Presider Guide at FICCC

1. Before the date of worship service

  • All speakers have been asked to finalize the sermon text and title no later than Wednesday. So you as the presider will get the information by or before Wednesday. If you don't get it by that time, contact either PA (pastor Assistant) or the speaker.
  • Usually by Wednesday Pastor Hsu or PA will also let the presider know if there is any special program such as Communion, Baptism, Sharing of Testimony, Special Music Presentation, Special Promotion or Announcement. He will also give you some ideas how you should control the time.
  • You should contact all service personnel as soon as possible, including translator,pianist, persons who will lead the responsive reading reading, ushers, and make sure you get confirmation from them by Wednesday. If you don't get e-mail confirmation you should call them. If any one could not serve you need to find a replacement immediately. All service personnel should be told to come to church no later than 10:55a.m. on Sunday. We all need to quiet down, have a chance to communicate,and pray together.

2. On the date of service

  • Arrive early, get a copy of the Sunday bulletin first and read it hrough. Be familiar with the program and the announcement items. Do your best to think it through so that you will be able to make the announcement in the most natural way. Some announcement items require the presider to speak with enthusiasm. Most require the presider to announce it as briefly and clearly as possible.
  • Check the setting, e.g. microphone, projector, PPT....
  • Gather people for final communication at around 10:55 (or earlier) and pray together at around 11:00.
  • Do your best to begin the service on time and do your best to control the time according to the planned schedule.

3. About Song Selection

  • Take into consideration of the sermon information and the main theme of this service. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you.
  • You have some flexibility in the opening hymn(s). In general, following the call to worship, the first one or two songs should be more looking upwards, i.e. leading the congregation to focus on God. Usually, the song(s) should be more of the type of praise and worship. And we want to maintain a consistency of always beginning the worship singing session by asking the congregation to stand up. Basically, remember the term "call to worship." This praise and worship session does not need to have clear connection to the message of the day, although it will also be great to have the song(s) you select convey the same theme as the message.
  • The song preceeding the offering could either go with the meaning of offering or with the theme of the message. Unless the speaker makes a clear request, it's ok for the presider to decide which of the two possible directions. But if possible, avoid using a song to bring a separate theme into the service.
  • The responsive reading should usually match with the theme of the sermon. When it's difficult to find a good match, just pick one that's not too far from the possible theme. There is some flexibility here as well.
  • When you make Powerpoint, make sure it's in good quality. The fontsize should be at least 28 in order to be seen clearly by the people who seat at the back. We expect that both Chinese and English lyrics are presented in the same page and at any time those who could understand only one language could always understand what we are singing, and they could also sing if they want to.
  • We must aim to help the whole congregation participate and enjoy the worship through songs. For Chinese/English combined services, we must select songs that have both Chinese and English lyrics available. While it's OK to use one song originally written in Chinese and translated into English, it will be better that we don't use two or three such songs on a same day, especially consecutively.
  • For Powerpoint, pianist's preparation and bulletin preparations, please check the Songs' Directory and inform PPT person of this week, Pianist of this week and PA(ficcc_mail@yahoo.com) which songs (worship in praise, offering and response songs if applicable) you plan to lead no later than noon time on Thursday, and email a copy to Jianhua (ithacachen@yahoo.com) and Zhengjing.
  • Choose the songs from the directory and inform three of us know the name of file, the number of the song and the name of the song.For example, "There is a God", No. 8 of the Praise of Stream. Please don't give us the song's name only because sometimes, some songs share the same English name.

4. About time control

  • In general when there is no special program, the presider has full 30 minutes to use before sermon, i.e. from 11:15 to 11:45. This is the time that includes singing of openning hymn(s), pastoral prayer, responsive reading, singing and offering, scripture reading. But in most Sundays we do have something arranged, and the presider has only 30 minutes or less for the same parts listed above.
  • In general the presider's responsibility and challenge include proper time control to make sure that the speaker has enough time to preach the sermon as originally expected. If something goes out of control (e.g. someone gives a sharing longer than he should), the presider must do his/her best to cut and adjust as much as possible to ensure that the speaker is given enough time. If the presider insists to lead the program according to his/her original wish, it will make it much more difficult for the speaker to preach effectively.
  • There are several possible ways to cut the program shorter and save some time. For example, you could overlap the singing and offering rather than singing the song first before collecting offering. If the service is running late, you must do your best to cut the announcement time short. This congregation happens to be time sensitive.
  • You must respect that. According to our schedule we are supposed to end the service at 12:45 p.m.. It's within understandable and bearable limit to run overtime by 5 minutes or so. But we should not take it too lightly. If you have served in children Sunday school or nursery you will surely appreciate much more when the service ends on time.
  • If the presider read through the announcement items beforehand he/she should be able to have better idea on how to cut and be selective.