Rev. Sarah Schurr  0:00  
Welcome to Meaningful Worship in Small Congregations. I'm the Reverend Sarah Movius Schurr from the Pacific Western Region of the UUA.

What is worship? Well, it's holding up and giving life. The shape of what is most worthy. It comes from the Old English word worth shaping. Worship as a chance to be together and to gain energy and inspiration. Worship is not necessarily bowing down to a deity. It can be, but it could be so many other things. Worship is important to our UU congregations. Worship brings the community together. Worship is what distinguishes us from other groups and gatherings, like a college course, or a club. Worship inspires us and strengthens us. And worship is where we show who we are and what we believe. The fellowship used to be for learning. In years past, people came to the Unitarian congregation to learn new things, from world religions to recycling. I understand that in the days of the Fellowship Movement, there were a lot of geology lectures that happened on Sunday morning. Lay led groups often relied on local civic leaders and professors to give informative talks on Sunday mornings. Well, today, people are flooded with information. With all that's available on the internet, they don't need to come to a Unitarian Universalist congregation to learn new things. In fact, people are barraged with information all day. Now the needs are different. Needs are changing, people now come to a place to seek hope, a way to make meaning in their lives. They have all this information they want to make meaning out of it. And they want spirituality without dogma. So one of the things that's important to do is provide contemplation and beauty in our services to help with that. Always do a lighting of a chalice, include readings on many kinds of sources, music and other arts and be sure it includes time for meditation, and silence. I recommend you have a Unitarian Universalist Minister speak on a regular basis, at least once a month if you can, have a UU speaker in your worship service. This helps ground our services in our UU faith. It also can set a good example for your lay lead worship services. It is that even a full time Minister usually does not preach every week in their church. So that even if you have full time staff, you may have guest ministers or lay lead services every once in a while. Yes, ministers can come to you in person, or they can come to you online speaking online. In fact, the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association published a long list last year of ministers who are happy to do online services for you. You can watch services recorded at another congregation. During the pandemic many congregations got in the habit and practice of making recorded services that are available online. And if you get permission of course you need to get permission, you'll be able to stream one of their services to your congregation. And you can use pre recorded services from the UUA. Many of the regions have created plug and play services that you can use a your congregation when needed. Of course lay lead worship still has its place. Absolutely. Offer lay lead services that have spiritual depth. Avoid services that sound or feel too much like a college classroom. Worship should inspire that you'd comfort and it should help people to make meaning. And aim your worship at the entire person the whole person comes to worship. Speak to the emotional, with stirring music, moving stories. The intellectual - pondering new ideas. The active self - worship that inspires people to act in the world. The spiritual self with meditations rituals, and times of silence. Good worship is in an arc. It has a beginning and a middle and an end. And you can think of it like a sandwich. Begin with something that's easy to wrap your hands around, or your mind around, something like a piece of music, slideshow, brings people together. Put the challenging and transcending material in the center. That's where you put the rituals or the sermons. And then finish with something empowering and uplifting. Maybe some, some creative movement or some singing of a hymn together. Creating worship can be faith formation for a lot of people. Helping to create and lead worship can be a unique spiritual practice for some Unitarian Universalists. Worship design can be fulfilling for some members, it's a chance to really look at worship and how to help people make meaning and how to discover for yourself what matters to you. One of the great ways to do lay led worship is with a this, I believe, program. These can be great, especially when they are about what you believe, rather than what you reject. And I like to base them on some of the big questions of systematic theology. You can do these preparations in a group or class, work on the questions together. And then services would have a sermon made up of two people speaking for 10 to 12 minutes each, covering two or three of these big questions. What's great about these programs, is they can show the diversity of beliefs that might surprise you that we have in our congregations. For instance, some people believe in reincarnation, some people believe in heaven and some people believe that when you're when you're done with your life, you're just done. It's interesting to see the diversity of opinions within our communities. For each question the speaker can consider what do I myself believe and respond to this question? How does this belief impact how I live? How do I know what I know? Why do I believe this thing? And how does one of my beliefs fit well with the other beliefs? Do I have some inconsistency within my belief system? Well, here are some of those big questions. The big questions of systematic theology. Some of them include, number one, is there any kind of god, goddess, source of all, Jedi force, unifying energy, higher power? If so, how would you describe it? Two, what is the nature of human beings? Are