Old First prides itself in being an open community, where all are welcome and welcome to participate as they feel called, “no matter who they are or where they are on life’s journey.”
Michael was reminded of that recently when a friend was explaining all the limitations on who can read or help lead worship in his church. Of course, it’s good to have enough handle on who is involved to provide the explanations and training so that they can do what they are undertaking well. That’s the argument for a tighter corps of worship leaders. And, probably, the weak point in our more open door policy at Old First. With us, if you feel a calling to help lead worship, you are invited to take your turn at the lectern.
That’s because we want to try to get church to focus its members on gifts and calling. Identifying your gifts and getting to know your calling. We mean the church to offer opportunities for folks to bring those two together in a ministry that is part of our service.
To this end, if you ever thought that the people who get up and read the Scripture on Sundays or the people who help Michael lead worship are part of some select, secret group, you’d be wrong. They are those who volunteer.
Still, sometimes, we all need a bit of prodding — to identify our gifts and to ask after what God is calling us to. Tony Merlo is going to take up the mantle helping us with this task for worship leaders: Liturgists, Lectors and Acolytes.
(If this help you see our Open Door ways at Old First, Tony is new to our community, and won’t be joining until September. But this task will help him get to know people. And you might even introduce yourself first! He was our Lector last week, and will be again this week in order to help you all identify him.)
If you need more information on what the tasks of each job are, descriptions are listed on our website under “Worship / Worship Leaders” for Serving as a Liturgist and Serving as a Lector.
Acolytes are the children who light the candles on the communion table during the opening hymn and extinguish them during the postlude. If your child would like to serve, please speak with Tony or Michael.
If you are a self-starter, you can sign-up to serve online (before Tony even approaches you) using this link (which is found on that same page on the website).
If you have any questions, please ask…
