“I was glad when they said to me, let us go to the House of the Lord.” (Psalm 122:1)

For the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about the way we worship at St. John’s. We have 3 services, each with its own musical style. We have services with little to no “liturgy”. We have a service with a lot of liturgy.  But not matter what our services include or don’t include, each service follows a very specific pattern as laid out in our United Methodist Book of Worship (BOW). For the next few weeks I thought you might enjoy some devotions that explain patterns of worship for our various types of services. We will start with what the BOW calls “The Basic Pattern of Worship”. This pattern consists of 4 major parts. We’ll cover one part each week.  

The first part is called the “Entrance”.  The Entrance is comprised of 3 parts. Gathering, Greeting and Hymn, and Opening Prayers and Praise. 

The Gathering is first, and its purpose is exactly like it sounds. It’s the time for members of the Church Family to come together to worship the Lord. The Gathering is comprised of 6 parts. Elements of this section may include things like bells ringing or a musical piece.  It includes announcements and welcoming visitors. In some churches you might find a leader of worship reviewing with the congregation any unfamiliar songs.  It’s a time for informal prayers, singing, and testimony. Quiet meditation and private prayer are encouraged during the Gathering.  Finally instrumental worship, or an offering of music to God on behalf of the congregation takes place.

There are many ways these six acts can be combined in a worship service. They might be offered before the service; they might begin the service. They might be acted out before people even enter the worship service.  They might precede the service, take place during, and occur in another room.  Where the Gathering part of worship is concerned, there is no one right way to do it.

The next part of “Entrance” is Greeting and Hymn. The Greeting takes on a variety of forms. It can take the form of reading a bible verse, it can also be a “Call or Invitation to Worship.” The choir might sing an introit. The Greeting always includes a greeting by the leader of the worship service. After the Greeting there is an opening hymn or song. The opening hymn should be one of praise to the Lord. It should focus on attributes and deeds of God where thanks is given for these. Typically we stand during this part of the service and don’t sit down until the time for opening prayers and praise.

The last part of “Entrance” is opening prayers and praise. Prayers, combined with opening songs establish that we are gathered together to commune with God and with each other. Posture of prayer can vary. You may see any form of standing, kneeling, or sitting with head bowed. Prayers are concluded with an Amen either spoken or sung.

Prayers themselves can occur in many forms. They might be a collect, responsive prayer, or an extemporaneous one.  Prayers can be said in unison or by one person. Prayers might be preceded or followed by silence. Themes of prayer can vary. They can match the sermon topic of the day, or a season of the church year, or a special day in the life of the church.  Sometimes a prayer of confession and act of pardon is offered. Neither of these should be offered without the other.  A litany or responsive prayer may be offered. If so using a single repeated response such as “Lord, have mercy” is recommended.  After the opening prayer is offered, a song might be offered. The purpose being to actively involve the whole Church Family.

So there you have it. All of the elements of the Entrance portion of a United Methodist worship service. Next week we will look at the Proclamation and Response portion of worship. In the meantime, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord!