Baptist Worship: Redeeming Welcome and Announcements from the Pit and Making Them an Integral Part of Worship

Boring Announcements

Prolog. Baptist worship is not etched in stone as some denominational and other church liturgies are. In some traditions there is almost no flexibility in the order of service or even in selection of scriptures. Baptist views of local church autonomy (arising from core beliefs that emphasize the indwelling of the Spirit in every believer and the priesthood of every believer) allows each church to craft its own order of worship for every worship service. Regrettably, many Baptist church pastors give little or no attention to crafting an order of service with prayer and thoughtfulness, in conjunction with the sermon themes. The results of such lack of consideration are often undesirable.

This blog article reflects deeply on Welcome and Announcements as an important and integral part of Christian worship in the local church.

The Problem

The Welcome and Announcement portion of a worship service is typically viewed as obtrusive and boring. We cannot, however, dispense with it because we otherwise view it as being important for various reasons. Here, I attempt to rescue Welcome and Announcements from its present state of deprecation to make it meaningful, lively, exhortational, and spiritual, and not merely functional.

The Welcome and Announcements should flow very quickly, very naturally, without belaboring every point. They should be at least a little sermonic, a little exhortational, with occasional humor to help with the flow and keep the congregation focused. In my world, five minutes is enough to make the five elements of Welcome and Announcements effective.

What I Try to Accomplish

I include five elements in the Welcome and Announcements segment. I list them here, explaining what each element is meant to accomplish.

1.      First Words. Example: “Praise the name of Jesus who leads us in joyful procession to the throne of grace” or “It is in the name of the resurrected Son of God that I welcome you to worship,” etc.

a.       First Words should tap into a joyful exuberance that is altogether expected for those who worship the living Christ.

b.      Note that First Words is a uniquely Christian greeting. A mundane “good morning” is not adequate for the grand purpose of Christian worship.

c.       We worship Jesus as Lord to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2:11). Thus, First Words should reflect a Christocentric theology—it’s all about Christ.

d.      Finally, First Words should help create a comfortable and expectant atmosphere.

2.      Welcome of Visitors

a.       The worship leader should express a warm welcome specifically toward visitors.

b.      As a pastor, I fervently seek to connect with visitors, and this requires some contact information. Since some visitors are reluctant to provide contact information, the welcoming of visitors should include an appeal to give us their personal information.

c.       The Welcome should contain an affirmation of the visitors’ decision to join us, including a prayer wish that God would especially bless them (e.g., “May God pour out his blessing on you today so that you experience his grace in a profound way.”)

3.      Who We Are

a.       Ostensibly, the Who We Are segment introduces ourselves to visitors, and involves reference to some select core values of the church.

b.      The ultimate purpose of the Who We Are segment is to promote spiritual formation of the congregation by projecting our ideal identity.

c.       The Who We Are segment consists of about four points that reinforce our ideal identity.

                                                               i.      Two of the points recall the previous week’s sermonic emphasis

                                                             ii.      Two of the points anticipate the current worship’s sermonic emphasis

d.      Example: Here, the previous worship service emphasized lament and grief due to sin, while the present worship serviced emphasized lamenting and grieving in silence

We are the people of God

o   Who recognize that we are profoundly affected by sin

o   Who have cried out to God for deliverance

o    Who have put our hope in God who is our refuge and strength

o   Who patiently wait in silence so that we may hear God speak to us in our time of trouble

e.      These four or so points attempt a continuity in our worship life from week to week, although most won’t perceive it

4.      Announcements: Announcements are characteristically promotional. They should be delivered with some enthusiasm and emphasis.

a.       Announcements are meant to promote communications in congregational life.

b.      They draw attention to special events, encouraging congregational participation.

c.       They share special ministerial urgencies with the congregation, with the hope that the congregation will own these urgencies.

d.      They constantly should inculcate a sensitivity to ministerial call.

e.      Ultimately, announcements should encourage ministerial engagement.

5.      Welcoming Prayer

a.       This short prayer (about 30 seconds) reinforces that that announcements are proclamation and exhortation, and not merely an events list

b.      The prayer should emphasize call to ministry for every congregant

c.       Finally, the Welcoming Prayer should impress one or two current ministerial urgencies of the church on the minds of the congregation.

Autonomous and Associational: How Baptist Churches Must Be Both

This blog post originated as a rejoinder to an article published here:  Local Church Autonomy.

We should understand that our Baptist-oriented churches go back for centuries, and that we have fought many of the same battles before. Regrettably, we often try to re-invent the wheel, or we cast off tradition without having a clear understanding of why our Baptist forefathers forged the tradition and the logic undergirding their stances.

True, Baptists did not themselves discover the doctrine of the priesthood of every believer. Prior to the Baptist movement, Lutherans and Presbyterians rejected the mediation of human priests for the forgiveness of sin. But those Reformers did not see the implications of the doctrine on church governance--only Baptists did! The Lutherans and Presbyterians kept the power to govern churches in the hands of either the bishop and his diocese, or in the hands of the ruling presbytery. They did not divest governing authority

into the hands of the congregation so that even the least maidservant might be empowered to cast vision by the Spirit's leading. But Baptists did. Thus, the indwelling of the Spirit and the priesthood of every believer is the cornerstone of congregational government.

As a practical matter, how can a church practice congregational government if other congregations control it? I suppose it is possible that all the congregations of a Baptist denomination might send its representatives to the national convention to regulate life at each one of its churches. However, “possible” does not mean “practical.” Thus, historically our Baptist churches were built with local church autonomy--and this is an outgrowth of the doctrine of the priesthood of every believer.

However, early Baptist churches realized that they desperately needed each other for many reasons. Consequently, rarely was a Baptist congregation ever formed without the consent and support of its regional ("local") association. These associations or conferences were designed to promote and coordinate evangelistic efforts in the region and (ultimately) around the world. A church cooperating with other like-minded churches in association could do much more together than they could by themselves.

From my perspective, a Baptist association serves, by way of example, to assist local churches in scrutinizing new candidates for ministry. A local church has every right to ordain a minister, but cannot impose on other associational churches to accept his ordination. Rather, when the association does the ordaining, then the pastor receives recognition by other association churches (by prior agreement), as well as denomination-wide credentials. He has been examined not only by the local church, but by the whole association.

Again, from my perspectives, associations large enough to employ personnel to support local churches and coordinate ministry should do so. Sometimes, this could be at the local association (New Orleans Baptist Association has a half dozen or so full-time staff to service 100+ churches), but sometimes this might be more applicable to the state convention. At any rate, professional staff might be invited to the local church to assist in implementation of evangelism strategies, inspire new ministerial outreach opportunities, mediate disagreements within the church, or to support the church in their search for a new pastor. The important principle, however, is that the association does these sorts of things without imposing itself upon the congregation.

It is a regrettable fact that some short-sighted pastor might get hot and bothered about some issue that culminates in his church leaving the association. Thus, in one fell swoop, one man burns up maybe 50 or 150 years of fellowship and cooperation between his congregation and the other 10 or 20 or 50 other churches in his county or river valley. With what will he replace this fellowship? --with the one or two churches pastored by ministers of his own persuasion? Hardly.

Ultimately, the best way to prevent such short-sighted, destructive actions is to have a healthy association. And the only way for our associations to be healthy is for competent men and women to invest themselves in the association. If your association is weak, double down your investment in it. Your own church might find itself in great need of the association in years to come.