Suggestions on
how to use the LCA Worship Resources
The LCA Worship Resources provides an extensive range of resources.
Here are some suggestions to help you get started.
• Examine the ‘Contents’ (in folder a, Readme) to get an overview of what is on the disk and the kinds of resources available, and read the ‘Introduction’.
• Open the document for the Sunday you are planning for and see all the suggestions, propers, and resources provided. You can easily copy anything you’d like to use (eg Sentences or a collect) and follow suggestions such as hymns and songs for the day.
• Adapt the texts provided according to your needs and preferences. For example, the Sentence may be said (or sung) responsively as usually provided, or said or sung entirely by the minister. It may be shortened or modified, eg from another translation. It could be used in different places in the service, eg before ‘In the name’, as an introit with ‘Glory to the Father’, after the greeting before the collect, after the greeting before the prayer following communion, or before the closing blessing. Another verse (perhaps related more closely to the sermon) could be used instead, eg the text of the suggested alleluia verse.
• Read through the large document ‘General notes and resources’ (in folder b, General and seasonal) for all kinds of background information and extra texts. You may find it useful to print out this document for reading and reference, rather than attempt to read it on the screen. Note that cross-references are underlined.
• Check the document for the season (eg ‘Advent season’) in folder b for extra notes and resources.
• Look in folder c, Rites and services, for special rites and service orders for particular occasions, such as Advent or Christmas, or a simplified or chorale/hymnic general service.
• Consider the variations provided which you can use in your regular services. You can find many in the ‘General notes and resources’ document – spoken ones in the first half of the document and sung ones in the second half. There is also the ‘Catechism resources’ document in folder b.
• Go to folder n, Modernised Lutheran Hymnal hymns, for modernised hymn texts. To make it easy to find whether or not a particular hymn has been modernised, look at the ‘List’ document (or print it out for reference). Or you could use Find on your computer to locate a particular hymn number or first line in the ‘Texts’ document.
• Consult the documents in folder m, Minor festivals and other days. Even if you don’t normally observe a saint’s day, you could consider it occasionally as a secondary theme or use its collect in addition to the regular collect for the Sunday. There are also Reformation Day resources, as well as resources for extra days like Mother’s Day, National Bible Sunday, and LCA Sunday.
• Don’t forget the bonus documents in the Appendix, folder o. For instance, there’s a complete index to the five ‘All Together’ books.
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