Practical Guidelines For Worship And Social Ministry

Concern for social justice is properly reflected in the practice of Christian worship. The vision for the coming kingdom of God should shape not only the words of the Christian liturgies, songs, and prayers, but also the actions of the worship. This article briefly outlines ways in which very different congregations practice justice in worship and then reflects on their significance for the lives of worshipers.

The parishioners at St. Anskar's Episcopal church are gathering for the Sunday morning celebration of the Eucharist. Many of those who have gathered to worship are bringing food with them, canned goods and other nonperishable food items for contributions to the food pantry which this parish supports. As people enter the worship space they pass by a shopping cart. Here they deposit the food offerings they have brought for the food pantry. As their worship progresses it will soon be time for the offertory. Here the monetary gifts of the congregation are collected, the tithes and offerings that support the ministries of this church. After the offerings have been collected they are taken to the front of the church to be blessed for their appointed work. At this same time, following Episcopal practice, the bread and wine are brought forward to the Table as a further expression of the people's self-offering to God of the most rudimentary elements of their lives: food and drink. What is unique about the offertory at St. Anskar's is that along with the offering of the collection and the eucharistic elements, the shopping cart is wheeled down the aisle, where it too is offered to God. In this very concrete and simple way, the ministry of the food pantry is placed front and center in the midst of the parishioners, creating a bridge between the meaning of their worship and the implications to their lives as Christ's disciples. What allows this bridge between social ministry and worship to be built is the careful attention that is paid to its relationship to the three concentric circles which define a parish's worship. These three circles are, moving from the outer to the inner, (1) the universal theme of Christian worship which is the dying and rising of Christ, (2) the denominational or confessional context of the parish, and (3) the specific ministry of the local church. The outermost, and all inclusive circle is that which makes Christian worship decidedly Christian—the cross and the empty tomb. All of Christian worship is not only a remembrance of what Christ had done, but a call for the church to pick up the cross and follow the example of our Lord. Just as Jesus fully embodied God's self-giving love, so too are we to strive to imitate Christ's life. Therefore our worship is not only a remembrance of what God has done for us through Christ, but is also an offering of our ministries to God, celebrating what God by the Spirit is doing through us in the world. The second circle acknowledges that Christians do not have one single way of expressing the life, death, and resurrection of Christ in their worship. The worship at St. Anskar's is shaped according to The Book of Common Prayer. The support of a food pantry ministry would be celebrated differently in a Quaker service, where the worshipers might place the gifts of food in a place which could be seen that it may be a source of meditation while waiting on the Spirit. In a small, rural Baptist church with which I am familiar, the offering is collected by the worshipers coming forward and placing their gifts in a collection plate in front of the pulpit, which is mindful of the time they came forward in response to an evangelistic invitation. The offering of food for a pantry ministry could easily be incorporated into an offertory such as this, drawing a connection between one's acceptance of Christ as Savior and one's acceptance of Christ's command to feed the hungry. The celebration of a church's ministry should fit naturally into the common worship practice of the church. It should not be an awkward intrusion. Likewise it must not reinterpret the worship service in a way which is unfaithful to that church's tradition. Wheeling a shopping cart to the Communion table in our small Baptist church would be just as untrue to the church's tradition as having all the people at St. Anskar's bring their offerings forward. One's churchly heritage should be a guide to practice, not an obstacle to it. The third and innermost circle is that of the worship and ministry of the local parish. The ministry of Christ was an expression of the universal and unchanging love of God, expressed in particular ways to meet the needs of specific situations. So, too, should the worship of God through Christ celebrate both the universal elements of Christian ministry (evangelism, care for the poor, support for the ill and grieving) and that parish's particular manifestation of that ministry or ministries. It is only appropriate to make our prayers to God somewhat concrete. So, too, our worship should make manifest those ministries which we offer to God in worship. Care should be taken in the planning of this sort of worship that it is true to the ministry being offered to God. Some creativity must be used when celebrating such ministries as a homeless shelter, Alcoholics Anonymous (or other support groups), ministry to unwed mothers, and so on. One should be sensitive that those in the parish who may be participating in such a group, such as AA, would not be made to feel separate from the rest of the community. I would suggest that this required group discussion, involving those who are directly involve in the ministry and possibly even those benefiting from it within the parish. Although not every church celebrates the service of the Table (Eucharist/Lord's Supper/Holy Communion) weekly, most churches celebrate it with some regularity, usually monthly or quarterly. It certainly is historically the central act of Christian worship, even if it is not the central mode of worship in each church currently. For this reason a brief description of the service of the Table as the universal theme of Christian worship is appropriate. In 1 Corinthians 10:14–17, when Paul writes of the cup and the bread, and asks if it is not a "?sharing?" in the blood and body of Christ, the word used for sharing is koinonia , which has the same root as the word translated "?fellowship.?" Celebration of the bread and cup is a joint sharing in the life of Christ, a participation in the life of Christ now. Paul concludes this argument by encouraging the people to imitate him, as he imitates Christ (11:1). Hence the worship of Christ is distinct from the worship of idols as Christian worship is that which draws the believers into a life of imitating Christ. Christian worship at its core is necessarily linked to the ministry of the Christian church. Therefore the universal nature of Christian worship, celebration of the dying and rising of Christ, calls us to die to ourselves and rise to new life in Christ. The fact that we are called to serve God in our baptism is reinforced in the regular life of Christian worship, particularly the service of the Table.