What is an Assisting Minister?
This year, one of the things we have been working on is establishing our congregation’s roster of Assisting Ministers who can assist with serving at worship. Our Savior’s, as a descendent of the Norwegian church tradition, inherits a rich tradition of lay participation in worship. We already have acolytes, lectors, and assisting ministers (in a limited way as a function of council members at worship) in our church.
I can’t do a better job of explaining than the guidebook published by our church to accompany the old green hymnal. Manual on the Liturgy: Lutheran Book of Worship (Augsburg Publishing House, 1979) put it this way:
Liturgy means “work of the people,” but too often in the past the liturgy gave the impression that it was the work of the pastor. It seemed as though the minister (usually singular) did the work — he (always male) preached, he celebrated the sacraments, he “conducted the service.” But the liturgy has always been the responsibility of all the people of God…
The German Church Orders which led to the formation of the Common Service all stemmed from Luther’s revision of the mass and ultimately from the Latin historic Eucharist of the church of western Europe. In addition to this continental tradition, there is in North America the strong influence of a Scandinavian tradition of lay participation in worship, indeed of lay leadership and preaching. (p. 9)
Until recent years at Our Savior’s, we have been served by multiple pastors, and customarily one took on the preaching responsibilities while the other served as the assisting minister. But now, as we are served again by only one pastor, there is an opportunity for us to re-emphasize the idea of our worship being a shared action of pastor and people. The Manual continues:
This tradition that recognized that the presiding pastor was not the only leader of worship has been embraced not only by other Lutheran bodies in North America but by other denominations as well. One feature of contemporary worship is the emphasis on shared leadership to indicate that the service is not something that the pastor does while the people watch but is something which is an action shared by all who assemble to worship and over which one is called to preside. Moreover, the people are encouraged to provide all of the petitions for the prayers of intercession in the Eucharist, and the presiding minister gathers all of them together in the concluding paragraph. (pp. 9-10, emphasis mine)
To this end, the church has encouraged us:
The leadership role is expanded in modern liturgies… In the Holy Communion the leadership ought to be shared by several people: the Presiding Minister who must be ordained and the assisting ministers who need not be ordained…
Laypeople — women as well as men — ought to be encouraged to share in the assisting roles as their abilities allow, in addition to the clergy of the parish. They are not just helpers in the absence of ordained people; they have their own rightful role to fill…
Laypeople ought to be given roles in the service as a matter of principle to show the broadened understanding of leading worship. (pp. 10-11, emphasis mine)
Thus, with the approval of the Congregation Council I have trained up three laypeople who will be our first assisting ministers: Cameron Haaland, Joel Minscer, and Taylor Schultz.
They have agreed to serve about once per month, so we will not have assisting ministers at every service. If more people are interested in learning the assisting minister role, training will be available.
Their responsibilities will include: helping to write the prayers of intercession, leading the Kyrie, Prayers of Intercession, Offertory Prayer, Post-Communion Prayer, Benedicamus, and Dismissal, and helping to distribute Holy Communion. When an assisting minister is serving, I will continue in the roles set aside for ordained clergy as the presiding minister.
Our first assisting ministers will be serving for the first time at worship this weekend, December 6-7. Please thank them for their willingness to help lead worship and take on this responsibility. And of course, if you have any questions about this new leadership role in our worship, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any member of the Congregation Council.
