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Energizing worship

by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor

April/May 2008

Marcia McFee

<www.macucc.org/pep/ MarciaMcFee.htm>

Marcia McFee runs her workshops the way she hopes worship is run: they are interactive, fun, and experiential. 

“Theologian Tom Driver put it best,” she said.  “‘To be boring is to bear false witness...’  We are charged with the task of bringing a life-transforming story to our churches week after week.  I want worship leaders to discover more about our diversity, why ‘boring’ is NOT about a particular worship style, and gain tools to bring our faith narrative alive.”

Dr. Marcia McFee is an author, worship designer and leader, professor, preacher, artist, and the featured presenter at the May 10th Pastoral Excellence Program event to be held at the Wellesley Congregational Church.  She combines her background and experience in professional companies of music, theater and dance with a variety of worship and preaching styles in order to bring a fresh experience of the Gospel to each worship setting.

“Enhancing our worship is not just about making it ‘interesting,’ but about forming disciples who ‘go and do likewise’ in the world,” she said.  “My PhD is in worship and ethics.  I believe what we do in worship matters for who we are becoming outside of our worship.  Our rituals form and shape us.  The question is, ‘to what are we being formed?’  Interactive, participatory, diverse and deeply spiritual worship forms us as active disciples.  We come to worship to deepen our relationships with each other and with the Divine and to be inspired to walk in the way of Jesus.”

McFee’s passion for helping the church to worship God fully is especially directed toward the education of local congregations. She travels extensively in order to teach regional workshops that are accessible to congregational leaders and worship teams. She hopes the workshop participants take away at least these four lessons:

1. A grasp of the landscape of worship in the 21st century and how to draw from the strengths of several liturgical movements – this includes a fun and interactive tour of worship history that helps participants truly appreciate “tradition.”
   
2. A greater understanding of our expectations of worship; why we resonate with different modes of worship; and how to live into the inevitable diversity that each congregation represents.
   
3. Skills for taking worship to the next level:  a new perspective for multi-sensory worship; an understanding of worship as a journey – attention to flow; and the importance of the role of worship leaders as spiritual directors.
   
4. Techniques to get more people involved in helping with worship planning and implementation.  Learn to plan seasonally and thematically
   

“As a member of UCC churches, I am dedicated to building up the church and its liberating message by helping congregations enhance the ways they bring that message,” McFee said.

“My goal is to not only teach skills and tools for worship with deep soul, but also for the day to be a mini-retreat for the soul,” she said.  “We cannot talk about worship without finding worship within our time together.  And when leaders go away from an educational event having been inspired for their work as well as given tools to make it happen, the whole church benefits.  And the more tools leaders have to understand their congregations and what moves and shapes them, the more the church is built up.”