Many churches still have paper bulletins. A bulletin is defined as “a brief account or statement, as of news or events, issued for the information of the public.” In other words, the primary purpose of a bulletin is to share announcements.
I want everything at our church to be intentional and meaningful so that it advances our mission and reflects our values. For this reason, I’ve gradually transitioned our church from a weekly bulletin to a weekly Worship Guide (currently 8 half-sized pages or two sheets of 8.5×11″ paper folded in half). The Worship Guide still includes announcements, but its primary purpose is to be a resource for public worship and spiritual/devotional enrichment throughout the week. The guide includes:
- Where we are at in the Church Calendar, with a short seasonal prayer (Collect) — For example, “The Sunday after the Ascension,” with “The Collect for the Sunday After the Ascension” (from the BCP/Wesley’s Sunday Service).
- A piece of famous Christian artwork with brief commentary — For example, I just preached on John 11, so we included Rembrandt’s “Raising of Lazarus” with an explanation of some of its spiritual symbolism. See the Visual Commentary on Scripture (VCS) for inspiration.
- Call to Worship — Sometimes this is just the Psalm reading with the Gloria Patri or the Venite (Psalm 95) from our hymnal.
- The Scriptures for the week — We usually have a Psalm reading, OT or NT lesson, and a Gospel reading. The full text of the Psalm (often read responsively) and lesson are included. Only the reference to the Gospel or sermon text is given, because we want people to open a physical Bible, follow along, and take notes. I don’t follow the Lectionary every single week, since I often preach through books the Bible, but I look up my sermon text in the search feature of the Revised Common Lectionary online to see what passages it’s paired with.
- The hymn numbers for the week — We use Our Great Redeemer’s Praise, the new hymnal from Seedbed.
- Prayer list — To pray through during the week along with the Directory of Church Members and Regular Visitors.
- Catechism Question(s) of the Week — Read responsively in the service but also to be revisited through the week in our catechism books, which include explanatory notes and Scriptures to look up.
- Special prayers — Other than the Gloria Patri and Lord’s Prayer, most of our prayers are spontaneous, but sometimes we include a general confession or prayer of praise/thanksgiving for everyone to read together.
- The Nicene Creed — To save space in the Worship Guide, we read it out of our hymnals.
- The outline for the administration of the Lord’s Supper — This outline includes the Invitation, Confession of Sin, Words of Assurance, Distribution, and so on. We also have instructions for visitors.
- The Lord’s Prayer and Doxology
- Action steps for after the service — For example, “Think of someone whom you can serve or bless. E.g., If someone requested prayer for a discouraging situation, invite them to grab coffee or lunch this week.”
- “Saint of the Week” with artwork and a short biography — Taken from Ben Lansing, author of the forthcoming book Our Church Speaks: An Illustrated Devotional of Saints from Every Era and Place. This fills the whole back page of the bulletin.
I do my best to make the Worship Guide as beautiful as possible, so we use a font that’s easy to read but elegant and has an air of mystery and history (see the article Liturgical Typeface on a Shoestring). We also use beautiful Drop Caps in the color of the liturgical season (green, purple, red, or gold), a color which is also picked up at other places in the Worship Guide.
