1. Read Psalm 127 and pray accordingly.
2. Use the various liturgies for the Reaffirmation of the Baptismal Covenant in the Book of Common Worship. I would suggest doing this every other month, or at least quarterly for the foreseeable future. These can be blended in easily with services that involve a baptism, or that remember Jesus' baptism (the Sunday after Epiphany), but also with services around the seasons of Lent (Ash Wednesday or First Lent) and Easter, as well as Pentecost, Trinity, World Communion, All Saints', etc.
3. Adapt these services to include foot washing, no, not just at Maundy Thursday, but as often as you can persuade your session to support it, on retreats, in mid-week worship, in small group settings, etc. This is just a suggestion, and you can bet there will be resistance. But read John 13 and convince me that Jesus did not give us foot washing as "the" rite for the renewal of the baptismal covenant. It is simply stunning than no major liturgical resources acknowledge this. If we say we worship biblically, this needs to change.
4. Build a biblically literate bench of serious disciples of Jesus with a structured and intentional Bible reading plan. Make it fun, and look long term. Here is how I would do it (with a 3-1/2 year scope) using some of the resources I have been working on for the last 25 years or so.
- Gift everyone in the church with a copy of A Phenomenal Llama for Christmas Eve 2024.
- Recommend that everyone, at least your church officers and staff, start reading Sitometrion on Christmas Day and work through it (and the whole Bible, of course), from Christmas Day 2024 to next Christmas Eve 2025.
- Follow that with a reading of Phylakterion (a Kierkegaardian style novel that basically works its way into a commentary on Ecclesiastes, Colossians, and James). Do this between Christmas 2025 and Lent 2065.
- Do a Bible Study in Lent 2026 of Psalms 1 and 137, and read The Secret of Salix Babylonicus using the discussion questions prepared by Story Path. Follow this with a Renewal of the Baptismal Covenant, preferably including foot washing.
- Recommend that everyone, at least your church officers and staff, work through The Word at Work, starting the Second Sunday of Easter 2026 and concluding on Easter Sunday 2027.
- Recommend that everyone, at least your church officers and staff, read Oecolampadius' Sermon on the Vernacular (either in the B&NPress edition or in the back matter of A Short Course in Reformed Worship). Do this in the season of Easter 2027, before Pentecost 2027.
- Recommend that everyone, at least your church officers and staff, work through The Spirit at Work, starting at Pentecost 2027 and going through Trinity 2028.
5. In conjunction with working through the aforementioned reading plans, emphasize praying through the Psalter every 50 days using the skip-fifty sequence in those books. Encourage participants to journal their biblical reflections and even sermon or Bible Study ideas.
6. Set up playlists of Revenant Psalms on YouTube or Spotify or using Songwhip. Remember, you are invoking your Divine Protector according to the covenant and changing the spiritual atmosphere, filling it with psalms to replace the garbage that has been cluttering the culture, defiling the airwaves, and polluting the land for far too long, i.e., to replace it while so many predominant, vile, and overtly corrupt influences are eventually removed (though it may take a while). (We are talking about replacing a sick, collapsing culture here, not just a weak church, and if the culture is to be renewed, that renewal will flow from a renewed church. Yes, church is upstream from culture, which, they say, is upstream from everything else.) Play other arrangements of the psalms, too, of course, but do prioritize the Psalms themselves, as Paul does in Ephesians and Colossians. Hymns are fine, but for now, let the Psalms take priority.
7. Include an Invitation to Discipleship after every sermon for at least one year, starting with The Baptism of the Lord, announcing that catechism classes will be held through the season of Lent and baptism (or at least a renewal of the covenant) at Easter. Study the Lenten texts for Year A looking for (intentional) catechetical themes. Study the Lenten lectionary texts in Years B and C to determine how baptism might be better emphasized in these years. (This was an admitted weakness in the design of the RCL, so perhaps you can adapt or propose better texts for this season, when preaching in this season of preparation for baptism with Easter in view).
8. Study and share "Questions and Answers for the Examination of Children" and "Oecolampadius’ Public Confession of Faith" in Return to God. Integrate these Q&A's into your Children's Sunday school and youth programs, confirmation classes, and the "Public Confession" into your new member's classes. Also, visit the PCUSA's website for the 1998 children's catechism, linked here: https://www.presbyterianmission.org/wp-content/uploads/catechism1.pdf
9. Integrate Heinrich Bullinger, "What Every Christian Should Know," into your confirmation classes. This can be found among the Appendices to A Short Course in Preaching.
10. Design a new member's or confirmation class, or a congregation-wide Bible Study, using Oecolampadius' Sermons on the First Epistle of John (A Handbook for the Christian Life) and the series playlist of introductory videos here.
11. Preach the whole counsel of God, using RCL + Year D <OR> a lectio continua expository approach.
12. Take or teach a lay ministry course in an area where your growing gifts and interests lie.
13. Fill the pulpit in a neighboring small church with a scripture message. There are four at the end of Return to God.
14. Give A Coaltrain Bound for Christmas or A Phenomenal Llama to your neighbors in December and invite them to Christmas Eve services.
15. Do a sermon series or design and lead a Bible study based on a word study of the word "multiply/multiplication."
16. Examine your congregation's mission statement: Does it bear any relation to the Great Commission? Is there any chance that it substitutes the Great Commandment for the Great Commission? [Hint: A lot of churches have done just that. Oops.] Consider proposing to your church session that they experimentally and prayerfully suspend their congregation's mission statement for one, two, or three years and replace it with The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). Combine this with a preaching focus on baptism, catechesis, outreach, and renewal of the covenant. Revisit the mission statement after a significant period devoted to Matthew 28 (!) and consider extending this emphasis.
17. Study Micah 6 in light of Deuteronomy 10. How does Deuteronomy 10 supplement or flesh out Micah 6?
18. Read Matthew 25 (oracle of the sheep and the goats) from the perspective of the least brother. How does drawing a more honest distinction between siblings of Christ and unbelievers (those who are judged by their treatment of the siblings of Christ) cast a new light on your church's mission and prayer? Read "The Leverage of the Least," in The Good Confession. Isn't it liberating know that we are saved by grace through faith, not by works? Isn't it great to be a biped and a sibling to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Isn't it wonderful to have so much to be thankful for, including kindnesses shown to you by unbelievers? Foster a culture that gives thanks for these kindnesses, not affirming a lack of Christian faith or aberrant theology among unbelievers, but simply giving thanks for those who are peace-loving and kind.
19. Study the founding documents and figures of your congregation. How closely do your session's priorities reflect the original theology, mission, and vision for which the congregation was founded? What adjustments might need to be made?
20. Read Psalm 127 and pray accordingly.
Drop me a line and let me know how it's going. All of these resources have been mentioned repeatedly at various points in this blog, so feel free to use the search box to locate handy links. For my part, I will pray for any and all who undertake even a fraction of these suggestions and steward any proceeds (as I now do) in good faith (subject to the Lord of the conscience and in keeping with the Spirit of the Great Commission). God bless us everyone.
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