Have people pick their favorite and do a short message, on your favorite hymn

A prayer for you
May the Lord surround you with his love and keep you safe in the palm of his hand

Just keep in mind that the people in the congregation are your friends. And they will almost certainly be forgiving.

That's the way I try to look at it when I get pressed into more service at church than I'm prepared for. I figure there have even been times that our regular minister has forgotten to say the Lord's Prayer, or ended up having to rearrange the order of the service because she forgot a hymn, etc. and everyone just goes with the flow.

Best of luck!

so if mistakes are made be honest about it and continue on... our pastor quite often has those little moments and we smile/laugh and continue on... I'm sure that your fellow parishioners are glad it's you and not them!

☦✝️👍

One Sunday, I got a call from the pastor’s son that his dad had appendicitis and wouldn’t be at church. As I was the Clerk of Session, I had to cover. Since I knew the order of service, the hymns and the congregation, I knew everyone would be concerned about our pastor and would be happy to congregate in his absence.

You’ve got this.

Express your faith and use a little humor. A positive expression will carry you through.

and I know you will be great. It’s scary to stand before a large group to speak. When I was teaching, Back to School Night, where the parents come in and listen to you speak for 20 minutes gave me actual nightmares. Nothing ever went badly, but fear is quite a load to carry. Remember: They aren’t judging you. They are being taught by you. I told myself this year after year. It never fully helped, because the parents in that school were often anti-school and anti-teacher. But your group won’t be anti-anything and I’ll bet they will really proud you. You are going to be great!

Keep the whole thing shorter than usual and people will remember you fondly, whether or not you stumble over a word or two.

Because the job was thrust upon you by the Lord. He/She/Unnamed Force thinks you’re ready, who are you to argue?

Do you believe this stuff or what? The answer is “yes”, so go do your part and share that with others.

You'll be fine. Like one of my professors would say before exams, "You'll be fine, you know this stuff."

I bet that once you get started, it will just flow like a peaceful stream.