On leading chapel

Your aim as a leader should be guide the congregation through a collective performance of
the gospel. Done well, church is not a list of stock items assembled into a nicely varied
playlist. Its elements should tell the gospel story, and the art of leading well is to draw the
congregation’s attention to that story so they are aware of participating in it, without
drawing unnecesssary attention to yourself or cluttering the story with lots of explanation.
The right balance is difficult to find, and even experienced and thoughtful leaders don’t
always find it. It takes time, hard work, and experience. Of course, a poorly run service can
still be an effective vehicle of the gospel, a place where people come to faith and grow. But
a good service leader is a wonderful gift to the life of the body.
Here is a nine-point plan for preparing and leading College chapel services.
1. Start early and collect the elements of the service from the roster plus the prayers for the
day, which the prayer team will email you (they are also on the LSS). If you want other
people to lead in prayer you need to invite them; there is no roster of pray-ers. If you want
to do anything different (e.g. with order of songs, performance of psalm), you will need to
communicate that a couple of days beforehand to the chapel tech team (check the
“Producers” column on the roster) so they can prepare the slides.
Note: Word and Prayer lives on the LSS as pdfs; the Sunday Services book is down the front of
KLT; copies of AAPB (Cash Chapel) may be borrowed from reception. The roster specifices which
service to use from each of those books for that day.

2. Ask the preacher what their passage is, but don’t offer to read it unless they beg you to.
3. Think prayerfully about how the service hangs together (readings + psalm + sermon
passage if you have one), and use that to decide how you will begin and end. You may
want to highlight a theme, an aspect of God’s character, a response to the gospel, or the
like. You don’t have to say much (or even anything) about this theme, but it will help you
prepare a service that coheres.
4. You should then make sure that you begin and end with Scripture—not with lots of
commentary, and especially not with an anecdote about your week or a funny story! Use
well-chosen and not-too-long Bible verses to convey the theme. Something memorable and
appropriate from one of the readings or the Psalm can often be a helpful starting-point.
5. You will notice that different services (WP1 etc.; AAPB Morning Prayer etc.) have things
in different order. There is a logic to each of those orders (WP has an explanation page
before each service), which you should try to respect. Use the flexibility each service gives
you to shape the occasion.
6. Decide whether you want to perform the psalm in a way that brings its meaning to life; if
you want to do one of the “congregational ministry” activities which WP3 and WP4 make
room for (warn people at the start if you do); if you want to ask people to lead in prayer.
The goal is not to draw attention to the occasion, or to the people up the front, yourself
included, but to draw people into a shared engagement with God in his word.
7. Be disciplined! Start and end on time, go over the service with tech people and musos at
9am to make sure everything flows smoothly—and if it’s 9:45 and the service is clearly
going to run over 10:00, be prepared to make a decision and cut something. Carefully work
out everything you are going to say, so that you use as few words as possible to say it.
8. Be yourself! Having worked everything out, relax, don’t sound like you are reading off a
script, be appropriately serious, but warm and joyful as well. Basically, you should be the
model of a person who is being suitably edified by the occasion!
9. Seek feedback afterwards from your chaplain and anyone else you’d like to ask.
Andrew Shead