This past year, Rev. Meg Dowling of Bremerton United Methodist Church in the city of Bremerton, Washington changed up how her church encounters scripture on a Sunday morning. Bremerton UMC, which has been around for 126 years and has about 100 members, has used a narrative lectionary for the three years Meg has been pastor. But after prayerful consideration, Meg and her leadership team decided to make a break from tradition. In the following interview, Meg talks about that transition, how it’s impacted her and the congregation, and what advice she has for other churches looking to make a similar change.
Lauren: You recently switched from using lectionary texts on Sunday mornings to a new way of engaging with scripture. What inspired this change and what does that look like?
Meg: Bremerton UMC is a slightly older congregation, and we are in the midst of a revitalization project. So, we’re aiming to increase our impact in our community, and hopefully, find some new folks who would love to be part of us. That includes the desire to reach younger people and young families. We’ve been tailoring some of our outreach and teaching approaches to that goal. At the same time, we’re very connected to the Methodist tradition. So, I wanted to retain some of that heritage—emphasis on grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit.
We spent three years working through the narrative lectionary, and we really enjoyed that. The lectionary cycles really help congregations to increase biblical literacy and provide an easy way of marking the church year. Ultimately though, we found that those cycles were limiting our creativity.
We found that although working with those lectionary texts was formative, the way they were packaged meant that it wasn’t intuitive for people who were outside of a church context to interact with them, particularly younger people. People struggled to come in our doors and understand what was happening because everything was centered around the lectionary, which they had never encountered before. So, we decided, as a staff and as a board, to try something different. We decided to do a topical series instead.
As we considered this shift, we noticed a lot of other churches making similar strategic choices in their teaching. I think we’re seeing an overall swing towards more topical series in churches—even churches that are considered high churches and very liturgical—and I think that’s for the reason I just mentioned. The series framework makes it a lot easier for guests and visitors to feel at home in our spaces. You can speak to a direct need with a series. And I think if you’re trying to be intentional in your outreach and serve a specific demographic, this is a great way to do it.
We’d done some smaller series during the summer times, as well as around Lent and Advent, and we found that those really captured people’s attention in a different way. So, we came up with the idea of doing a year-long series similar in scope to a lectionary, but specifically focused on caring for our souls. We titled this series “Soulcare” for that reason.
In our community, we observed that a lot of our members and the people that we were coming into contact with through our outreach were very much in need of care, whether it was physical care, spiritual care, or emotional support. Since we were seeing those needs rise to the surface, we wanted to respond in a thoughtful and holistic way.
Our approach to scripture and worship is deeply connected to our church’s motto: “an inclusive home for spiritually curious people.” In all of our liturgy and practice, we seek to be a place where all people are included in God’s story and allowed to think critically about our common spiritual history. In this Soulcare series, we tried to make space for good questions, doubts, different perspectives, wisdom from a variety of leaders, and members of our congregation—because we all have something to offer our fellow Christians. All our preachers and pastors were encouraged to model curiosity and openness to our fellowship, either by stating that we don’t have all the answers, or by welcoming people to ponder if there was a better way to read or respond to our biblical text. A posture of humility goes a long way to build trust with people who are looking for a more progressive, authentic, and transformational community.
When we came up with the Soulcare theme, we knew we wanted to cluster different conditions or experiences together so that we could be specific but also approachable for people in general. So, we had several mini-series throughout the longer series. We covered everything from beginner basics like talking about emotional and spiritual maturity, emotional intelligence, and boundaries, to talking about really deep and impactful conditions like depression and anxiety. Recently, we did a series on complex brains, looking specifically at cognitive conditions. We talked about neurodiversity and how that’s typically seen as a negative, but can actually be a beautiful gift when people are able to fully live into who God created them to be.
We’ve been excited to see certain topics really resonate well with our congregation. Of course, not everything has resonated, and that’s ok—that’s part of the learning process. But some of these conversations have been crucial to people’s spiritual development, as well as their ongoing personal lives.
Lauren: How does this series approach alter your engagement with the biblical text?
Meg: Part of planning the series is, of course, picking the topics for each day. We chose topics before we picked scripture passages, which some might think is the reverse of how things should operate in a church. But we knew what we wanted to focus on. We knew that there was going to be an applicable text for almost everything that we wanted to cover. You probably won’t find any passages about neurodiversity in the Bible, for example, but there are plenty of texts in there to support conversations about diversity and inclusion, so we were able to utilize those texts as part of that series.
We wanted to choose passages that were familiar to people, as well as picking some that maybe aren’t included in a typical lectionary. For example, we utilized Psalm 23 for our Sunday on anxiety, because that is such a favorite for folks who are going through a difficult time. It helps people regain some sense of peace in God’s presence. But we also picked passages that people had really never heard before. To preach on them in a new way, it really brought them to life and expanded our own biblical imagination.
Lauren: How has this been received and how is this impacting people?
Meg: Because of this series, we’ve had a number of people come to our church for the very first time. People have walked in the door and said, I‘m here because you’re talking about X topic and I’m interested in that. Or, I have never found a church that has talked about infertility before, for example. And that is a huge gift that we could give someone who feels alone in their struggles. So, we feel like it’s been highly successful in that regard.
