Devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture
A few thoughts on Midweek Sacrament Services
In his instruction to Pastor Timothy, St. Paul wrote:
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 4:12-14 - English Standard Version)
One of the greatest things that pastors get to do is to read Scripture aloud, to teach on it via preaching and adding glosses here and there from the pulpit and in classes. It’s a blessing to study the Scriptures and to hand over the goods from God as He directs the brethren to do. Such a joy!
In trying to meet the needs of those that are unable to come on Sunday morning, while creating additional worship opportunities for this multicounty congregational community that stretches over 45 miles, we added year-round Midweek Sacrament Services on Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. for daytime attendees and 7:00 p.m. for the evening crowd. Some gatherings of this spread out parish are larger than others, and that’s ok. What started out as a “congregational family devotional event”, morphed into holding Divine Services with the Sacrament. As a sole-pastor, if I’m not in town, we postpone until the following Wednesday.
To keep the regular Sundays of the Church Year moving on schedule and not hit folks with the question, “Are we on the week ahead or week behind?” when popping into the midweeks, we launched with the Treasury of Daily Prayer Scripture readings and suggested hymn of the day. The longer Treasury readings have been a blessing to work on Biblical literacy. The public reading of Scripture directive from 1 Timothy 4 shines forth.
To keep things simple, I use our Lutheran Service Builder software and format a single sheet bulletin with hymn listing, Psalm, Collect, and readings for usage in the service. We sing three-to-four hymns, connected to the readings and church year season. It’s a great way to add more hymns to the weekly repertoire of the congregation.
Some weeks have more than others in attendance, yet I’ve found it a good practice to keep holding the services. It’s a good time to gather as the calendars don’t permit for folks to get together for daily services with the geographical makeup of our membership, plus there are calls to make, visits to attend to, class preparation, and sermons to write. Nice thing with the Treasury, there are little teachings included on each day that are great to use, in addition to my own mini-homilies.
Thanks to those that have come to the services as this experiment continues in this new year. I pray that it’s a blessing for you. If you’re near Lackawanna County, pop on in on a Wednesday. We’ll save a spot for ya.