Lectionary leanings

As part of this placement, I am to learn how to use the lectionary. Having used the lectionary for services since on co-ordinated field assessment, this wasn't too much of a leap. My home church also uses lectionary-based resources, which cover worship and every age of their young church. So, as as a young church leader there, I was used to using usually using the lectionary.

I think it will be my default setting. It saves me always preaching on what I want to, rather than what I need to preach on. It will encourage (force) me to use the difficult parts of the bible, parts I may ignore or avoid as they don't 'fit' with my idea of God etc. It means, if the young church (or Sunday School, if you must..) can have resources which tie in with what is going on in the rest of the service (if they leave after the children's address).

There are other reasons, but those are, for me, the most important. Of those, the service tying in with young church I think is especially important. The minister (or who ever is leading the children's address) merely needs to introduce the theme, that then feeds into the rest of the service and the young church time. The depth behind that introduction can then be taught to everyone at a level they can relate to, adults and children. There are some things which aren't especially useful to discuss with children around (there are some very brutal things in the bible, lets face it). It takes the pressure off the minister getting a teaching point across to the children. What a 12 year old will understand and a 3 year old are very different (though I have had some of the most profound insights for the latter). By introducing the theme to the children, the young church leaders can get the message across in an appropriate way. That enables the children, gives them a great spiritual depth (believe me, I have sen this as a young church leader) and their leaders. The leaders feel they are part of the teaching and worship team (as worship for the children continues in young church). And, perhaps most importantly, the young church is an important part of the worship and fellowship of the church, not a place to dump the children while the grown-ups talk about things they can't with them around.

So, I will prefer to use the lectionary and hope a church will use (or be willing to use) resources for the whole church so they are all singing from the same hymn sheet (so to speak). There will be times it's not appropriate, though I would always see what the lectionary had. There are times where I may wish to run a series or services on a particular theme. Then, I would work with the young church leaders to ensure what was going on in the service could tie in with them, though they may be happy using the resources they had. The children would be fine, as they would already have that spiritual depth (and often get to the message when I've barely started!) because of the lessons in the past.