Report of the Meeting of the CLPD Group ‘Helping Preachers’
20th March 2009
The discussion began, as all preaching appointments do, with the plan. Time, place and lectionary readings were felt by all to be the start of any interaction between preacher and congregation. The following topics were discussed in depth:
- The advisability of reusing sermon material with two different congregations
- The difficulties, or not, of preaching to home congregations
- How crucial the vestry steward was to the preacher in setting the mood for the service.
Out of the above discussion came the following points;
- The preacher must be true to themselves
- The best way to handle difficult interactions was in good preparation, flexibility of approach on the day i.e. the ability to change, mould and adapt the message quickly, plus much prayer and a complete trust in the Holy Spirit.
- The role of the vestry steward was crucial to good relationships between preacher and congregation. (More on this later)
It was pointed out that we had spent much time in discussing the message/sermon but the service had more elements (hymns and prayers) where interaction between preacher and congregation could take place. Some present felt that the Call to Worship was the place where interaction began, but for others it came later in the service. But for all the first contact between church and preacher and the time spent in the vestry with the steward before worship was very important.
Drawing together the threads of our meeting we felt that in our discussions we had become aware of the processes which informed our preparation and study for worship. We felt that taking worship was a sacrament which would be enriched and empowered by the Holy Spirit who worked before every service with both preacher and congregation. It was felt that one more meeting (Worship Beyond Words) would be useful before the group had finished its purpose, and that following the next meeting the group would have completed its’ task and would disband.
Looking at the group as a whole we acknowledged that over the weeks the group had been rigorous, and deep thinking. We had listened and been honest, constructive and never negative and our discussions had been very helpful to all who had attended. Our shared experiences had been not simply anecdotal we had tried to concentrate on the general rather than the specific which had allowed us to set up some learning applications from what we had discussed. We were therefore able to draw out the implications of our combined experience for use in future service preparation.
Following the disbanding of all three CLPD groups, it was suggested that a new group combined of the three former groups should be set up to encourage preachers to get out of their comfort zone and be more experimental.
The meeting will report its findings to the LPs Meeting in April. It was suggested that the circuit might think about re-instating a training programme for new stewards, which would be helpful to preacher congregation interaction.
The next and last meeting will be held on April 24th 2.00pm and is entitled “Worship Beyond Words”.
SC