Growing Disciples Monthly Reflections are written by a variety of leaders across our synod, as such the language reflects the individual's personal theology. We give thanks to Pastor Shellie Kinght-Senglaub, Pastor at Prince of Peace Freeport for this month's reflection on worship.
When you visit Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Freeport, IL as you come in through the main entrance, on the wall to your right you will find a huge handmade wooden sign with our tagline: Gathered and Sent to Share the Peace and Serve the Lord. Gathered…Sent…Share Peace…Serve the Lord. To me it shouts, “Come and See!” as if pointing to the sanctuary where we worship and figure out what all that means and how to do it.
Growing up, going to church was a non-negotiable in my parents’ house. We went every Sunday dressed in our best. In rural Iowa, it felt more like a weekly family reunion because most of us were related in some distant way or another. I remember hearing the scripture read, the pastor preaching, my grandmother singing hymns, kneeling at the rail for communion or a blessing, and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. I sang in the youth choir, went to Sunday School classes, and was confirmed there. It seemed like I had the gathered part all figured out, and I honestly thought that was all being a Christian required of me. I certainly had no idea about being sent, sharing the peace, or serving the Lord outside of those stone and stained-glass walls. Even still, I made sure that my kids were brought to church, baptized, taught the creed and prayers, communed, and confirmed. They learned about Jesus the same way that I did.
The church we attended had the same basic parts of worship. We gathered, listened to the Word, shared in the meal of Holy Communion, were blessed, and dismissed (sent). That was it. I still didn’t know what to do with what Jesus commanded his disciples – and us – to do: feed my sheep (John 21:15-17), love one another (John 13:34-35; 15:12), go and make disciples (Matthew 28:19). And I learned that after doing all the churchy things, my children had no idea either. It turns out having a living faith meant more than memorizing the ten commandments, creeds, and the Lord’s Prayer. What was I missing?
We wanted to be disciples – people who learned from and followed Jesus in our ordinary daily lives, and we needed worship to help us get there. Fortunately, years later, I joined another congregation with a pastor that helped me to experience worship in a different way. Sunday morning worship went from being a punctuation point at the end of my week to the starting point of my week. I was gathered into a faith community, washed in the remembrance of my baptism, nourished in spirit through the hearing of the Word, nourished in body through the Holy Meal, and then prepared to go and live among God’s people on purpose for the common good. My faith changed from having a personal relationship with Jesus to embodying the love of Jesus and serving my neighbor. One Sunday morning, while going through the communion line with my then 3-year-old granddaughter, when passed over from receiving the host, shouted, “but I’m hungry too!” Such a profound statement by a young person who already knew that she and the world needed Jesus.
In Gordon Lathrops book, Central Things: Worship in Word and Sacrament (2005 Augsburg Fortress) Lathrop explains the four “central things” to the Lutheran traditional worship: Bath, table, Word, and prayers which are the parts of worship that draw us, the assembly, to focus on one thing at the center – Jesus Christ in whom, through whom, and with whom we encounter God’s life-giving Spirit, forgiveness, and freedom, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the world.
Considering my experience as a young person in the church and little Emma’s words, while watching the number of youth in worship dwindle across many denominations and some Sunday School doors close indefinitely, I put my focus on enriching worship so that each child learned what this whole gathered and sent thing meant in their lives as disciples of Christ. Turns out we all needed a refresher.
Worship gathers us into community to be reminded of our belonging and belovedness. Worship nourishes us through the Word and the meal for our journey of faith. Worship reminds us of our baptismal vocation, being who God created us to be as agents of justice, peace, healing, and mercy. And with our Savior’s words, “follow me,” we are sent out into the world to serve God by loving our neighbor. Discipleship begins in worship. Gathered and Sent to Share the Peace and Serve the Lord.
