Liturgy in a Post-Book Era

The Way Things Worked

I think most pastors under 40 prefer the printed book in theory but are addicted to their ebooks as a matter of convenience. In a related shift, I detect a shift away from the standardized "book of worship" for formal denominations, especially the conservative ones that skew less liturgical.

These are what I'm referring to:

The Anglicans have different variants of the Book of Common Prayer
The PC(USA) has the Book of Common Worship
The Methodists, Lutherans, UCC and others tend to all use the term Book of Worship
Many more denominations or inter-denominational groups slap the concise orders for worship right in the Hymnal.

To oversimplify, the expectation from the 16th through the 20th century was for the minister to perform the ceremonies of the church as outlined by careful liturgists of that tradition. An excellent resource is found in Reformation Worship, a collection of reformation liturgies.

There are exceptions. John Endicott once sent some colonists back to England because they held a prayer meeting using the BCP. The Presbyterians had their Directory, rather than a book, laying out principles rather than prescriptions for worship, and the Quakers historically sat around and waited for the inner light of the Spirit to direct a meeting.

Jenny Geddes throws a stool at the minister over his use of the Book of Common Prayer at St. Giles. Do you think they made up in heaven?

The Way Things Are

The books of worship are de-facto the rule for the mainline churches, but I don't get the feeling that there is any enforcement of the liturgy. I am not for experimentation in worship but I do see the libertarian logic of advising but not enforcing.

In the two most notable evangelical and liturgical denominations, the ACNA produced its own BCP in 2019 with plenty of accompanying resources, and a group of LCMS Lutherans are in an extensive Lutheran Missal Project.

Those of us without a liturgical book in force are free to sink or swim. Archive.org has every liturgical book you can imagine ready to be mined for its liturgical content. Inter-denominational resources like the Calvin Seminary's Worship Sourcebook fill the niche but in a choose your own adventure fashion. Unfortunately (in my opinion), most Evangelical churches are instead the way of the big box space where they hold a ted talk + rock concert service.

The Way Things Look

I anticipate more moves in these directions:

Loose-leaf distribution for pulpits and lecterns.
- Like this TEC large print 1979 BCP.
Total, free, electronic distribution of the liturgical sources, like the RCUS has already done on their fantastic website. Currently, it feels like a book adapted for web, but it could be formatted as web-first. BCPonline.org has done this for years.
Responsive, customizable service builders like these:

Advice For Now

I happen to have a big pulpit and I use the loose-leaf method. Besides my sermon notes, I cycle between three pages:

The opening sentences/calls to worship
The collects
The service outline

The first two have every item for every season or sunday of the year. My service outline sheet is swapped out depending on the service (word, word & table, funeral, baptism etc.) I also use an altar card.

Loose-leaf pages are dumb (they don't fail like tablets) but still adaptable. If your church decides to add a fourth hymn going forward, you can simply change your document. If you move the offering from after to before the sermon, you can change that in your outline.

If a service goes without change for years, my ultimate preference would be to memorize everything and paste a service order in the front cover of every hymnal. The minister performs the service, the people know what's coming (or can look if they've forgotten), but there is no need to make and print disposable bulletins week by week. Other bulletin items can be supplemented by screens and hymn boards.

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