Prairie City, Iowa
2021
To reflect God's creativity in worship that is deeply scriptural and intentionally collaborative and hospitable and that continues from Sunday morning into the fabric of everyday life.
Provide a brief summary of the purpose and goal of your grant.
We are to be a reflection of God in our lives and by using scripture engagement we can learn and grow in our relationship with God. Through creative means and sharing, this encourages the individual to open their life to each other. The retreats will give us insight and training to make daily worship, a habit. The impact will shift our current lifestyle of “worship on Sunday” to a lifestyle of worship “through the week”. These opportunities will break down walls and help our congregants grow in maturity of their Christian faith allowing them to become strong disciples of Christ.
What questions have you asked about worship in the past year?
How is worship expressed through the diversity of the body?
What are the scriptural non-negotiables of worship?
Where in life can one embed scripture?
In what ways has your project engaged your congregation so that it impacts the worship life and habits of the congregation?
One noticeable way that the verse of the week has engaged the congregation is through conversations about their experience with the activities. An example of this would be the people talking about writing out the scripture with chalk and taking a picture of it and the little bit of chalk that was leftover. another noticeable way that the verse of the week has engaged the congregation is times when people share what their favorite activity is and that they are still using it. One congregation member connected with writing the verse on a 3 x 5 card and has made a card for each verse of the week; she has continued this practice even though the verse of the week is officially over.
What criteria have you used to evaluate your plan to foster vital worship?
One way has been through feedback from the congregation at different meetings throughout the year. These meetings included the Adult Sunday school class, the worship committee, Council, the small group study on Sunday evenings, and during the fellowship time following the service. We also had surveys that helped to give insight into how God has formed each person to serve him at PCCRC. The final metric we tried was posting on social media.
What issues have been your greatest challenges (or challenging opportunities)?
One challenge was getting people to use the verse of the week. We had hoped that people would be creative in this activity but people struggled with coming up with something on their own. So we shifted to recommending and providing tools to engage with the verse, creatively, throughout the week. Another challenge was the busy schedules of our families; specifically creating enough value that the families were willing to sacrifice the time for the events.
What would you like to share with other Project Directors?
During the seminar in June, a number of presenters and administrators from the Institue said that we should be flexible in our plan and embrace the leading of the Spirit. This proved wildly beneficial for our grant plan and for those who participated in the events and the verse of the week. So I would echo this statement. I would also add when changes happened the staff at the Institue was gracious and helpful. This made the experience of changing plans quite a bit less scary.