Contemplative Youth Ministry: Listening to God together
Where else in their multitasking 24/7 lives can youth find loving adults who join them in meaningful prayer, silence, and conversation to connect with God? A feature story exploring what makes an effective youth ministry program.
Worship: A Spring of Life and Shalom
Worship helps us answer fundamental questions of human existence regarding our identity, calling, main purpose in life, and how to be empowered for service to God?
Forgotten Ones: Worship and Pastoral Care
Many people have a vision for pastoral care that takes place in homes, hospitals, and institutions, often in times of crisis. But the prime place for pastoral care is in the community gathered for worship, when all who are able gather under the care of the Good Shepherd, and those who cannot attend are still remembered and named.
Photography in Worship: Picturing God's counterstory, building community
Get ideas from other congregations for using local photography and other images in church worship. A feature story exploring some of the many possibilities for visuals in worship.
Desiring the Kingdom: Which do you want?
In "Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation", James K. A. Smith explains how what we love, imagine, and desire shapes who we become. He urges congregations to reclaim worship practices that train our hearts through our bodies.
Planning Worship for a Seven Deadly Sins Series
So many churches have recently done a series of worship services on the seven deadly sins that you can find ample ideas for your setting. You can plan the whole service to help worshipers frame their experience of vice within the overarching story of God’s forgiveness and reconciling grace.
Seven Deadly Sins: Time for churches to reclaim the tradition
It's time for the church to reclaim and apply the concept of the Seven Deadly Sins or Capital Vices to spiritual formation. A feature story exploring the Seven Deadly Sins.
Parables: Reflecting Their Multiple Meanings in Preaching and Music
Jesus told parables that were far more than simple stories with one heavenly meaning. Here's how preachers, musicians, and worship leaders can plan parable-based worship that lingers in people's lives.
Teaching Worship Leadership: Content and Context
Leading worship requires attending to the specifics of a worshiping congregation, and yet many classrooms tend toward the general. This workshop looked at a new multi-media resource documenting the life of one Chicago congregation and designed to be a kind of “flight simulator” for worship leaders. It explored teaching worship leadership with a dual emphasis on theological content and congregational context.
Uuh'
It didn't happen every day, but was frequent enough that I clearly remember it. I would be sitting with my grandparents, in their house, around their kitchen table. We would be finishing a meal or even just a simple snack, and the conversation would come to a lull….
Text Message Worship
This article shows an interesting way to incorporate text messaging and worship.
Wall Street Journal Article on Children in Worship
John Witvliet is quoted in a Wall Street Journal article on children in worship.