Putting God’s People to Work: Laity Sunday 2024 at Highland Park UMC

If you’ve been following our churchwide communication channels lately, then you know that this coming Sunday will be a busy one at HPUMC! Of course, that’s very fitting because this is Laity Sunday. Laity Sunday is celebrated by United Methodist congregations around the world every year on the third Sunday in October. It calls us to celebrate the ministry of all Christians working together to do the work of the body of Christ. Since you, the laity, will be so busy on Sunday with activities like Blessing of the Animals and the Tower Arts concert, I’d like to take a moment today to reflect on the meaning of this occasion.

Laity comes from the Greek word “laos,” which means “people.” We use it to describe anyone who is not licensed, commissioned, or ordained to ministry by a denomination. When churches are at our best, we emphasize the mutual efforts and responsibilities of both the laity and the clergy for doing the work of ministry. I give thanks that empowerment of the laity has always been vital to the ministry of the Methodist movement in general and HPUMC in particular. Our senior minister, Rev. Paul Rasmussen, likes to say, “The only job at this church that requires ordination is the senior minister’s job.” He's right. The United Methodist Church is proud to encourage worship leadership and church administration by the laity in almost every situation. We, the clergy of HPUMC, take the responsibility to share leadership very seriously.

One special thing happening in church life this Sunday relates to the worship of Cox Chapel. In observance of Laity Sunday, I have invited several congregants to join me in planning and leading the worship service. In a certain sense, this is not new. A congregant serves as our liturgist each and every week. But this week, we will have congregants taking up most of my other ordinarily pastoral responsibilities, like preaching and leading the prayers. One of our congregants, Amanda Geier, will give her testimony this week in place of a sermon by an ordained minister. She is eager to share with the congregation how God has been at work in her life in recent months, and we thank her for doing so. In addition to that, a number of congregants have chipped in with suggestions for specific prayer requests and formats, so the service promises to be very special. The only thing I will do this Sunday is lead our weekly celebration of Holy Communion. That’s one of the few responsibilities reserved for the clergy. But even then, Communion is a collective act. We all take part in the celebration and it quite literally doesn’t count if there is no congregation there to participate.

I regularly read a church leadership newsletter that offers great advice and best practices, and it gave me a metaphor that I hope comes to fruition this week. It says worship can be beautiful when it is planned and led with a stone soup approach. If one of us brings a story of good news to proclaim, then another can supply the song suggestions. If one of us leads the prayers, then another can provide for our hospitality toward visitors. With God’s help, our many efforts will come together to form a service that is glorifying to God and edifying to God’s people.

This Sunday’s Cox Chapel service may be especially collaborative, but it is my hope and prayer for everyone at HPUMC that our worship always reminds us how the church knits us together. We hope you will join us in one of our five worshiping communities this week for Laity Sunday. We wouldn’t be whole without you.