people born good or bad? Do we stay that way? What changes us for the better or the worse? Number three, does our life have meaning? What is the point of our existence? What should or can we do to lead a good and meaningful life? Four, what is the nature of evil? Why do people do bad things? What can we do about it? What should we do when we have done wrong? Five, what happens to us after we die? How does this inform how we live? Six, who am I to use as an example of a well lived life? Who inspires you or provides a good role model? And last but not least, what is the purpose and nature of the church, temple, fellowship, religious organization? Why do we gather this way? What should we do there? What is the role of your congregation in the world? I recommend you consider having a "This I Believe" Series. Do one This I Believe service every month for instance, ask people of different ages and different backgrounds. You could even do a lay pulpit exchange with another congregation doing This I Believe programs, you can hear their best speakers and they can hear yours. It can be really fun. I also recommend a lay led service that I call the group of three sermons. Three speakers each share their own stories from our UU faith on a common topic. Each speaker speaks for five minutes. Now these are not panel discussions. These are three people each spending about five minutes speaking from the heart

Examples include three different people telling how they live their UU faith in their job every day. Maybe do that on Labor Day, or three different generations of veterans, talking on Veterans Day about how their own military experience impacted their beliefs about the world. I've also seen these with different parents speaking on Mother's Day or Father's Day, or people talking about their hobbies, and how they are informed by and inform their beliefs. There's a lot to work with. And don't forget those special services for special times. You can do child dedication services to welcome new little ones into your community. Coming of Age ceremonies to celebrate those, those kids who have finished the coming of age programs, and should be celebrated for their efforts, and the new stage in life. Bridging high school youth into adulthood at graduation season. And then things like when you move to a new home, a building dedication. Or those wonderful new member welcome ceremonies. And a new one I've seen in the last few years. The blessing was of the backpacks at the beginning of the school year, so that our children can carry our blessings with them to school every day. And then there are those special rituals of transcendence. The Unitarian Flower Service brought to us by Norbert Chopak, the gathering of waters often happening at homecoming services in the fall. Many congregations now do Tis a Prayer Services with chants, and candles. Remember, lay lead services can have depth. When people speak from the heart about their own experiences. When the celebrant honors the nature of worship, and when this worship is grounded in our faith. Now worship web can help. Worship web is a wonderful web page from the UUA. It has good readings on lots of different topics, including entire sermons. There's music resources, including pre recorded music, lots and lots and lots of holiday ideas. And this is a service of the UUA there are no additional fees. It's part of the UUA webpage. And these are all carefully selected services and readings. There's really good stuff in there. Worship Lab is part of Worship Web. It specifically is a section to help equip and inspire worship leaders. And it is good at helping with planning for meaningful worship series. Helping get things organized to. And then there's Leader Lab, don't forget Leader Lab another part of our webpage that has good resources, information on using zoom and other technology, video engagement ideas, welcoming and accessibility practices, COVID safety guidelines. This is another service of the UUA. I recommend a book by the Reverend Erica Hewitt called "The Shared Pulpit". It can help coach lay leaders to discover preaching from new depths and it makes a fantastic adult religious education program to help to cultivate a group of skilled worship leaders. Theme based ministry is a big help to a lot of congregations. Each month has a theme and all the worship, religious education and programming is in keeping with that theme. Themes might include stuff like change, wonder, risk, presents. And there are theme based ministry services. You're sent a sermon, materials, readings, religious education programming, discussion questions, all kinds of resources on that theme. And of course, you can supplement with your own resources on that theme. And you pay a subscription fee to get these services, to have this stuff sent to you. Here are two popular UU subscription services for theme based ministry. One is Soul Matters. The other is Touchstones. I've heard good things about both of them. I also recommend sharing with other congregations, you are not alone. You can do joint serve services, joint zoom services with another UU group or joint services together in person. You can use video services from other congregations, again, please get their permission before using their services, but many congregations are willing to share. You can take a field trip in person or on Zoom to go to another congregation's services. And you can share staff, whether it's music staff, or or a minister, sharing staff is a great way for a small congregation to have really great help. And remember that your support makes all the services possible. Thank you for contributing to the Annual Program Fund, whether it's Worship Web, Leader Lab, UUA publications or consultation from UUA staff. All this is brought to you through the generosity of congregations paying to the Annual Program Fund. Thank you very much for your generosity.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai