Sunday’s post-worship question caught me off-guard, although I was able to have a suitable answer in the moment. It has however kept me thinking for much of this week, particularly as I begin to put into place the final layout for the order of service on Sunday.

At the door, I was asked, “Is it you who does all these responses? Or is it something that comes from on high?”

My response, caught off guard – “They are very much part of a reformed tradition, and they are not part of our worship every week.”

Not my best response, but I was caught off guard, and it seemed like a peculiar question from the person involved and given the length of our relationship. This is not a new relationship, but instead one that has grown over nearly a double figure period. Responses in our worship are not new, but happen as appropriate to the worship, and not necessarily weekly.

When responses were new to congregational life, there was explanation of why they had become part of worship. With the then Worship Committee, we explored that saying the Lord’s Prayer together was in its basic form a response, and we looked at how worship was not something that was done to the congregation, but something that they participated in. The participating in responses reflected the notion of corporate worship. One or two mentioned the idea was not very Calvinist, but others felt that Reformation ideals of the people claiming worship as their own were there.

Whenever responses find their way into our service I remind the congregation that they share in them as they wish. It may be that they want to say the words, but sharing in them can also be reading them or simply listening to them.

Now I know that my sensitivity to this is that it came after worship. Had it been said on Monday, I would have been less bothered – although not much. I also know it was one voice in the variety of people there.

However I love that it reminds me that ministry is never settled, and that sometimes the old challenges rear their head, in part to allow time for reflection again on why things happen. But also so that the Holy Spirit reminds us not to get too settled.

And although I’m heading to that double figure of service and relationship, a little reminder that to some I’m still the new, young thing – no matter what age I am or experience I might believe I have.