Combining the best of text, illustration, and thematic metaphor, Liturgical sequences capture both the flexibility of the technology and the drama inherent in worship.
In a sense, all slides are illustrations of something going on in worship. They always point to something. The key question is what. To what does the slide point?
Single-image illustrations might point to a song or a text, such as lyrics and a music staff that points to a song of response, or maybe an image of a manger that points to a Advent Scripture reading. But then the question is, to what does the song or reading point? Why are we singing this song now, at this particular point in the service? What is the task of worship for the congregation? What questions are we trying to answer?
I suggest that most congregations follow a regular pattern of worship from week to week. Each week we probably begin with some sort of gathering, move through some acts of praise, are nourished by the word, offer some sort of response, and are sent out to love and serve the Lord in the world. Some churches are highly formal in these liturgical steps, while others are more informal and free-flowing. This is a story we tell each week: we are gathered, nourished, and sent by God in worship.
Furthermore, all of our choices of songs, texts, and prayers serve this story. We sing this song at this point in the service because it expresses these fundamental tasks of worship. We sing gathering songs at the beginning and sending songs at the end in order to tell the story. Worship planners use this story all the time, sometimes almost unconsciously.
My thesis is, if we can perceive and articulate this story as our particular church tells it, we will have the most basic and fundamental target at which our visual illustrations should point. Rather than illustrate the song, illustrate the same thing the song is trying to illustrate. Illustrate the story that your weekly worship tells. Maybe that includes elements like Gathering, Confession, Assurance, Nourishment, Response, Expectation, and Sending. These are the deepest tasks of worship for the congregation, and using your screen to illustrate them is the deepest form of using your screen to lead them in their act of worship.
In short, a Liturgical Sequence is a series of thematic images that illustrates the flow of the service, highlighting the most fundamental tasks that a congregation is called to do in a worship service.
Liturgical Sequences also nicely incorporate Thematic Metaphors. If a single-image metaphor captures the overall theme of a service, a Liturgical Sequence can unfold and develop the metaphor over a series of images. The difference is akin to the difference between an single-pane editorial cartoon and a comic strip. This is not to suggest they be humorous, but that they build dramatic tension through a series of images. Instead of trying to tell the whole story in one image, the screen can walk the congregation through the metaphor in terms of Gathering, Nourishment, Sending, etc.
For example, if the theme is "Learning to Follow," what does it look like to be Gathered as Christ's Disciples? How do we depict our brokenness as failed disciples during Confession? How does Assurance and Nourishment change our self-image as restored followers? How would we visualize what it means to be restored disciples sent out to transform the world?
Visually depicting the theme of the service in this way not only develops the metaphor more fully, it illustrates the basic tasks of worship.
It also takes advantage of the power of the technology. Since the screen is controllable and flexible, able to change images easily, why limit the metaphor to one image? The screen behaves somewhat like a musical instrument, able to play fast or slow, evoking tones of both lament and joy. This dynamic range is one of the key benefits of digital projection, as opposed to say, cloth banners.
This dynamic power, used to develop a thematic metaphor through the drama of most fundamental tasks of worship, makes Liturgical Sequences the most powerful use of the screen for leading congregation with light.
Comments