Worship Whys Wednesday: Lay Ministers, Music, and Juice vs. Wine

Lay Ministry Training Program
What training is necessary for becoming a Lay Minister?
Our ELCA synod, the North/West Michigan Synod, sponsors the Lay Ministry Training Program to help better equip laypeople for leadership roles within their congregations. While Hope's Lay Ministers are most visible as worship leaders and assistants, graduates of the program can and do serve in any number of support positions within congregations, based on their talents and interests -- small-group leaders, hospital and shut-in visitors, youth programs, music programs -- as well as helping with mission start-ups, providing help to congregations who are between pastors, serving in local jail chaplaincies or other special ministries. Graduates of the program are commissioned by their congregations and serve under the direction of their pastors.

The Lay Ministry Training Program is a three-year course of study that consists of quarterly weekend (Friday-Saturday) retreats plus independent study and one-day skill-days in between retreats. The retreats involve biblical studies taught by visiting ELCA seminary professors; Lutheran theology and various ministry skill sessions led by pastors, LMTP graduates or others; small-group discussions and sharing; worship; and meals. Skill days, held on Saturdays, are more intensive seminars on special topics like leading small groups, children's ministry and ministry to the sick and bereaved. These classes are held all around the geographical area of the synod, in order to evenly distribute travel logistics and cost, and discounted lodging is arranged for students in these communities. (If you have alternate lodging options like staying at a local friend's or relative's while you're attending a retreat, or if commuting is an economical option, that's okay too.) Students are evaluated during their training/candidacy process by LMTP mentors and coordinators.

Tuition for the LMTP is $100 per year, plus the cost of lodging, travel and books. Non-student spouses may attend classes and activities with students, but must pay for their own lodging.  Full and partial scholarships are available to qualified persons. Persons can join the program at any time during the year. There are no special academic prerequisites for admission. Admission involves submitting an application and pastoral reference, and an essay describing one's faith journey and reasons for wishing to enter the program. For more information about LMTP, visit its website ...and talk to one of our Lay Ministers, to learn their own impressions/experiences.

Choosing Hymns
Who picks the hymns for Sunday worship?
Our Worship Committee, which includes our organists and other individuals interested in worship, do the lion's share of worship planning, which includes hymn selection. They are helped in this task by Sundays and Seasons, an ELCA publication available to congregations, that among other things provides suggestions for hymns and other worship music for each Sunday in the Church year. (If you visit this coming Sunday's page on the excellent website http://www.textweek.com/and scroll down the page, you'll find an ecumenical collection of similar lectionary-based resources.)

As we noted in last week's Worship Whys, in Lutheran worship, as in other liturgical church traditions,  hymns and other music aren't selected purely on a random, "because we like it" basis, and aren't treated  merely as sort of a pleasant musical interlude between parts of the service; the musical selections speak to the themes of the Church season in which they fall and to the themes of a particular week's Scripture lessons, so that all parts of the service work together in a cohesive way. Worship planners also have the daunting, and often thankless, task of trying to make musical selections on any given Sunday meaningful for diverse worship participants with varying tastes, musical skill levels and backgrounds. Our Worship Commitee, by the way, is always looking for faithful, creative people to help it in its task; if you'd like to help them, contact a member, or come to a Committee meeting.

Grape Expectations
Why do we serve apple [sic] juice as a Communion option, if that's supposed to be the Blood of Christ?
Well, first of all, it isn't apple juice; it's white grape juice -- "fruit of the vine" like our wine.
But why do we at Hope, and other Lutheran Christians, even offer that option at all, instead of saying, "Here's the wine -- take it or leave it"? Because we want to balance respect for the historical practice of the Church both with our trust in the working of the Word in the Sacrament and with loving concern for persons who, for whatever reason, cannot/do not drink alcohol, even in the small amounts involved in Holy Communion. At the same time, we also want to uphold our own Lutheran historical practice of offering both Communion elements to everyone who takes part. If we must err while offering the Sacrament, we want to err on the side of grace and inclusion.
We use a lighter colored juice for our non-alcoholic option so that it's more easily distinguishable from the wine. (The color of Eucharistic wine itself, by the way, falls under the category of adiaphora -- which, as we learned last week, is fancy church talk for "doesn't matter," even in more conservative Christian traditions like the Roman Catholic Church.)

Worship Word of the Week: Alb. The alb is the white robe worn by the pastor and assisting minister.

Do you have a question about the way Lutherans do worship?  Post them here, or on our Facebook page, or e-mail them to hopeinrhodes@gmail.com.