Planning Worship

Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Maintaining Community via Virtual Worship at St. Monica Catholic Community, Santa Monica, California

St. Monica Catholic Community aims to welcome and engage every member toward deeper participation in worship and parish life. In this edited conversation, Dale Sieverding explains how to keep members of a church community feeling connected even though they cannot commune together.

April 14, 2020 | 4 min read
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Sparking New Connections at New Mount Zion Baptist Church, Roxboro, North Carolina

Like many congregations, New Mount Zion Baptist Church has people with varying abilities, incomes, and technology access. In this edited conversation, LaTonya McIver Penny shares how to use a mix of digital and old-fashioned ways to help worshipers and community members stay connected.

April 14, 2020 | 5 min read
Dennis R. Edwards on 1 Peter and Good Shepherd Sunday

For lectionary Year A, Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter, includes a reading from 1 Peter. New Testament scholar Dennis R. Edwards explains why Peter’s first letter is especially relevant as people deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 14, 2020 | 4 min read

Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Ministry of Presence at St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church, Roseville, California

Greek Orthodox Christian worship is consciously embodied. Christopher Flesoras, a Greek Orthodox priest, discusses pastoral discernment for serving the faithful when public health needs require social distancing, also known as physical distancing.

April 7, 2020 | 5 min read
Shaping Worship during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Asking Good Questions in Chinese-Language Evangelical Churches in Vancouver, British Columbia

In this edited conversation, Herbert Tsang shares how to use a mix of digital and old-fashioned ways to help worshipers and community members stay connected. He suggests good questions to think about regarding how technology and COVID-19 will form churches and worshipers.

April 6, 2020 | 3 min read
3 Songs of Lament and Hope / 3 Cantos de lamento y esperanza

Carlos Colón demonstrates and talks about three songs of lament and hope, as part of the series "Songs from the hymnal / Cantos del himnario 'Santo, Santo, Santo / Holy, Holy, Holy.'"

April 6, 2020 | 1 min video

Shaping Worship during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Reviving Wesleyan Discipleship at Grant United Methodist Church, Fairmount, Indiana

Not every church has the capacity to move worship online when pandemic public health directives require social and physical distancing. Pastor Constance Cherry explains how her small rural Methodist congregation is drawing on its Wesleyan heritage to help members worship and disciple each other.

April 6, 2020 | 3 min read
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multicultural Community at Proskuneo Ministries, Clarkston, Georgia

In this edited conversation, Jaewoo "Jay" Kim says that Proskuneo Ministries "deeply holds to theological convictions and practices of embodied worship." Stay-at-home pandemic orders have upended their typical worship gatherings, but virtual worship doesn't fit who they are as a multicultural worshiping community.

April 1, 2020 | 5 min read
Shaping Worship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Livestream at Christian & Missionary Alliance Churches in Hong Kong

Yvette Lau explains how Christian & Missionary Alliance churches in Hong Kong are deciding whether or how to do virtual worship or even virtual communion. In this edited conversation, she suggests that worship planners consider what will be communal, hospitable, and beneficial to the whole community—during and after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

April 1, 2020 | 3 min read