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“Starting a gospel choir has been huge for spiritual formation,” says David Bailey, music director at East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. And it all started from a hug.
East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia, started an urban songwriting internship and a gospel choir to reflect its congregational values of incarnation and reconciliation.
Musician David M. Bailey is the music director at East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia. In this edited conversation, he talks about becoming aware of power dynamics in multicultural congregations and neighborhoods. He lives in Church Hill, a neighborhood hard hit by economic decline.
Dance can be used to highlight any of the liturgical seasons. These videos highlight the many uses of liturgical dance.
Dementia frequently interferes with a person's ability to connect with and to benefit from regular religious activities and worship styles that had been meaningful in the past. Yet, persons with dementia continue to need to worship and experience a comforting, deep encounter with Christ.
A set of resources for the Sermon on the Mount.
Praying for the Navajo people is a tricky thing. It is so easy to focus on, and become overwhelmed by, our needs.
Dance can bring healing, express joy, and proclaim good news. Dance also brings unity. During the season of Pentecost, we are reminded of the unity that the Holy Spirit brings to the church. Dancing together in the Spirit of unity is a wonderful way to worship!
We are a church relishing in the resurrection. I like to think that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who heard the good news of Christ’s resurrection did not simply hurry off to tell this exciting news, but that they danced. “They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him”. How could they have kept still?
Picture a young child ripping open a gift—something he’s been longing for. What does he do? Does he sit quietly and smile?
Here is the uncomfortable truth about becoming a congregation that loves your neighbors as you love yourselves: You have to go out and meet them.
Randy Weener co-leads Wyoming Kingdom Enterprise Zone, a church multiplication initiative by Reformed and Christian Reformed churches in Wyoming, Michigan. In 2000 he planted a Reformed Church in America congregation in Allendale, Michigan. In this edited conversation, he talks about multisensory worship in that congregation that welcomes neighbors.
