Planning Worship

Cory Willson on Inhabiting the Liturgy

Maybe you feel like a bad Christian when you catch yourself thinking about work or weekday concerns during corporate worship. But doing so can help you worship more deeply and faithfully.

March 21, 2016 | 6 min read
Worship Resources for Radical Hospitality

Scripture models well for us how to speak about immigration in worship. Together, with Abraham, Jesus, and the early church, we can model radical hospitality, we can lament the pain of leaving and the pain of the journey, we can witness God's faithfulness to the refugees and migrants in the past, and together, united as the body of Christ, we can seek responses that reflect God's heart. Ultimately, we can look forward with hope, knowing that our "citizenship is in heaven."

March 14, 2016 | 15 min read
Children and Worship

With a new frontier of research on children's spirituality, research as well as experience is showing churches that creating a sacred space for children, where they can encounter the living God, is vital for their faith formation.

March 2, 2016 | 52 min listen

How Ritual Training Overflows into Expressive Worship

Lay training in both formative and expressive liturgy helps Catholic adults and youth live out their identity in the universal priesthood of all faithful believers. Protestants can learn from this.

February 9, 2016 | 9 min read
Dale Sieverding on Cultural Differences in Recruiting Youth

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles launched a summer camp to train young Catholics to lead in local liturgical ministries. They discovered that finding gifted youth requires different approaches in different cultures.

February 9, 2016 | 4 min read

Olivia Stewart on Young Children and Worship

It sounds counter-intuitive, especially today. But it turns out that helping children learn to get quiet in their own ways is huge for helping them encounter God.

January 21, 2016 | 5 min read
Monique Ingalls on Why Scholars Can Stop Worship Wars

So many worship conversations go awry because people and congregations don’t know how to talk about what they do or value in worship. Both Christian and non-Christian scholars can help.

December 15, 2015 | 6 min read

Aaron Niequist on Practicing the Unforced Rhythms of Grace

The Practice, a Sunday evening service at Willow Creek Community Church, is finding that weekly confession, communion and silence help Christians live faithfully in an interfaith world.

November 16, 2015 | 6 min read