Showcase - Vertical Habits: Worship and Our Faith Vocabulary

By:

Betty Grit

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The Vertical Habits

Faithful speech is central to the Christian life. God is not just interested in having us contemplate him or appease him. God is interested in the dynamics of life together, shaped by good communication. Just as words form our habits in relationships with other people, the words of worship can form the habits of our relationship with God and the way we live out our faith.  Vertical Habits is a name given to the process of connecting words used in our relationship with people with words used to express these emotions to God. The biblical Psalms are the foundational mentor and guide in this vocabulary and grammar for worship.

Key Insights

• Wise is the congregation who seeks to more deeply understand worship and give voice to the multitude of emotions we express in worship
• Wise is the congregation who studies, prays and sings the Psalms to give voice to all the emotions we express to God.
• Happy is the congregation that carries the spiritual vitality and rugged beauty of the psalms from corporate worship into weekday living

Consider these eight parallels:    

Web Resources

From our website

• Grant Colloquium - Worship Service based on Vertical Habits
  The June Grants Colloquium provided a tangible example of using the Vertical Habits to shape and form a worship service.

• Symposium 2012 - Developing Vertical Habits
  Recipients of Worship Renewal Grants describe practical resources that helped people of all ages better understand why we do what we do in worship.

• Symposium 2012 - Shaped by the Psalms
  The Psalms offer us language to express gratitude, lament, confession, and praise in worship. Worship Renewal Grant recipients will describe how they studied and prayed the Psalms to help children and adults understand how the psalms help shape the ways we speak to God and to one another through words, music and the arts.

• Vertical Habits: Relational Words for Worship
  A brief description of the purpose and history of Vertical Habits

• Vertical Habits: Relational Words that expand worship language
  Churches and schools that use vertical habits say it helps their communities develop worship habits that deepen their relationship with God and affect every part of their lives. See how their experiences can help enrich worship at your church or school.

• Vertical Habits and Mental Illness in Worship
  Learn from two communities that used vertical habits to create safe, simple, and inclusive worship for youth and adults affected by mental illness.

• Vertical Habits: Practical Wisdom for Teaching Worship
  This article from Reformed Worship describes how focusing on Vertical Habits helps remove attention from preferences of worship style and helps link worship on Sunday with daily living the rest of the week. 

• Bringing the Habits Home: Using the Psalms to Connect Worship and Everyday Life
  This article from Reformed Worship describes how connecting Vertical Habits in worship to vertical habits at home and in our everyday life brings us one step closer to making those habits our natural response. It includes practical ideas to incorporate them into family or personal devotions.

• Bob and Laura Keeley on Lament Psalms and Children
  After finishing an intergenerational grant project that focused on the Psalms, vertical habits and visual arts, Bob and Laura noticed that most kids know Psalm 23, and maybe one or two happy psalms. They describe the importance of giving kids a more fully orbed picture of life with God, so they can know psalms and know how to use them

• Bringing Our Pain to God: Michael Card and Calvin Seerveld on Biblical Lament in Worship
  On any given Sunday, you may come to church glad, mad or sad.  You’re likely worshiping with people struggling to count their blessings. Meanwhile, it’s certain that somewhere in the world, God’s children are going hungry, falling ill, being persecuted, or denouncing each other from pulpits.  It takes courage and faith to move from conceptual agreement that lament belongs in worship to actually groaning with fellow believers. 

• Practical Resources to help you teach the Vertical Habits
  Practical resources created by congregations and schools to help you teach the Vertical Habits in your congregation. Permission is granted to use these without any cost. We hope you will send us any resources you create for Vertical Habits.

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From other websites 

Vertical Habits and Psalms for All Seasons

The companion website to the publication Psalms for All Seasons includes resources to connect Vertical Habits and the Psalms.

A Journey Through the Emotions Psalm 139

New City Kids Church, a 2010 Worship Renewal Grant Recipient spent a year in the Psalms and Vertical Habits.  This inspiring video was created as a response to their learning to describe the spiritual transformation of teenagers through the lens of Psalm 139.

Granite Springs Church and Psalm 103

Granite Springs Church in California had a grant in 2008 to "... immerse the congregation in the Psalms through regular reading and memorization of the Psalms, a retreat, preaching, and pastoral care education that will teach people to pray all the emotions expressed in the Psalms."

Vertical Habits music, icons, and paintings:

• Music by Bruce Benedict
• Icons by Bruce Benedict
• Paintings by Bruce Benedict

Churches and schools that use vertical habits say it helps their communities develop worship habits that deepen their relationship with God and affect every part of their lives. See how their experiences can help enrich worship at your church or school.

Learn More

Additional Interviews

Worship Renewal Grant Recipients

Learn how our Worship Renewal Grant recipients have used the Vertical Habits in their congregations and organizations.

• 14th Street Christian Reformed Church, Holland, Michigan
• African Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Bethlehem Church, Randolph, New Jersey
• Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Clifton Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky
• College Hill Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cornerstone Christian Reformed Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Covenant Life Church, Grand Haven, Michigan
• Crossroads Community Church, Schererville, Indiana
• Daybreak Community Church, Valparaiso, Indiana
• Drayton Christian Reformed Church, Drayton, Ontario, Canada
• First Christian Reformed Church, Pella, Iowa
• Friends of the Groom, Terrace Park, Ohio 
• Mayfield Central Presbyterian Church, Mayfield, New York
• Midland Park Christian Reformed Church, Midland Park, New Jersey
• Monroe Community Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• New City Church, Jersey City, New Jersey
• New Life Christian Reformed Church, New Lenox, Illinois
• Princeton Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• River City Church, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
• Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, Kentucky
• Sunnyside Christian School, Sunnyside, Washington
• St. Luke's Lutheran Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• The Crossing Baptist Church, Mesquite, Texas
• The River Community Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
• Third Christian Reformed Church, Zeeland, Michigan
• Trinity Reformed Church, Orange City, Iowa
• Tualatin Presbyterian Church, Tualatin, Oregon
• United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio
• Unity Christian High School, Hudsonville, Michigan

Published:

January 10, 2012

Resource Type:

Topic Showcase

Category:

Worship- Preparing for

Tags:

Vertical Habits, Showcases

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