The season of Lent at McMurry Church began as it usually does—with Ash Wednesday worship 46 days before Easter. But this year's Ash Wednesday service was far from usual. Earlier in the week, Kenny Riley and his crew from Middle-K-Construction began installing new lights in the McMurry sanctuary. This installation involved moving pews and other furniture, plus using a scissor lift and very tall ladders. Needless to say, the sanctuary was not usable for worship during this time.
Ash Wednesday fell right in the middle of the installation process, meaning we could not have worship in the sanctuary that night. What to do? Where to go? How to have worship? The worship team put their heads together and began to think of alternate locations: the parlor, the fellowship hall, or maybe even the chapel downstairs (oh, you didn't know we have a chapel?). We knew that our worship space needed to have a piano. That ruled out the parlor and the fellowship hall. Because we wouldn't be able to project the words for worship, we also needed a room with easy access to hymnals and songbooks. Knowing that there were already some hymnals stored in its closet, we decided to go with the multi-purpose room (which some folks still call the "scout room").
John Burke gets all the credit for setting up the worship space. He put the chairs in rows, placed hymnals throughout the chairs, and even brought in a stack of The Faith We Sing songbooks, so that we wouldn't have to change any of the songs from the original bulletin.
About 35 people showed up for our Ash Wednesday service. The multi-purpose room was nearly full, with only a couple of empty chairs. We didn't have projection or streaming, but we did have worship. And what a holy time it was. We followed the order of service as closely as we could. We read Scripture, sang hymns, prayed prayers, marked our foreheads with ashes, and shared in Holy Communion.
You might think the location of the multi-purpose room would make Ash Wednesday worship less "special." However, the opposite was true. When we sang hymns together, we raised the roof. Sitting close together created a fuller, richer chorus of voices. Everyone could hear each other, including those singing harmony. What a beautiful sound! For their anthem, the choir stood only a few feet away from the congregation and could be heard much better than from far away. All of the worship acts had a more intimate and personal feeling to them, since we were so near each other.
Although we may have missed how easy technology can make worship through projecting hymn texts, prayers, Scripture readings, and liturgy, the Holy Spirit was present during this time of "analog" worship and clearly moved within our hearts. Many people appreciated the closeness and intimacy of the multi-purpose room. Such feelings are less likely to occur when we're scattered throughout a large sanctuary.
What a great way to start the season of Lent! We'll go back to having worship in the sanctuary, of course. Kenny did a great job of fixing the lights there so that we can now see better as we worship. Yet may we never forget that the location of worship is less important than the attitude of our hearts. When we open our hearts to God, the Spirit can transform any time of worship into a blessed, sacred moment. May the fullness of Christ fill our lives throughout our Lenten journeys.
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Clayton