We started using the New Revised Common Lectionary this past December as an alternative to thematic services. The response has been extremely positive. The NRCL basically mirrors the Christian Year highlighting the redemptive acts of God through Jesus Christ. Each week the lectionary provides a Psalm, another OT reading (typically one of the prophets), an epistle, and a Gospel (this year, the primary Gospel is Luke).

Allowing the worship planning to grow out of the texts has been an awesome experience for our planning team. Some preachers may be hesitant to use the lectionary believing it to be too confining, but our preacher is totally on board. He loves the way the scriptures are connected and often very narrative. We find ourselves digging into passages that we would have never thought to use previously. It's a spiritual journey every week. We get a real sense of worship as a conversation where God speaks through the Word and we respond in prayer and song.

We don't throw the whole Christian Year (Advent, Epiphany, Lent, etc.) thing in our churches face. We know that many are sensitive to things that sound "too Catholic" (by the way, the Christian Year pre-dates the objectionable aspects of Medieval Catholicism). We have contextualized the Christian Year by "themeing" our year "United with Christ" (highlighting the saving acts of God through Jesus Christ). So in the end, we experience the same things that other churches do who celebrate the Christian Year, we just don't use words like Epiphany, Lent, etc.

There is something very ecumenical about using the lectionary. It's an awesome experience knowing that God is speaking the same words to us each week as He is to the Lutherans, Methodists, and so forth down the street.

One last thought, the NCRL, is simply an organized, systematic series of readings. Every church uses a lectionary, it's just a matter of it being planned or not. If you were to write down all of the scriptures that you used in public worship last year, that would be your lectionary. If you're like me you would discover that you use the same Psalms or readings at the Table over and over. A lectionary like the NCRL, forces you to use a wider range of passages which for us has meant seeing and hearing more of God's story.

Oh yeah, there are also a wide range of resources available for worship planning based on the lectionary. For starters try textweek.com or the Vanderbilt Divinity School website (they have an online version of the NRCL).

God bless,

John