Arts
Consider the Birds
In the fall of 2015, Rev. Daniel Cooperrider of Weybridge Congregational Church, UCC told our WorshipWell team about a sermon series he was leading based upon a book by author and pastor Debbie Blue, titled: Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible. Cooperrider explained that his sermon series included presentations by bird experts in worship along with bird watch outings. Inspired by Cooperrider and Blue, Rev. Goldenbogen of the United Church of Underhill (UCC & UMC) led a “Consider the Birds” sermon...
read moreMapping Our Prayers
Here is a great idea I learned from our church’s youth group led by my friend and amazing youth group leader, Anne Clift. To help people connect their prayers with place, as part of a youth-led service, a family service, on Sunday morning, or anytime you are praying with a group, try this: Before a service, get a wall map or two (the bigger the better) of your state, country, and/or the world. Mount the map(s) on a cork board and place in an accessible place in your worship space. (If you have more than one map, consider spreading...
read moreShort Story Entry
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are people of a STORY. Call it the Gospel story or the Biblical story or the story of Jesus Christ, or the “greatest story ever told” or, simply, “the good news.” Whatever you call it, we are people of a story and we spend a whole lot of time in worship, telling and listening to that story through a variety of mediums (prayers, sermons, stained glass windows, banners, classes, music, video, pageants, etc.). Here’s the thing: because we tell and listen to a PARTICULAR STORY...
read moreConnected: Web of Yarn
Here is an exercise that uses balls of yarn to illustrate community/unity/oneness/body of Christ by physically connecting a worshiping congregation. It could be used: as an illustration for a children’s message as an illustration during a sermon about community as part of reading Scripture (e.g. Romans 12:4-5, John 17:21, Psalm 133:1) Your idea here:________ Procedure: Get some balls of yarn (inexpensive/used/donated). Hard to say how many for your setting, but you will need enough yarn to weave back and forth throughout the...
read morePainted Worship
We are fortunate to have an artist in our congregation named Mary Hill who is generous with her time (see her website here). As Advent 2014 approached, we were looking for: 1) new banners to line our walls, and 2) a way to engage the congregation through visual art in worship. After conversations with our worship team and with Mary, we did the following: We chose one Sunday during Advent to have Mary paint a banner during our morning worship service. (She had prepped the banner ahead of time and sketched out her design. She then...
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