WOMEN’S DAY
(March is Women’s History Month)

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Daryl Walker, Lectionary Team Liturgist

Worship Planning Notes

Today we celebrate women who are wise builders. They build through their commitment to God, themselves, their families, churches, communities, and the world. Yet even the wisest builder has gone through some struggles. Hence, “The Power of Wise Women Builders” or “Wise Women Builders” or “Celebrating Women Builders” are suggested themes, and Proverbs 14:1 is the supporting Scripture: Every wise woman builds her house: but the foolish tears it down with her own hands. The goal is for women to witness to each other through music, movement, and testimony during worship and other related Women’s Day or Women’s Weekend events.

Bulletin Notes: Provide notes in the bulletin or on projection screens on the significance of specific pieces of music to the theme. Include supportive Scriptures that help connect the songs to the theme. Also include brief testimonies from individual women if possible.

Testimonies: The purpose of testimonies is twofold. First, they witness to the power of God and how God’s goodness has changed lives. Second, they push past barriers of women not talking to each other and foster mutual support in building better lives through Christ. During the Bible studies and other activities leading up to Women’s Day, solicit testimonies from individual women who can share how God’s goodness helped them deal not only with overcoming personal hardships but also with struggles in moving from simple church membership to effective Christian discipleship. It would be helpful to share as many printed testimonies as your bulletin or projection system will allow. It would also enhance the worship experience if you could select three testimonies to incorporate into the worship service at the key points indicated below.

Working with the Theme: The Scriptures and music given below are suggested to help examine how women build wisely and what biblically based building blocks they use. There are three primary phases of constructing a building and they align with the three primary phases of a worship service. You might want to align your worship components to match the three phases as suggested below. If you have selected women to share testimonies, the sequence would be scripture, testimony, and song or liturgical dance/mime.

1. Preparing the site. Although this is called different things in different churches, it equates to the time of invocation, opening, praise, or personal testimony.

Scripture: Acts 20:32: “I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.”

Scripture: Luke 14:28: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”

Scripture: Psalms 127:1a: “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it.”

Scripture: Isaiah 9:10a: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones.”

Scripture: Jude 1:20-21: “But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

2. Hymns and Congregational Songs
(a) We’ve Come This Far by Faith. Text and Tune by Albert A. Goodson

(b) We Are One in the Spirit. By Peter Scholte

(c) We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. Traditional

(d) Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand. By Jennie Wilson; refrain by F. I. Eiland

3. Spirituals or Traditional Songs
(a) Search Me Lord. By Thomas A. Dorsey

(b) Done Made My Vow. Arr. by Nolan Williams, Jr.

(c) A Charge to Keep I Have. By Charles Wesley. Negro spiritual

4. Gospel Songs for Choirs, Ensembles, or Praise Teams
(a) Through It All. By Andraé Crouch

(b) Koinonia. By V. Michael McKay

(c) Higher Ground. By Johnson Oatman, Jr. Tune, (HIGHER GROUND), by Charles H. Gabriel.

(d) We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder. Negro spiritual. Arr. by Horace Boyer

5. Liturgical Dance or Mime Ministry Music
For an intergenerational blessing, start with seasoned saints singing “There’s a Leak in This Old Building” and phase into younger women or teenage girls singing “I’m Going to Another Level.”

(a) There’s a Leak in This Old Building. Writer Unknown

(b) I’m Going to Another Level. By Israel Houghton

(c) Encourage Yourself. By Donald Lawrence

6. Anthems
(a) Great Is Thy Faithfulness. By Thomas O. Chisholm. Arr. by Nathan Carter

(b) A Virtuous Woman. By Guy Robinson

(c) Rejoice in the Lord Always. By Clayton White

7. Modern Songs (Written between 2000–2011)
(a) Encourage Yourself. By Donald Lawrence

(b) For Every Mountain. By Kurt Carr

(c) In the Midst of It All. By Yolanda Adams

8. Offertory Song or Instrumental
(a) Press toward the Mark. By Norman Hutchins

(b) You Should Be a Witness. By Charles Nicks Jr.

9. Song or Instrumental for the Period of Prayer
(a) Create in Me a Clean Heart. By Donnie McClurkin

(b) Unity. Text and Tune by Glorraine Moone. Based on Psalm 113:1

(c) Give Me a Clean Heart. By Fred Hammond

(d) Sanctuary (choral introit). By John Thompson and Randy Scruggs

10. Sermonic Selection
(a) If I Can Help Somebody (Psalm 127). By A. Bazel Androzzo

(b) Be Blessed. By Kurt Carr

(c) Order My Steps. By Glenn Burleigh

11. Invitational Song or Instrumental
(a) I Give Myself Away. By Sam Hinn and William McDowell

(b) We Fall Down, But We Get Up. By Donnie McClurkin

(c) With a Made Up Mind. By Donald Vails

(d) The Solid Rock. By Edward Mote. Tune, (SOLID ROCK), by William B. Bradbury. This selection can be done well with Caribbean rhythms.

12. Benediction Song or Instrumental
(a) Till We Meet. By Kirk Franklin

(b) Be Blessed. By Kurt Carr. You can use the first verse only as a benedictory hymn.

(c) Till We Gather Again. Text and Tune by Stephen F. Key

13. Audio Visual Aids

“Brick by Brick” was the theme song for Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church Vacation Bible School (VBS), the theme for which was “God the Builder” in 2008. The choreography depicted in the video for “Brick by Brick” is designed to feature children. Online location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDtvv6tzZ3w

Cites and Additional Information for Music and Material Listed

Material in the Worship Planning Notes was contributed by:

• Brian Johnson, Executive Director of Sacred Music at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago;
  
  
• Ron Anderson, Associate Director of Sacred Music at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago;
  
  
• Marilyn J. Richardson Lewis, Principal of Higher Level, LLC; and
  
  
• Jacqueline Austin, Psalmist, Praise and Worship Leader at Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago.

1. Litany for a Wise Builder by Rev. Joe Ann Watson, Administrative Assistant for Arts and Worship, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL