Leading Services of Gathered Worship
When God’s people gather as a local church, we hear His word as we sing the Bible, read the Bible, pray through the Bible, preach the Bible and believe the Bible, together.
We do this as we celebrate the gospel, the good news of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done for us.
So, the role of the Service Leader is to prepare our minds and hearts to hear God’s word throughout the service and to be ready to respond to His word from the sermon. Everything that happens in a church service flows through the main theme of the sermon and Biblical text of that service – we are leading God’s people to hear God speak through His word.
It is important you prayerfully prepare to lead the service of gathered worship at church. You can’t “wing it”, and we mustn’t joke through it, but rather we prayerfully prepare to love and lead people to Christ in every moment.
What follows in the rest of this article is how we shepherd by leading services of gathered worship.
Service leading with a culture of Christ
You’ll have heard it said at Reforming, many times, that “we serve by grace and not performance”. This is theologically important and paradigm shifting for how we serve in the church and for the lost of the world.
It means for service leading, that it’s not about us and genuinely is all about Jesus. We don’t just say that, we ought to live that out before we step up to that pulpit. For Reforming Church is a hospital for sinners, where the wounded come weary and in need of rest in Jesus. This means that our service leaders recognise ourselves in that same need, and what we are doing throughout a service is leading people to Christ - in every moment.
Since our church will be discipled through that main theme from Scripture on Sunday, and for the week, it’s important that God’s word has worked in you so you can lead others in the word working in them too. This is a spiritual activity, so in our preparation and leading, we are praying constantly that God will do His work by His word in and through us. Please also come early on the Sunday you are leading, to pray with the preacher and Sunday Team, for your vital ministry that Lord’s day of gathered worship.
What follows is how we lead services, built around how our gathered worship is so biblically and intentionally designed.
Church-Life News
We would love for everyone to know what is happening in the life of our church, and so we have our church-life news at the start in full detail before the service, with a snippet summary before the benediction at the end. This means that we need our Service Leaders to know thoroughly what is happening in our church-life. Speaking about church-life with news, whilst not knowing what something is about, can send the message that we don’t care about our church that much.
We are constantly reforming this system, as we work out what best suits Reforming and sharing in church-life news. Please remind people to see the news in the service sheet, and to sign up for the Reforming Weekly.
Welcome to Church
We could have our three word summary of Reforming’s mission-vision-values statement written on this website (it is), we could have it written on the service sheet (it is), we could have it written on the wall (it isn't) - but if this is not our culture, then it is counter-cultural. The role of the service leader as the personal face of Reforming during that time of gathered worship, is to convey that we actually believe that we love God, love people and make disciples of Jesus Christ. We aim to serve by showing we actually believe in Christ, as His community, with compassion for the lost. So we believe this, and show this, in how we welcome people.
Before the service begins as 10am, the welcome team would have undertaken their vital work of welcoming people as the first face of Reforming. Your role now as service leader is to welcome them to church, God’s gathered people, with the grace-shaped words of welcome in the service sheet. Sometimes these words will be on the screen, yet they are always in the service sheet for you to read. At times we have different welcome to church words, depending on the seasons of church-life - yet this is here so that from the outset people know we come to church weary and in need of grace, and this is the place of grace.
We welcome with a smile, with love for people, with a focus on Christ. The key for welcoming people is to welcome with warmth, to welcome people with the welcome of Jesus, that you have been welcomed with (Romans 15:7).
Call to Worship
Our call to worship is given between the first two songs, and is always from God’s word. For theologically we know that God is the one who calls us into salvation, He is the one who calls us to worship Him.
Please be familiar with the call to worship (the service sheet will have been sent to you earlier in the week, Lord-willing), and please be ready to come to the pulpit as the first song finishes. This then creates the segway between singing the first song and the second song, without people having to sit down, so that we hear (or say) the call to worship together and then move straight away into the second song.
We are Reforming
If we have a We are Reforming spot for the service, it will be planned ahead and coordinated with you as Service Leader, so that you know your role for this. If it is people becoming members, then one of the Elders will lead that spot.
Pastoral Prayer
This is one of the most important parts of leading gathered worship for the Service Leader to take part in. We call it the ‘Pastoral Prayer’ because this is that time where we’re leading God’s people in prayer because of our Chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. The word ‘pastor’ comes from a Latin word that means ‘shepherd’, and so hence pastoral ministry is shepherd Christ’s flock, and leading in the pastoral prayer is shepherding people in prayer as they approach the throne of grace, through Christ. Praying the pastoral prayer is a privilege, and shapes our culture of Christ - therefore we have some guidance on how to lead well in this.
Pray with points through a helpful guide, such as something like A.C.T.S.
Adoration
Confession
Thanks
Supplication (requests)
Don’t pray to impress people, but with words that the Bible uses and people understand.
Do write your prayers out, full-notes if needed, bullet-points if that is more helpful for you. The point of this is to help you pray without “ums” and “ahs”, so that people can listen and pray along with you without distraction.
Pray succinctly, not too long as it becomes hard for people to stay focused with you. Also, not too short that it seems like we are not truly devoted to prayer. A pastoral prayer of about 5 minutes is about right, anything heading towards 10 minutes loses effectiveness in loving and leading others in prayer.
Bible Readings
We have a list of faithful folks at Reforming who will read our first reading (always a cross-reference passage) and our second reading (our preaching-passage). These members are rostered on, but of course service leaders need to be flexible when plans change on the minute. Please be ready to serve by reading the Bible from pulpit if needed.
Kids Talk
We have a list of faithful folks at Reforming who will speak to the children in the Kids Talk. Please coordinate with them what microphone, audio and visual needs they have to see this vital ministry happen.
Singing and Giving
This can be part of a service that feels tricky, but as the words are written for you to say in the service sheet it does make it easier. Since we are leading people to Christ in every part of gathered worship, as we worship Him, remember that this is what this is about. We are helping people to see what worship is, that even our giving is an act of worship.
Benediction
At the end of our time of gathered worship, after the last song is sung, comes the benediction. This word that may seem strange to 21st century ears, simply means “blessing”. We are hearing God’s word as the last word from our time of gathered worship, and it’s always God’s word that is the last word of blessing for our sent-worship during the week. Please be familiar with the benediction for that Sunday you are leading, so you can say it (after you give the last announcement and invitation to morning tea), and say it with warmth and joy in Jesus. This is all part of culture of Christ.
Thank you for servicing with a culture of Christ
Thank you for reading through this article, in preparing you to lead services of gathered worship at Reforming. Please know that Christ is for you, and so are we as your Elders!
Make Leaders Article by Russ Grinter | Pastor & Teaching Elder
Russ is weak, but Jesus is strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Russ gladly boasts of his weaknesses by preaching, writing, and speaking the gospel - because Jesus changes everything.
