Worship
SMC worship space, Advent 2008
At Seattle Mennonite we understanding ourselves to be grounded in and formed through worship. Through worship we orient ourselves toward God and identify ourselves with Jesus. We nurture our relationship with God and with each other, come together in prayer and praise and we learn more about the One whom we worship. Led by our pastors and a variety of lay leaders and planners, we involved many people in the preparation and leadership of worship .
On any given Sunday, we sing and pray together, hear scripture, story and preaching, collect our offerings and share announcements that relate to the life of our community. We follow the liturgical church calendar beginning with Advent in the weeks before Christmas and ending in and Pentecost, often using worship materials from the Leader worship resource from MC USA. Summers usually bring a more casual worship time, incorporating more story and allowing pastors’ voices to take a backseat to members of the congregation. We try to be diverse in the ways that we worship, incorporating various styles of music, Biblical storytelling and drama.
It is important to members of SMC to make worship accessible and welcoming to children and families. Often we encourage children and youth to be involved in worship, knowing that in this way not only are we mentoring future worship leaders, but that their contributions are valuable to our experience with God.
In addition to Sunday morning worship we have several special worship events through the year, including Christmas Eve, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and often the Longest Night.