It’s November 2009, which means that Trinity’s experiment with monthly Taizé prayer services has been going on for just over a year. Chances are, you haven’t yet attended a Taizé service—and with that in mind, here are the Top 10 Reasons Why It’s Time for You to Give Taizé a Try:

10. Lots of candles really do add to the sensory experience of worship.

9. There’s no sermon.

8. We can do neat things with the Sanctuary’s lighting, focusing on the table and creating a small circle of light for worshipers to gather in.

7. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, as some of our most faithful Taizé worshipers are not Trinity members.

6. Our Taizé service is a welcome time of peace and quiet to help us prepare for the week ahead.

5. The lovely Taizé music would sound even better with more people singing.

4. Trinity’s beautiful sanctuary is a different kind of beautiful in the late afternoon.

3. Our Taizé service is “alternative worship” that isn’t watered down or narrowly focused on a particular “target” group.

2. It’s an opportunity to engage in communal prayer and individual prayer, all at the same time.

1. God’s Spirit is present in the silence.

See you at the next Taizé prayer service: Sunday, November 8, 5:00 p.m.!

—Dwight Christenbury

In his sermon of December 21 (which you can find here), Mark Stanley referred to nine characteristics of worship in “vital and faithful” congregations, as identified by the preacher and teacher Thomas G. Long in Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship.

In case you didn’t catch all of them, here they are again:

“Vital and faithful congregations

1. “Make room, somewhere in worship, for the experience of mystery

2. “Make planned and concerted efforts to show hospitality to the stranger

3. “Have recovered and made visible the sense of drama inherent in Christian worship

4. “Emphasize congregational music that is both excellent and eclectic in style and genre

5. “Creatively adapt the space and environment of worship

6. “Forge a strong connection between worship and local mission—a connection expressed in every aspect of the worship service

7. “Maintain a relatively stable order of service and a significant repertoire of worship elements and responses that the congregation knows by heart

8. “Move to a joyous festival experience toward the end of the worship service

9. “Have strong, charismatic pastors as worship leaders.”

[Thomas G. Long, Beyond the Worship Wars: Building Vital and Faithful Worship (Washington: Alban Institute, 2001), p. 13.]

This list is one man’s opinion, but it seems a good starting point for a congregational discussion of worship. Please share your thoughts in the questionnaires that will soon be distributed, and consider leaving a comment here as well. Thank you in advance for your thoughtful contributions to this important conversation.

—Dwight Christenbury