Schedule in Bulletins?

When I was a pastor I saw writing the order of worship as an exercise in creativity, attempting to gauge the dynamic of the service and think through the various elements carefully. When I arrived at that church someone gave me a blank form with all the items in it, and told me all I had to do was fill in the hymn numbers and the text and sermon title. I threw them all away! I want to create each service de novo.

That said, however, I know that I did have people who got bent out of shape if we changed anything that was printed, and some who said, "I don't want to sing anything that's not printed in the hymnal". Wow!

But I am reminded also that when I was a chaplain at Howard University, it amused me that somehow the Chapel folks felt that things were more formal if "The" was printed in front of each item. So the service order would read something like: The Prelude, The Invocation, The Hymn, The Anthem, The Spiritual, The Sermon, The Offering, etc. Give me a break! Or should I say, "Give me The Break"!