Opportunities in 2024 for lay leaders seeking licensing
Worship is a powerful place – a place that transforms and empowers. What we do when we gather is so much more than reciting words set down in an approved collection of liturgies. This is the place where we may find ourselves awakened by God and stretched to reach new depths of faith, new ways of connecting what is going on in the world with how we might faithfully respond. This is the place where we encounter God as we meet our own lives. This is the place where we are challenged to do more than simply sit through a “surface meeting with God”. It is in worship that “we should be lashed to the pews because God just might awake and draw us out to new depths.”
(“Worship as Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine” by Don Saliers, page 22).
Have you felt the tiny nudging of God to be a part of putting together and officiating powerful and transformative lay-led liturgies? Have you heard that tiny whispering to learn more about leading worship? Have you been invited by your church to become a licensed Lay Worship Leader? Or perhaps you’ve been a licensed Worship Leader for a while and you’re looking to expand your knowledge and capacities?
Here’s your chance! Our office of Adult Formation will offer several opportunities for training in 2024.
Licenses are sometimes perceived as an administrative burden at best and a means of gatekeeping at worst. We see them, however, as an important opportunity to demonstrate the importance of a ministry and the work people are doing by investing time and resources into ensuring they are properly equipped and recognized for what they do.
Worship Leaders are laity who regularly lead public worship in the absence of clergy. Training for this license takes place at the diocesan level or in another setting pre-approved by the Canon for Adult Formation. Individuals seeking renewal (EM – Advent 2026, WM – Advent 2027) are expected to participate in continuing education.
Please read below for dates and registration, including the most immediate basic-level training coming up on Saturday, January 13th.
Photo: Anne Davidson leads worship at St. Mark’s, Coldwater; three worship leaders are celebrated and blessed at St. Paul’s, Bad Axe.
Questions about this event? Please contact our trainer, the Rev. Paul Brunell (Christ Church, Owosso) at pbrunell_grayling@hotmail.com or at 989-723-2495.
OUR FIRST SESSION:
BASIC WORSHIP LEADING
Saturday, January 13, 2024, 10 – 2 pm via Zoom
Our “Basic Worship Leading” training is the introductory session offered to all seeking licensure as a Lay Worship Leader. It will provide an overview of the Book of Common Prayer and specific instruction for planning and facilitating Morning Prayer.
Participants should have a copy of the Book of Common Prayer that you can write in with you as you participate in the session. Before we begin, please flip through the entire book to get a sense of the depth and breadth of what the book contains.
This class will provide the background you need in order to complete the Lay Worship Leader licensing test.
UPCOMING DATES:
2024 TRAININGS
- Saturday, January 13, 2024 via Zoom – Basic Worship Leader Training
(Registration deadline: January 7) - Saturday, February 3, 2024 via Zoom – Lent and Holy Week*
(Registration deadline: January 28) - Saturday, May 4, 2024 at St. Andrew’s, Gaylord – Basic Worship Leader Training (incl. lunch)
(Registration deadline: April 28) - Saturday, September 14, 2024 via Zoom – Funeral Preparation*
(Registration deadline: September 8)
* Continuing education sessions require participants to have already completed their license to serve as a Worship Leader.
REGISTRATION
The cost to participate is $25 per session, which helps to cover trainer time, materials, and other associated expenses.
If the cost to attend is a barrier to your participation and you are unable to recieve financial support from your congregation, please contact Canon Little at tlittle@eastmich.org or tlittle@edwm.org.
Please read the list of dates above for registration deadlines.
