Background: Cityside’s Ethos(adapted from Mark Pierson’s original notes)

Cityside—about formation rather than information

Central to Gospel Story—the God Story—is that God became human and lived among the people of the earth offering through the God-man Jesus a restoring of the relationship between humankind and God. It is 2000 years since Jesus walked this earth. The central story remains.

The purpose of the church is to provide that community—a place where those seeking to follow Christ can explore what that means with others on a similar journey.

There is no question that at the start of the third millennium the church in the West is in trouble. It is equally true that God is not primarily concerned about saving the church. God’s primary concern is saving the world—bringing the people of the world back into a right relationship with their creator and saviour. The central text—John 3:16 is the world’s story, not that of the church. So Cityside’s role as a Christian church is to be a community of people who relate to one another and encourage one another in seeking after Christ in our rapidly changing culture.

One aspect of this role is the worship we experience together. A very simple working definition of worship is that it is ‘responding to God’. So Cityside deliberately sets out to provide opportunities in its life for people to respond to God—heart, soul, mind and strength. Because we realise that different people come from different life experiences, have different learning styles and personality types we try to provide a variety of worship styles too. I hope that we will provide even more as people join us who are able to provide leadership for these.

Because our focus is on providing opportunities for people to respond to God (which implies content as well as context) we are not primarily interested in just ‘doing services’. Our worship is curated rather than constructed.

This focus on worship exists within a wider framework of principles and patterns that have become important to us. Not all of these are immediately obvious and some are very subtle, but they are what makes Cityside (us together) what it is. We may not always be successful at giving each of them the priority or significance they deserve at all points, but they form the milieu in which Citysiders live and we would not want to neglect or reject any of them.

In no particular order:

1. open endedness—questions, answers

2. creativity/the arts

3. anti institutionalism

4. spiritual formation/stages

5. personal responsibility

6. engagement with contemporary culture

7. concern for those disenfranchised, disempowered or abused by western church structures

8. acceptance of difference and variety—opinions, theology, experiences of worship

Order of Service and Leading Worship

Cityside morning worship normally follows a set order of service. This is intended to give a shape to our meeting together that is roughly: drawing people together, deepening our engagement with God and each other in worship, and then broadening our focus back out into our world.

One of the difficulties in having rostered participation is that the different parts of the service can start to look pretty similar to each other...and can all start to take the form of mini sermons, rather than having a distinct form that contributes to the overall shape of the service. It might help for leaders of the different sections to consider the distinct function of that slot in the service, and what it is designed to achieve. Remember: ‘formation not information’. It is often easier to talk than to plan an activity that the congregation can engage with. But in terms of what assists transformation, it’s the stuff that people participate in that tends to have the most value.

Some suggestions for involving the congregation in the section you’re leading:

• Readings: Rather than just reading out a poem or a prayer, put it on the data show or print it out on an A5 to make it a responsive reading. When you lead a responsive reading, you need to start into the ‘response’ line with the congregation, so that they’re confident to begin.

• Ritual action: This can be as simple as asking people to stand or kneel while praying. More complex actions can include: candle lighting, dropping a stone into a pool of water, lighting incense, pinning something to a cross, shredding paper, hanging something on a tree, eating or drinking, meditating on an object, washing hands, planting a seed

• Use the space: sometimes inviting people to move out of their seat to a different part of the room can generate an unexpected inner response.

• Invite responses: gather words, images, ideas from the congregation and work them together into a prayer/song/symbol, whatever.

• Create space for people to make their response to God—by writing a prayer or poem, by drawing a picture etc.

• Use sung responses: ‘O Lord Hear My Prayer’ or a short Kyrie Eleison can break up long prayers, or you could try spoken responses that have a call and answer (e.g. “Lord, in your mercy: Hear our Prayer”).

• Silence: There's something beautiful about sitting in silence together, don't be afraid of it and also don't overdo it. A timed 3 min block of time is usually a lot for people who aren't used to it. Start and conclude it with a chiming bowl.

Whatever your task or role is, it is important to remember that you are leading the congregation in their worship. Your preparation before God, and with God in prayer, and your understanding of what you are doing, and of what you want the congregation to do at any point, is vital.

You should also think about the needs of the congregation—physical, emotional and spiritual—as you prepare. The segment of worship you lead will involve real people, with real lives. They will have come from somewhere, and be going to somewhere. Our worship together will not take place in a vacuum. It should be real, rooted in people’s life experiences, yet centred on the reality of God, who God is, what God has done for us, what God expects of us, and what God can do for us.

Avoid assuming everyone knows the words of a song or reading or what to do in any particular part of our worship. We need to always plan and prepare and present for newcomers and visitors who don’t know. Cityside is an open, welcoming, inclusive community of people seeking to worship and follow Christ as best they can. We’re not a clique of people who ‘enjoy each other’s company and don’t want to draw in any outsiders’. One way to help others feel ‘up with the play’ is to introduce yourself by name before you begin your section, even if you think most people know you.

If you play a recorded track, please have the lyrics available either on the data show or printed on an A5 so we can all follow them.

An order of service is set out below as a starting point:

• Call to Worship

• Songs/Meditation

• Things we need to know about (notices and celebration)

• Prayer of Confession

• Show and tell (hot text)

• Sermon

• Prayers for Others

• Benediction

Stu's notes:

I have found that things are a bit different now in 2022 but largely have remained the same. One key difference is that I find Brenda Rockell's use of the word formation instead of transformation is much more helpful in framing our expectations. There's something more gradual and sustained in this word.