Testing a New Way to Organize Sunday Worship

Sermon Reflection || Year C: Third Sunday of Advent

Yesterday we studied everyone’s favorite Advent text: Zephaniah 3. That’s awesome, right?

Sermon—December 15th || Year C: Third Sunday of Advent

Sermon Text

Video

There will be no video today.

Reflection

Testing a New Way to Organize Sunday Worship

I’ve been having a lot of discussions with my worship leader Jason about balancing the length of sermons with attention spans and effectiveness. This year, Pope Francis said sermons should be no longer than eight minutes—in a liturgical setting, there is so much going on that longer sermon aren’t generally feasible from a practical standpoint already.

So whether you’re like my friend Jason who thinks sermons should be around twenty minutes or the Catholic Pope who thinks they should be eight, you at least agree that they could be somewhat shorter.

As for me, I wish they were thirty to forty-five minutes long or more.

But I realize I’m in the minority, and that’s okay.

While these conversations on sermon length have been going on, something else has been happening: I’ve been doing a digital cleanse. The thirty days are over now, so I’m slowly integrating my phone back into my life, but it’s made me really appreciate the analog life.

In other conversations with my friend Corri, we’ve been talking about how teenagers have too much screen time already and how church could serve as a break from that.

On top of all of this, I’ve been having other conversations about biblical literacy, the transforming power of Scripture, and the general bewilderment people feel when they want to sit down to study the Bible: “Where do I start?”

So I had an idea.

During Sunday worship, what if we set aside ten to fifteen minutes to learn how to study the Bible?

But how could we do this in a way that flows with everything else we do on Sundays?

Well, typically my sermons last twenty to twenty-five minutes, sometimes more. I realized I could split this time up between two sections: an exegetical section and an application section.

The worship service would look something like this:

10:30-10:42 Songs/ Welcome
10:42-10:55 Open Bible Study
10:55-11:05 Communion/ Offering/ Song
11:05-11:10 Song Before the Sermon
11:10-11:20 Application Sermon
11:20-11:30 Song/ Close

During the Open Bible Study people would be encouraged to bring their paper Bibles and be ready to discuss the text of the day. They would have a chance to read passages, ask questions, and make observations. Then, during the Application Sermon, I would pull together a few passages from the other readings for the day to emphasize the main purpose or challenge of the day.

There is another benefit to this arrangement as well. It would allow for other people to get involved in whichever part of the sermon they are more comfortable with. The studious among us could share thoughts on the biblical background of the passage while someone else may share a testimony related to the themes of the passage during the application.

The Sermon

Yesterday was one of those Sundays where almost everyone who usually helps makes things work on Sunday was traveling or sick. This meant I started the day by teaching Bible class on Micah, lead the singing during worship, and delivered both “halves” of the sermon.

On top of all this, our presentation software updated and messed up a few key features we need to make things go smoothly. Since we were short-staffed, it was just impossible to get all of that back working and do all the other things I needed to do.

Despite the deck being stacked against me, I would say it turned out to be a pretty good Sunday! The Open Bible part was a bit sketchy, but that’s to be expected given all that happened. My sermon went over well though, and I got a lot out of preparing it.

Creative Process

When I read through the passage in Zephaniah, I knew instantly that it would be the main text for the day. While I drew from every text in the lectionary, especially Luke, it was Zephaniah that served as the basis for everything else I did.

As I read the passage, I realized that it could be broken into four movements: God saves, God heals, God includes, and God restores.

These four movements corresponded nicely with the other texts in the lectionary, and they also offered a challenge to us: are we filled with expectation that God could work in our day? And if we do expect God to save, heal, include, and restore us, then how about those who we might consider “unsalvageable”? And if God desires to have a relationship with them, then what steps might we take to embody this gospel of salvation, healing, inclusion, and restoration so that those who are “in exile” might be brought near?

Once I had the key ideas, the challenge, and I clarified the existential urgency, everything else fell into place.