Outer Rim Territories

Musings, ramblings, and nonsense from the fringe of space and time
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How A New Pastor Should Add Ceremonies

I am delayed a year until I receive a call in the Holy Ministry in order to pursue a STM degree. Even so, I am interested in the advice of seasoned pastors as to how to conduct oneself in a new congregation, especially where the current practice is different than your own. Gottesdienst Online, a liturgy journal, has a fascinating discussion that has been brewing for weeks. I don't follow comments usually, unless the initial post is provocative. This recent blog post is one such entry. Not surprisingly there are wide and varied opinions about the practical advice given by the original post. It's not always pretty either. I would encourage you to read the post to see the variety of approaches and the interactive discussion. The post: Gottesdienst Online: How A New Pastor Should Add Ceremonies

Posted June 1, 2009 by Christopher Gillespie 
Jun 02, 2009
Juan Palm said...
Slowly! Consider that too much change too quickly can scandalize the faith of those who would look at their congregation and say, I don't think it feels like church anymore. Lay out a plan. Consider those things that are genuinely intollerable. Plan to change those within the first 5 years (!).
Choose one thing to introduce -- the honeymoon will allow a pastor to get away with one or two things, with people saying, I guess that's just how he does it. For me it was chanting the Verba and Gospel processions on festival Sundays. Don't pull out all your fancy vestments right away. Introduce them on festival Sundays. If your wife, aunt, mother, etc. gave you something for a gift, tell them. Then the will be offended if you don't use them.
Put everthing else on a list of items to change over 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 and 100 years. Put infant communion on that last one.
Preach the word of truth.
Use memorials.
Soon people will be demanding that you implement the changes that you wanted on your lists, long before your projected date.
In a harshly anti-catholic area, we restored the crucifix, introduced congregational chanting, introduces gospel processions, Easter Vigil, chanted Verba, chasubles, a processional cross, a pall for funerals, many solid Lutheran hymns, daily matins, and built a new sanctuary in under 5 years, mostly by preaching, teaching, directing people as they had questions, visitation, and mostly by loving the people and respecting their faith as it is.