Pastoral and Programmed with Open Worship

Excluding theological and social concerns (of which there is a wide variety among Friends worldwide), there are basically two types of Friends' Meetings: unprogrammed/non-pastoral and programmed/pastoral.

The traditional unprogrammed Friends meeting for worship is based upon expectant waiting, where the participants gather in silence and wait for the Holy Spirit to move upon their hearts. Some will be inspired by the Spirit to speak messages they hear for the whole group. Others will hear messages from the Spirit that are for them alone. There is no music and no prepared messages. Everything happens spontaneously as led by the Spirit. Of course, people prepare all week long for worship by prayer, Scripture reading, witnessing, paying attention to what God is doing in their lives, etc. However, no one sits down and prepares ahead of time what will be said. In an unprogrammed Friends Meeting there is generally no paid pastor. Individuals in the church take on the various roles, including pastoral services, on a volunteer basis. Some unprogrammed Meetings - particularly larger ones - may have a paid secretary to handle correspondence and do office work such as newsletter, telephone, handle Meeting calendar, etc.

The programmed Friends meeting developed in the late 1800's. Today most Friends Meetings worldwide are in fact programmed. A typical programmed meeting for worship would include a few hymns, public prayer, an offering, a message by the pastor and sometimes a short period of open (unprogrammed) worship. Some programmed meetings for worship include music by a choir and other special music.

Programmed Friends Meetings generally have a person or persons appointed to serve as pastor, and these individuals are compensated financially for their service. Some Meetings employ a full-time pastor - or even have a pastoral staff - while others have part-timers or students/retired persons.

Because of the congregational nature of a Friends Meeting and because of Friends' deep commitment to the ministry of all believers, Friends' pastors are not given the same kinds of authority as pastors in some other Christian denominations or movements. While it is true that there are areas in which a pastor is to exercise authority, the nature of that authority is functional and not based upon holding an office. The final authority in a Friends Meeting is from Jesus through the congregation waiting upon the Lord to reveal his will.

Pastoral/programmed Friends Meetings use the words meeting and church interchangeably. Biblically the word church is reserved for the body of believers who have been called out of the world system and are knit together through the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church is not a building or even an organization. It is all those who make up the body of Christ. The word meeting has been used by Friends to denote the function of the church in its congregational meetings. Traditionally every time the members of a Friends congregation get together, it is called a meeting. For instance, our congregational business meetings are called Meeting for Business. A wedding service is seen as a Meeting for Worship for the purpose of witnessing the marriage of a man and a woman. Some Friends Meetings take their carry-in dinners so seriously that they call them Meetings for Eating!! Clintondale Friends Christian Church has been a pastoral/programmed Friends Meeting for a long time, dating back to the 1800's. There are two historic meetinghouses on the property. The meetinghouse in which our worship services are held was built in 1889, and it was built as a programmed meetinghouse. It is similar in design to most protestant country church buildings. It even has - to the horror of many traditional Friends - a steeple!

There is also a meetinghouse on our property that was built in 1811, when Friends in Clintondale were an unprogrammed, non-pastoral Meeting. The 1811 meetinghouse was removed from the property when the new meetinghouse was built in 1889. In 1983 it was brought back to the property and restoration work continued on it until 1989 when we celebrated the 100^th anniversary of the 1889 meetinghouse. There is a branch of the Highland Public Library in the 1811 Meetinghouse. Committee meetings and classes also take place there.

In 2004 we began using our new Fellowship Hall, a 5100 square foot building designed for multiple uses, including worship, meals, Fellowship Hour after worship, Youth Group, Kids Church, AA and Al-Anon, wedding receptions, parties and a host of other activities. This new building adds to the ministries that we can offer, and we are thankful to God that we have it.

Our programmed meeting for worship has changed over the last ten years or so, and includes more time in open worship, which to a large degree is a kind of unprogrammed worship. There is often a good deal of sharing from the congregation and the pastor's message changes frequently based upon what has been shared during open worship. We have a variety of music, ranging from traditional church hymns accompanied by the organ and or piano, and contemporary choruses accompanied by guitar. There are several tambourines in the meetingroom, and frequently we hear them used in worship.

Clintondale Friends Christian Church is a pastoral, programmed Meeting with genuine openness in worship. It has been an interesting journey since becoming an independent Friends church in 1995. In some ways we are really a community church. We do not make a lot out of our Quakerness. In other ways, particularly with regard to our worship experiences, we are moving more toward a traditional Friends approach. Even when we offer communion and baptism, it is with the understanding that the traditional Friends concern for the essence of sacrament, namely its inwardness and immediacy, is always uppermost in our heart, mind and spirit.

Our church is no longer connected to the Religious Society of Friends, but we do honor our heritage. The most important part of that heritage is the gathering of a people in the name of Jesus Christ to worship, work and witness in and for the Kingdom of God. In the Fall of 2005 we embarked on a program designed to enable us as individuals and as a congregation to discover and live into the purposes God has for us here in Clintondale. We reaffirm the Purpose Statement found in our By-laws, knowing that the real test is living out that statement. It is far easier to write a statement of purpose than to live it out.

Paul wrote "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation." (Galatians 6:15, NKJV) In other words, form does not count nearly as much as reality. Clintondale Friends Christian Church seeks the new creation, and we allow forms to develop that enable us to experience better that new creation. We are not always in agreement among ourselves on every detail of our life together, but we seek in all things to be in agreement on our dependence upon Jesus Christ for that life.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)

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