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Music, worship leaders find retreat, renewal
Brian McLaren headlines weekend full of resources and dialogue

Pastors and worship leaders from across the Mennonite Church in the United States and Canada gathered at Laurelville for the Music & Worship Leaders’ Retreat on January 8-10.

A rich tradition since 1987, this year’s program featured the presence of special guest Brian McLaren, a renowned pastor, writer, and speaker who is a leader of the emergent church movement.

The weekend centered on the lectionary theme for the upcoming Lenten season: “Holding on and Letting go”. Marlene Kropf, MCUSA Minister of Worship, encouraged attendees to understand the deeper implications of Lent. “Lent is about how we become lost,” she said during Friday evening’s opening session. “Grace,” she added, “reconnects us to our true selves.”

Kropf spoke of the importance of personal transformation during the season and the key role worship leaders can fill for their congregations. “We aren’t often explicitly theological here at these Laurelville weekends,” she said. “We prefer to do our theology implicitly–get it slant in poetry or singing, dramas, rituals or visuals.”

She urged participants to utilize time and space for theological reflection in order to allow the Lenten season to embody its transformative power for God’s people.

Plenary sessions walked participants through some of the hymn selections and Scripture passages provided in Leader, a worship resource periodical for Anabaptist congregations. Under the guidance of Kropf, Eastern Mennonite University professor Ken Nafziger, and worship resource specialist Marilyn Houser Hamm, participants were given the unique opportunity to learn new skills for worship leading through observation.

The result was a musical delight which participant Gayle Yoder described as “a taste of heaven” in a post on Laurelville’s blog after the weekend.

“I was in awe of the people, the resources—the whole environment,” commented first-time attendee Ricky Schrag, of Akron, Pennsylvania.

For many, the Music & Worship Leaders’ Retreat served as a much-needed reprieve. After a full Advent season that begins in November and carries over to Epiphany in January, pastors and worship leaders often find that they need to be filled again before Lent’s forty-day journey commences.

“I love the season of Advent,” remarked Mary Lehman Yoder, a pastor at Assembly Mennonite (Goshen, Indiana), “but often near the end I need a break.”

She has found solace at Laurelville over the past decade. “I realize how (Music & Worship Leaders’ Retreat) is a part of my inner rhythm.”

For others, the weekend represents an opportunity to engage in relevant dialogue with other leaders, ranging in topic from hymn selection and visual design to theological underpinnings in the context of worship.

Brian McLaren’s presence emphasized the latter. “He helped us to gather the rich diversity of insights within the group, allowing us to appreciate the fullness of Scripture passages for the Lenten season,” observed Derek Yoder, of Plainfield, Illinois.

Laurelville Program Director Angela Dietzel echoed Yoder’s appreciation for McLaren. “Brian McLaren’s participation in the weekend was a gift,” she said. “As the Mennonite Church discerns the future along with the larger Christian Church, I believe his words will reverberate in the minds of those present and be infused in emerging dialogue.”

McLaren pointed out that the worship leader’s role is to allow for the congregation to fully enter into God’s Word during worship and to listen to the Holy Spirit. “When dealing with Scripture,” he warned, “what we focus on often determines what we miss.”

Ted Swartz and Jeff Raught, of Ted & Company TheaterWorks, were also on hand to share several sketches with the group and engage participants in constructing their own readers’ theater out of a Lenten passage.

“Drama in worship allows people to think about the Bible in different ways,” said Lisa White, a Lancaster, Pennsylvania resident who took part in the Sunday morning sketch that unfolded. “Ted walked us through the process of creating a story to share it with others.”

White, herself an actress with a theatre degree from EMU, left with renewed energy for sharing the gifts of dramatic interpretation with her church.

This is the hope with which Laurelville plans each Music & Worship Leaders’ Retreat. “Few would say it provides rest or relaxation,” commented Dietzel, “but rather it recharges through powerful song, rich worship experiences, and opportunity to reconnect with friends.”

The retreat occurs each January, with registration regularly filling up in advance. Laurelville has added an additional program in the fall—Worship Arts Training—which offers participants hands-on workshops to strengthen worship-leading practice. Worship Arts Training is scheduled for September 24-26; Music & Worship Leaders’ Retreat will happen again January 7-9, 2011.

Find excellent resources and join ongoing conversation from the weekend on our Wordpress blog, Beyond Laurelville.