Better than books?

[Laird MacGregor]

I'm serving as vicar of a small (35-40 ASA) mission church in Western Kansas. The congregation is older (most regulars 60 and over) and quite traditional in its worship preference.

I've been here 18 months, and have initiated a host of things trying not only to boost membership but also attendance -- if all of our regulars were more "regular" in their participation, ASA could easily approach 50, perhaps even 60. That has not happened, yet, though feedback to what I/we are doing is generally quite positive.

However, through drips and drabs that have come out of larger conversations, I have become convinced that one of the obstacles to growth in worship, both in attendance and in the meaning it holds for people, is all the book- and insert-juggling we make people do. At present, we offer a bulletin with order of service and the lectionary texts, an insert with at least two pieces of service music (which changes about once every six weeks), the Prayer Book and Hymnal, plus we generally use one hymn per week from either Wonder, Love and Praise, or Lift Every Voice and Sing II. Obviously, that's a lot to balance, even for someone who's intimately familiar with our liturgy. But I don't want to minimize further our use of the alternate hymnals because people seem to genuinely enjoy what they have to offer.

Also, I have resisted the move to an "all-inclusive" service bulletin because of the cost in money and time (my secretary works just 10 hours a week) to produce such a tome.

One of my members is a bit of a tech junkie, and, with my blessing, has been looking into the possibility of installing a video setup of some sort in the nave, to provide a so-called "paperless" prayer book and hymnal. The building itself is ideally suited for such a setup, as it is fairly contemporary in design and there's a wealth of open wall space behind and above the altar. But, of course, the traditionalists would likely go into open revolt if such a setup were even discussed (a very old-style hymn board was recently moved onto that wall, and I'm still cleaning up the fallout from that, despite the fact that it is now visible from every seat in the church, whereas in its previous location it could be seen clearly only from about 75% of the seats.)

So ... I'm wondering if anyone in the group has had any experience and/or luck with electronics in the worship space, how it was dealt with, etc. etc. Or are there any other suggestions that might minimize all the book-juggling. As much as I love all the extant texts we use for worship, I can appreciate how intimidating that might be to guests and/or newcomers.

Thanks in advance for your consideration and input.

Fr. Laird MacGregor
St. Anne's Episcopal Church
McPherson, KS

[Karen Ward]

We have no 'Episcopal shuffle' (H82, BCP, leaflet) at COTA in Seattle, and older folk love it as well. They call our projections a 'big print BCP.' So no books.

On occasion we use one paper sheet (when we go retro) maybe 10 times a year, but mostly projections each week.
We have a liturgy guild made up of lay members with a clergy advisor to plan liturgies seasonally.
We make a 'script' for leaders each week and through-compose the liturgy ourselves based on the BCP ordo as our 'typikon' and we post the weekly liturgy script online at Google Docs to collaborate on fine tuning it up until Friday afternoon when the script is 'locked' and printed for leaders only. The people have nothing in their hands.

[Jason Wells]

I'd say that the projector thought is an issue of stewardship and evangelism. Evangelism in that newcomers find better welcome with The Shuffle. Stewardship in the sense that fewer papers get printed and trashed/recycled. There are also no readings sheets to order and have shipped cross-country. If you want to put music in them, there's the time and some cost of securing copyrights.

The small parish I serve (60 ASA), however, might balk at the startup costs of adding a laptop and projector. Have you run into that yet or is that already settled?

Last year, our diocesan convention had a U2charist with a great use of PowerPoint--the best I've seen in a worship setting. In addition to the liturgical and musical texts, they projected a Pantokrator icon during the Eucharistic Prayer. It opens up a lot of opportunities that you can't do with leaflets.

[Frank Logue]

We do a full copy of the liturgy and all music for the principal Sunday service and it has been helpful to us. King of Peace is a church plant that was created to reach people with no church whether Episcopalian or liturgical church in background or not and so this commitment mattered and it has payed off. I also helped plant a church in seminary that projected the liturgy and that worked well.

But remind them that this is not a new practice. Go into a colonial church and you will find the creed and the Lord's Prayer on large plaques on either wide of the altar, where it helped the congregation who didn't necessarily have prayer books with the two longest parts of the liturgy said by the congregation. You are just proposing a version of that that updates through the service. Perhaps it's more old school and less radical than they think.

[Paige Blair]

I love this reminder, Frank, of the Creed and Lord's Prayer on the wall... What music: an "emergent" being able to say, "We've always done it this way... no, really!" Happily we have a local example of the same across the river in Portsmouth, NH... I will be tucking this away for sure...

Peace,
Paige

[Karen Ward]

Frank, how old is King of Peace?

[Frank Logue]

I began work as a Church Planter on June 1, 2000. We held our first public worship service on Christmas Eve 2000. I feel like I just began, but I guess we are getting on in years now.

[Karen Ward]

You have a beautiful space. We are 5 year old at COTA, Seattle.

[Karen Ward]

This is another forum conversation to start on the TEC group page.
I'm interested on funding was developed for you church plant and physical plant.
I will email you direct on this.

[Jason Wells]

Ten hours of secretarial time sounds great to me too!

Yes, there are plenty of places for projectors to go wrong, even with an expert running things. But, there's plenty of spots where the multitude of service sheets and books go wrong as well. Books go missing or lose pages. Service sheets give wrong page numbers or accidentally list next week's hymns or readings. Print is too small for some eyes. Pastors decide to change Eucharistic Prayers at the last second.

