Creative Worship

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Worship is a key part of living out our faiths. As such I believe that it should be engaging, inspiring, challenging and motivating.

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The highest praise I received from a new congregant was this: “You take the Biblical story and bring it to life. You make it relevant to our lives today. I’ve been to lots of churches and that rarely happens. Thank you!”  

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Tradition is important and I lead worship with a regular structure, but included with the traditional are Sundays when I invite people to become actively involved in worship. 

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Parishioners might be invited to turn to a neighbor and talk briefly about a faith question or they might be asked to write down something they want to let go of in their lives to be left on God’s altar. 

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Sometimes people need to let out their inner child. One Advent I asked everybody in the congregation to be a character in the Christmas pageant. People chose cards with the name of their character and a symbol to wear or carry.  There were lots of angels, shepherds and wise ones.  Those who desired larger roles picked Mary, Joseph, Herod, etc.  Everyone participated and the story of Jesus’ birth was brought to life in a new way.

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During Lent I invited people to find an object on the table in the sanctuary to hold in their hands. The sermon, hymns and prayers centered around what we do and are called to do with our hands. After the service we photographed people holding various objects. We used these photos at an adult retreat called “God’s Hands, Our Hands.”

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Music is also incredibly important as a means of engaging people in worship.  We sing rounds as a congregation and we have learned many of the shorter songs for worship from the Iona Community. These prayerful tunes stick with you and come to mind at the most unexpected times. Suddenly you find yourself humming or singing "The Lord is My Light" or "Come Bring Your Burdens to God," as you are doing the dishes or driving in your car.  My hope is that worship doesn’t just happen on Sunday morning, but that it affects and inspires people throughout the week.

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