Liturgy is Fun! Really!

One of the projects I'm charged with at New Congregation is the development of a fourth worship service on Sundays, in the evening. Right now we're doing this just once a month, but the hope and dream is to develop it into an alternative to Sunday morning on a weekly basis.

I freely admit that I am going to steal from the Emerging Church movement on this, because what we want is not to do Yet Another Generic Praise Band service, but a service grounded in liturgy, driven by our mission statement (which has words like embody, proclaim, compassion, and inclusive) - but not full of churchy 'code language.' I have been convinced for a long time that we can do this, we Lutherans: we can do liturgy in creative and new ways while still keeping the core of a tradition which has been life-giving for a great many years.

I realize the liturgy can also be boring and/or badly done. I get this. But it doesn't have to be.

So here's my question for you: if you were given the liturgical year but you wanted to put a twist on it, how would you reinterpret those themes without churchy language?

Here's an example: January is Epiphany. Epiphany is an outward-looking, joyful season which also features the Week of Christian Unity. So, we could have a worship service full of global music, and/or invite a preacher from a different Christian tradition. We could pair this with adult and kid classes about understanding other Christian traditions and/or other religions. Or we could do a worship service honoring Martin Luther King Jr. which might incorporate a confession centered on racism and our participation in that. And then we could encourage all the worshippers to be part of a local observation of MLK Jr. day.

This is the kind of thing I'm thinking about. Not horribly original, I realize, but it's a place to start. And I am having fun. But I can use more ideas! Include them in the comments if you've got a brainstorm to share.