But, we manage to muddle through and tolerate the mistakes. We seem less tolerant of errors with projections or at least aren't quite as used to them. Is this a difference in the two media? Is it just culture shock? I'm at a BCPs-and-service-sheets congregation now--are there folks who live in the world of projection who can talk about the transition?

BTW, thanks for the Evensong format sheet. That's pretty handy and we might adapt it for our use.

[Becky Robbins-Penniman]

Good Morning, Laird-
First, blessings on your ministry!
I'm serving a much larger congregation, but we have some of the same issues. We have 5 services per weekend, two of which are "traditional" liturgies held in traditional space. Our contemporary and alternative services are held in a multipurpose building . However, BOTH spaces have electronic interfaces, including power point screens, even the traditional church nave.

We, too, wanted to get rid of the books/inserts at the traditional liturgies (we never had them at the contemporary ones). For a while we printed full bulletins for the services each week, but that used a ton of resources, both in supplies and time.

What we did was to write up about 6 basic liturgies, all of which fit on one piece of 8.5x11 paper, double-sided. The liturgies are:

Eucharistic Prayer A
Eucharistic Prayer B
Advent
Christmas
Lent
Easter

We then laminated them all (laminating machines are cheap nowadays) and choose the appropriate sheet for any given day or season. During the Season after Pentecost, we rotate between A and B by month.

We print up special service bulletins a couple times per year, such as on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday.

At first we projected the lessons on the screens, but many folks wanted them in hard copy to take home, so we do provide that now. The hymns and service music are all projected on the screens - words only. For those who want the musical notations, hymnals are available in the chairs (we don't have pews, but same idea) and the hymn number is noted on the power point slide (because we don't have a hymn board).

If we have special service music that's not in the hymnal, we create a power point graphic with the musical notes, though it is time-consuming to put this together in a way large enough for folks to see clearly.

Our congregation is relatively new (founded in 1985) so we probably do not have the same dynamic of "but we've always done it this way!" as you face. Nonetheless, the people who attend traditional worship tend to be along in years, and using the screens did take some getting used to. We make a point of having a lovely graphic showing between hymns (which changes with the seasons or even relates to the lessons for the day), so that there is some real visual appeal to having the screens. I also note to folks that they sing much better when their faces are not buried in the hymnal.

So, FWIW, that 's how we stopped using a million pieces of paper. Folks get three items when they walk in: the laminated sheet, the lessons, and our printed announcements. If you choose not to print the announcements, that would eliminate one thing.

As for changing peoples' minds about how things are done, well, good luck with that. Getting buy-in from the matriarchs and patriarchs is probably the only way, but I'll leave that sort of thing to the experts at the Alban Institute.

Peace,
Becky Robbins-Penniman

[Kit Carlson]

Change is slow ... I can't imagine ever getting to screen and PP here, but we have moved to a bulletin that has all the words for the whole service, plus the service music. A separate insert has the lessons for the day and then there is an announcement insert.

The plus is that, apart from picking up one of three hymnals for the hymns, everything else you need for worship is on the one sheet.

The hymnals are now the vexing issue. Also, WLP is widely hated not because of the music, but because you have to turn pages back and forth to follow a hymn that covers two or more pages.

[Judy]

Dear Fr. MacGregor,
I'm not a clergy person, but I have been an adult Episcopalian for the last 40+ years. As I and my family have lived in various parts of the country, I've come to notice some interesting things about tiny, rural parishes: The ability of a small rural parish to accept and integrate new things seems to be a function of how old the parish church is, how well educated they are on average, and whether or not they've lived in a number of places. For example, a brand new parish was formed in the 1990s by 3 retiree households in rural Colorado where there had never been an Episcopal Church. They attracted new members regularly and eventually built a new church that is still attracting new members today. What set that fledgling group apart was not their ages (which averaged 70 years) but the facts that they were all very well educated (averaged a bachelor's degree or better), higher than average retirement income ( All on good pensions), they had all been professional white collar people, and they were worldly, having lived in multiple locations all over the US. Another factor in their success, was that they didn't have to compete with or attempt a resucitation of an existing parish. They built a new modern church with room to grow on 4 acres and did their fund raising in a very deliberate, well synchronized manner. As a result, the church which broke ground in 2002, is now completed and paid for. They are very open to and welcome new innovation.

In contrast, I'm currently in a small (ASA 20-25), ancient (128 yrs old) parish in rural Idaho, where the average age is probably 65-70 years, average education is a touch over a high school diploma, they are generally in blue collar professions with a minority in white collar, average income is the national average or below, and most haven't traveled much beyond the county line. They are still grieving the passing of the 1928 prayer book, the 1940 hymnal, and the heyday growth of the 1950's. They are emotionally attached to a tiny 1892 building that feels full with 30 people and uncomfortable with 50. We had a young energetic pastor here who tried to implement change, but they dug in their heels. They say they want to grow, but won't do the things necessary for it, they say they want a Bible study, but no one comes. They don't sing, but don't like it if there's no one to do the music.

Because of these contrasts, I'm coming to the following conclusions: Old long standing parishes that have repeatedly proved that they are determined not to grow or change, need to be honored for the presence they have maintained in the community, but not be put through the anguish they suffer when changes are thrust upon them. Give them what they really want, eucharist on Sunday and let them slowly die in peace. At the same time, encourage a church plant at another location, where people with younger, energetic spirits can grow and prosper. This maintains a presence and continuity in the community. If the two groups are forced together, the younger spirits will leave, and the church presence will eventually die in that community. I'm sure folks can find exceptions to what I've outlined, but I'm convinced that these old tiny rural congregations will not respond well to innovation.