Spiritual Formation in Worship-Centered Congregations
Differing circumstances call forth different liturgical, theological and formational questions and inspire different congregational conversations about what we do in worship and why we do it. The workshop began with a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Christian worship and its relationship to spiritual formation in congregational life, concluding with 'where we are now.' Practices for spiritual formation were described in relation to the congregation's worship life.
Intergenerational Worship: Is It Reasonable? Is It Possible?
In this presentation, several contributors to the recent book The Church of All Ages: Generations Worshiping Together explored the issues involved, highlighted some of the findings, and stimulated further reflection.
Finding Stories for Sunday's Sermon
Although sermon preparation involves lots of steps-everything from selecting a text to embodying the sermon on Sunday-the search for meaningful illustrative material during the week is often the most frustrating.
America's Emerging Religious Landscape: An Interview with Richard Ostling
This wide-ranging question-and-answer session discussed religious and journalistic trends in the United States with the former religion writer for Time magazine and The Associated Press.
Vertical Habits: Practical Wisdom for Teaching Worship
A panel of pastors and artists shared resources created by their congregations to teach "Vertical Habits," and described the fruit that developed in all areas of congregational life.
Whose Art? Which Church?
Those who work at the intersection of the visual arts and congregational life know from experience how rich, complex, rewarding, and often messy this area can be.
Seeing What Is Really There: Preaching and the Imagination
Frederick Buechner writes that people "as a rule see only what they expect to see and little more." The preacher's calling is see beyond what we expect to see and help congregations to do the same. This session discussed what the preacher can do to be faithful to this calling.
Worship 101: The Building Blocks of a Biblical Approach to Worship
This session explored some of the Bible's most fundamental teaching about worship, with an aim to equipping participants to teach this material in their own worshiping communities. This session is especially ideal for first-time Symposium attendees, as well as veterans who want to energize their own teaching ministries.
Public Biblical Praying
This workshop looked at biblical and historical examples of how ancient Christians prayed in public worship.
What Hath Silicon Valley to Do with Jerusalem? Technological Innovation and Ancient Practice in Worship
Certainly advances in presentation technology provide opportunities to do new things in worship. But they can also enhance our ability to do the ancient things of worship. This session discusses integrating presentation technologies both into the worship space and the worship service.
Christ's Priesthood and Our Praises
This workshop will explore the implications for liturgy and preaching which arrive from recognizing afresh 1-- the reality of Christ's priesthood and 2-- that we are, in George Herbert's phrase, "Secretaries of thy praise."
Creating a Child-Friendly Culture in Your Church
To help children grow in faith we want our churches to be places where they are nurtured and where they feel that they have a place. We will look at things that churches can do to become more child friendly and encourage faith-nurturing adult-child relationships.