What’s the Good Word
Why the Benediction Matters.
Being the pastor of a small congregation, I’ve been tasked with putting together the Sunday bulletin. I will look at various websites that have liturgies available for use and I usually can find the call to worship, the invocation, and the confession. But there is one part of the worship service that I always have trouble finding: the benediction.
I ultimately do find benedictions, but they are few and far between. When I do find them, more often than not they seem to not be written as well as other parts of the worship service. Benedictions seem to be the red-headed stepchild of the liturgy.
When I was looking for articles about this topic, I noticed that many of the sources came from the evangelical tradition. So far, I’ve found few from more mainline traditions writing about the importance of the benediction. I’m not sure why that is.
I used to think that the benediction was a way to remind people to go into the world doing God’s work. That’s important as the congregation leaves to enter the “mission field” that is our everyday lives. But that’s really a charge to the congregation and not a benediction. Because what a benediction really is if we look at the word’s Latin origins is a good word or a blessing. When a pastor gives a benediction, they are giving the gathered community a…
