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I encourage you to follow the link for worship planning in the Lectionary entry for All Saints Day.  You might also want to visit Upper Room Daily Reflections and read the entry for today as we celebrate our belief in the Communion of the Saints.

As Brian indicated in his email to the class earlier this week, we’re going to engage in a four part series for the month of November on worship, liturgy and the church year.  Hopefully, this study series will not only be informative, but will point the way toward a richer and deeper worship experience for all of us — not just on Sundays, but every day.

Since our study will be focused on connecting us with our Methodist heritage (both radical and traditional) in worship, it seems appropriate that we begin on All Saints Day.  Because we’ll be studying the role of the Church Year and the Lectionary in worship, it also seems appropriate that we’ll end the study on Christ the King Sunday.  In planning this series, I’ve come up with the following rough division for our discussions. 

• A Brief History of Worship
• The Christian Calendar and the Lectionary
• “The Rest of the Week”:  Holy Days and Daily Worship
• Liturgy: High Church, Low Church, Emerging Church

This is by no means a full outline, because we’ll be discussing a lot more — from the role of music in worship and the church year to the Book of Common Prayer to daily devotionals and Lectio Divina.  Remember, the goal is not just information, but transformation — to grow spiritually through study.  Because we have such limited time on Sundays, we’re going to “blog on” through the weekdays and hope that you’ll join in the “virtual discussion” of worship (or any other topic that moves you).