When? Locally agreed date (traditionally the Sunday following Easter Day*)
This suggested Order of Service for Local Preachers’ Sunday has been developed in collaboration with three district local preachers’ secretaries (thank you to the Revd Jen Mullis, Bill Offler and Ian Warburton). You are welcome to use the order of service in its entirety or you may wish to simply dip into it.
‘Local Preachers’ Sunday’ can have a variety of meanings in people’s minds. *Some may remember a Sunday when all the services in the circuit were taken by Local Preachers and when Local Preachers often swapped with other circuits and spent the whole day there.
By offering this suggested Order of Service for Local Preachers’ Sunday we’re not trying to reinvent that kind of Local Preachers’ Sunday (though circuits could obviously choose to do that, if they wished). The accent is on celebrating the ministry of Local Preachers (not forgetting Worship Leaders, but the primary focus is on Local Preachers) and nudging people to consider whether they themselves might be being called to be a Local Preacher. It’s a chance not only to praise God for the ministry of Local Preachers but also to actively encourage others to listen for a call to become Local Preachers.
As the ‘Come and See’ theme is unpacked, it’s important that we don’t give the impression that worshippers (especially any dipping their toes into church-going for the first time) have to come over to our turf, as it were. It’s not a matter of coming to us, instead it’s to do with them catching some of our infectious enthusiasm for Jesus and the Kingdom, and coming to Jesus. It’s also potentially to do with worshippers themselves doing some ‘showing and telling’, describing how faith impacts their own lives and sharing their own faith-journey discoveries.