the corporate nature of worship. Know who’s sitting next to you. How can that happen when everyone comes into the service in silence?
“Get over the fetish about singing in parts. IF you have the musical expertise, it’s nice.”
Well, we have the expertise (we went out of way to acquire it) because, yes, we thinks it’s more than “nice.” We also sing loudly in parts because it demontrates a level of musical progression (and we’re all about moving from point A to point Z) and it allows one to hear the different parts of the congregation (including those manly basses) all woven into one glorious tapestry. Sorta like the Sea Chanters singing for war. Out here in Los Angeles its also one of the most counter-cultural things you can do…trying to sound beautiful and glorious.
This is ludicrous and not even true in Anglican circles where even chant can be sung four-part.
The last thing Presbyterian and/or Reformed church planters want to do is *always* or *necessarily* emulate what might be the case in Anglican environments. Spending big money, for example, on a single cup and the accouterments of Oxford Movement like altar vessels and the like is not going to make you more or less liturgical. Nor is it likely going to make you any truer to an English or Western liturgical tradition.
I think it needs to be said that all church plants are liturgical in one form or another–the question is how do liturgical churches with any sort of connection to the older Western liturgies do these things.
For one thing, there’s no need to think you must purchase everything up front. Paraments are made for particular parts of the year and usually come double-sided for two separate parts of the year. Buy the Lenten/Trinity paraments first if funds are limited and buy the other colors as needed. Not all the commercial church supply houses are bad and sometimes convenience has to be weighed over and above what a custom shop might take time to do. But, prices aren’t always high–you just need to have the freedom to watch for the right deals. I purchased, for example, a $350-$400 pulpit from one of the houses for $25. We’re still using just a normal wooden table for communion and likely will for the near future. Don’t think everything has to be custom made or bought from somewhere for you to do things right.
Your liturgy doesn’t have to be perfect nor should you think it is somehow unchangeable.
I have to wonder though whether “practicing” a liturgy is really necessary and if you haven’t been in ministry long enough that you’ve got to go through the steps of a liturgy in a rehearsal before you can do it live–I wonder whether or not you’re really cut out to pastor a church plant. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with practicing a liturgy–it seems to me that there could be a temptation to concentrate on this too much while ignoring other more important concerns.
In regards to the music–keep it simple at first. If you have people who are musically talented than by all means engage in the use of singing with parts. Hire an accompanist as soon as you absolutely can. But go slow and realize that even after two years you’re likely not going to have your traditions set in stone to the point that the people will be expecting things to be this or that way. Think about ways to use instruments in worship–start the service, for example, by having a piper play from the back (and possibly even outside due to the noise level of the pipes in a standard building).
Don’t be afraid to put money into accompanists, instrumentalists, and leaders–in fact, if I had any advice worth hearing what I would tell you is spend more of your money in music than in anything else. Teach the people inside and outside the context of worship–treat them like a choir and train them. If you can’t do it, find someone who can.
What is most important as far as I’m concerned is that you are genuine in your liturgical actions. Don’t adopt a form of worship that merely looks good on paper or that you’ve seen in a book somewhere. If you’re not committed to the liturgical worship you’re engaging in every week, the people will notice it and you will have the sort of lack of enthusiasm in your church that is so easy for an outsider to see but so hard for those on the inside to diagnose and remedy.
“I have to wonder though whether “practicing” a liturgy is really necessary and if you haven’t been in ministry long enough that you’ve got to go through the steps of a liturgy in a rehearsal before you can do it live–I wonder whether or not you’re really cut out to pastor a church plant.”
Don’t worry Kevin, we’re doing just fine and growing nicely and are not a little Anglican hobbyist’s boutique church. I’m not a young, inexperienced chap. The practicing was not for me but for the congregation (which initially came from non-liturgical backgrounds). Its called a dry-run.
Hmmm. Okay. I think I catch a little sarcasm in your comments here. Am I wrong? I wasn’t really personally directing my remarks to you or your church–sorry if it came out that way. I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing from the beginning (to the extent that you’ve had it on the web) and have always been thoroughly impressed.
I once knew a Baptist pastor who decided that his congregation needed to be liturgized. As one would expect, he enthusiastically promoted all the usual non-essential externals. In the final weeks of Trinity Season, he taught his faithful how to make Advent wreaths, as the topic of Wednesday night “Bible study.” On the Wednesday after Advent I, he asked them if they remembered to light one candle on the appropriate Sunday. They told him that they had truly tried so do do, but the candles kept falling out when they hung the wreaths on their front doors.
It is good to see Protestants trying to rediscover a theology of worship, but truly pathetic to observe them borrowing things without understanding their significance.
Mike F: you didnt get my point about musical instruments. Musical instruments are great when played well. But when you are in a storefront or makeshift situation (as I have been, on four different situations), it is better to sing a capella than to have a bad electronic organ badly.
Kevin: learn the difference between Plainchant and Anglican chant. You are, frankly, dear brother, out of your depth in this discussion. I quite agree with your point that the Reformed should not imitate Anglican habits (many of which Anglicans should discard). But then you turn around and start yammering about paraments and liturgical colors. You are confused.
Whoa, I’m sensing a little sarcasm here. I don’t know who Rev. Wells is, but he’s come here and offered some comments based on experience. Let’s avoid calling remarks “stupid” or saying “such a great liturgist.”
There’s only one great liturgist here, and that’s ME!!
A few more ideas that, hopefully, will be helpful:
The Anglican church we are members of is only three years old. Our priest bought (out of his own pocket) most of the stuff from eBay for really good prices — paraments, vestments, the chalice et cetera.
When we first began we met in an American Legion building so we had to bring most of our own furnishings — altar rails, communion table. The communion table was built by a member and was nothing fancy, but that didn’t matter since it was fully covered by a white linen cloth. I believe the communion rails were donated by an older church, as were our 1928 prayer books and 1942 hymnals.
For kneelers we use upholstered, foam seat cushions (we’re renting space from a Methodist church now and still have to bring our own kneelers). These were donated by a member and are rather pricier than the very good suggestion to use carpet scraps, but they have the advantage of being light and easily stored away by our children after service.
At the American Legion building we had two banners, both shield-shaped and about 3′ x 5′ — one of St. Andrew’s Cross (because of our historic connection with Scotland — the first American Anglican bishop, Samuel Seabury, was consecrated in Scotland) and one with our denom’s crest.
Hope that helps anyone else just starting out come up with some ideas of how to make do nicely. I would never have guessed that nearly everything we used was secondhand (besides the prayer books and hymnals of course!).
[...] planting has been on my mind lately, and as I was reading through some stuff online I came across a helpful post by Garrett Craw that I first ready about a year [...]