For people who are more “churched,” this was a departure from what they expected on a Sunday morning. And that was tricky because some of them feel like this series has gone on too long. And I don’t disagree. It’s shown us that perhaps a shorter series is better. But I think people have seen the similarities to a lectionary cycle in the sense that we’ve committed to something for not just a few weeks or a season, but an extended period of time, so that it clearly communicates who we are as a congregation and the values that we want to share with the community. Not everyone has loved it, but enough people have benefited from it that I’m very happy with the outcome.
Lauren: How has this changed your congregation’s view of or interaction with scripture?
Meg: I would say that it has shown them how deeply applicable scripture still is to our modern lives. I think there are plenty of biblical stories that we can point to and say, I’m so glad that’s in the past. But there are still so many passages that speak to exactly where we are today. There are so many stories, so many people who are going through similar circumstances to what modern-day people face. And I think, as we’ve drawn some of those parallels, they’ve been able to see that the first-century world and ancient Judaism aren’t so far removed from their real-life experience. That’s been wonderful for people to realize—to see scripture as a living thing that is still speaking reaffirms why we go back to it and why we hold it as such an essential part of our faith.
Lauren: What else has it changed for you and for your congregation?
Meg: Oh, it’s changed so much about my planning, because when you use a lectionary, pretty much everything is planned for you. The text is right there. They may even give you accompanying resources to utilize in your sermon preparation and service planning. And I knew when we started this journey that all of that planning would fall to me. That didn’t stop us, of course, but it has been challenging at some points because planning worship services and crafting them to be meaningful experiences does take effort and energy.
I want to make sure that we’re giving the best Sunday morning experience to our members and our visitors. So, the selection of texts and cohesive service planning—that has been an extra step for us as a team. And I wouldn’t want to do it any other way; I wouldn’t want our Sunday service to not be thoughtful. I wouldn’t want our prayers, our call to worship, and our sermon to be disconnected, but it does require an additional level of teamwork and communication so that everyone, both staff and volunteers, knows how to tailor their own ministry, leadership, or volunteer position to what we’re doing. And that’s been a challenge to me as a leader: to make sure that I am clear and consistent in my communication.
I plan all of my worship services at least a month in advance. So, with that in mind, it means that I’m always thinking about the next thing. With such sensitive topics like this Soulcare series, it means that I’m kind of living through some of these conditions and experiences, and planning for what’s coming next, as well. That’s been challenging both as someone who tries to pastor her people well and just as a person.
Lauren: Do you have any advice for churches considering something similar or looking to make a shift in how they engage scripture?
Meg: Yeah, I mean to be honest, any kind of change in the local church can be hard. Even a change that is transformative, life-giving, and fulfilling for a congregation will inevitably stir up emotions like anxiety or confusion. So, it’s good to be aware of that. It’s no reason not to change or to innovate in any way, but it is something that I was mindful of, and it’s something that I would recommend other people be mindful of as well, especially if a church has a strongly established tradition that’s not just a cornerstone of the worship life, but part of how people encounter each other. If your community is built around a very specific liturgical practice or worship act, making a major change can make a big difference in people’s experience of worship, so it’s good to make small changes over time or to have a congregational discernment process. I was lucky that my congregation was up for that kind of change, because we’re in the midst of other changes, as well.
But I would say that making a change in your teaching approach, teaching style, or teaching topics is a way to reengage with your congregation and connect with new people. Even pastors who’ve been preaching for a long time or are very skilled could learn something new by just trying something different. I know that I’ve learned a lot, not only about myself, but also my preaching voice and preparation. I’m really grateful for that.
Also, I would say that if you’re going to do a topical series and you expect a response from people (and what I mean by that is you’re hoping to be relevant in such a way that people either follow up, continue on in their discipleship, bring what they’re learning to a small group setting, or take it home to share more with their family), it’s best to build a holistic approach where other team members are aware of that goal and you’re creating opportunities for people to do that. Have additional resources that you’re sharing with people.
For our Soulcare series, we built a whole separate page on our website. That page has everything we’ve talked about throughout the series. Every topic that we’ve covered and every mini-series that we’ve done as part of Soulcare has additional resources linked on that web page. For example, we have book recommendations, and we post links to podcast episodes that could be helpful for people in their own formation. This way Sunday morning teaching doesn’t just stay on Sunday mornings.
I recommend that there’s some follow through, some thoughtfulness and intentionality behind next steps for people, so you don’t just teach them something new and then set them free without any guidance. These lessons can continue to be part of people’s lives. They can take scripture, spiritual practices, and other resources into their week.
Lauren: What’s next for Bremerton UMC?
Meg: As we focused on wrapping up this series, we knew that we wanted to allow people to practice these concepts and connect with God in a different way. We planned three Sundays: one focused on Reflecting on the Past, one on Processing the Present, and one on Looking to the Future. In each service, we incorporated a spiritual practice that was intentionally chosen to invite folks into a more embodied spiritual life. The first week, we practiced the Prayer of Examen together; the second week we practiced various Breath Prayers; and in the final week, the congregation participated in a form of Guided Imagery using a meditation called “Seeing Jesus’ Love in the Future.” Even though each practice was only about five minutes, it offered us a chance to encounter scripture in a different way. We saw that these spiritual practices were a positive experience, even for those who had never tried them before.
We just finished Soulcare this past Sunday, and we did a survey to get everyone’s thoughts. As predicted, we got some good feedback. We’re going to use all that information to make our decisions about what’s coming next. That’s been the number one question that we’ve gotten: what are we doing next? And I love that question because it means that people are going to be showing up, which is always good to hear!
Cover photo credit: Aaron Burden
