Gudstjänsten som pedagogisk proces

Abstract

All good services are, or have, a potential to be educational happenings.

This article tries to show that every part of an ordinary Sunday service involves a lot of educational implications. It begins with actualizing what it means to be invited by the Lord—all human beings: young and old, married and single, black and white, rich and poor. In the opening hymn of praise, the community shares this experience of belonging to the worldwide family of God.

Step by step the service takes the participants through confession and cleansing, to freedom through the word of forgiving, to a listening of the freeing Word, to the stories told over and over again—learned in order to be lived in everyday life— to taking part in the congregation’s prayers for the world, and to sharing the bread and wine—given for all as a sign of reconciliation and love. Finally, the participants are blessed and sent out, renewed, to a life in partnership and loving responsibility with all and everybody.