Special Sundays/Services
“Xmas Eve on Fire”
Imagine this: Christmas Eve Snow blanketing the ground Early/family service begins at 5:00 p.m. and the time is now 4:30 p.m. Portable firepit on the front lawn of the church with logs blazing Hot chocolate in vacuum pots on a table nearby Small Christmas tree with a box full of ornaments Families, individuals, couples, whoever, arriving, grabbing a cup of cocoa, hanging an ornament, warming themselves by the fire, giggling with Christmas excitement At 5:05 p.m. booklets with Christmas carols are handed out and people sing their favorites At...
read moreUsefulness & Freedom
Below is a sermon by Rev. Martha Peck which is based upon Paul’s letter to Philemon and delivered on the Sunday before Labor Day (9/4/2016). What does it mean to be free? What does it mean to be useful? This sermon is followed also by related prayers: 1) prayer of invocation, 2) prayer of confession, and 3) assurance of pardon. They called him Onesimus, which means “useful.” And for most of his life he only had the value assigned to a slave. He was a strong back, silent compliance. He could not own property, nor choose where he...
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 moreWhispered Word
I was on a retreat in July of 2016 in Asheville, NC. One of our retreat leaders was Heidi Miller, a professor of Christian Worship at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas with connections also to the Missional Wisdom Foundation. During our retreat, Heidi told us that during worship one day she whispered a scripture verse into one worshiper’s ear and then asked him to pass it on. Soon the verse was spreading through the congregation, causing anticipation and excitement. After hearing this idea I asked Heidi if I could try it in my...
read moreThrough the Church Year
Below is a detailed liturgy for a single Sunday morning service that walks a congregation through the entire Church calendar from Advent through Reign of Christ. Through Word, explanation, and song, this service is a worshipful way to educate and to help a multi-generational congregation to participate in the rhythms and patterns of the liturgical year. It was originally used in 2006 for a United Church of Christ congregation in Massachusetts. (Note: *= Stand as you are able) Order of Worship Prelude & Meditation Time Greetings,...
read moreShared Outdoor Summer Worship
Our church has a tradition of gathering with some of the other churches in our community for a shared (ecumenical) outdoor worship service. For our worship space we set up a tent (a few of our churches own them or they can be rented) or worship in the gazebo in our town park. byIt is a lot of fun and is well attended. It also requires a good deal of coordination and planning. So, below you will find an outline of our planning process followed by the liturgy we used in July of 2016. Planning Process After Easter each year, I send out an...
read moreVTCUCC AM 2016
In April 2016, and for the 221st time, the Vermont Conference, United Church of Christ met for its Annual Meeting. The meeting was held from Friday morning, 4/29 through Saturday afternoon, 4/30 at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT. Our theme was, “Be The Church” which was borrowed from the national setting of the UCC. Below you will find the orders of worship for three services that took place during plenary sessions. Our musicians for these services were Peter and Mary Alice Amidon and our preacher/keynote was Bishop...
read moreTable of Yes
Below are some prayers for a liturgy for Holy Communion. It was used for our annual Sunday School Sunday (2016) but the “table of yes” theme could be adapted for many occasions. Note: some of the phrases below are adapted from the UCC Book of Worship Invitation to the Table of Yes: Dear ones, this isn’t my table. It’s not your table. It’s not our table. But it’s Christ’s table. And because it’s Christ’s table, it’s the “table of yes”, and all of us are welcome here. At this table, you don’t have to look a...
read more[.mp3] to Worship
![[.mp3] to Worship](https://i0.wp.com/worshipwell.church/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/call-to-worship-banner-pic.jpg?resize=184%2C184&ssl=1)
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone It is common in many church services to begin with a CALL TO WORSHIP. It’s an ancient thing to do and we Christians do it for a variety of reasons: 1) historical (we learned it from our Jewish brothers and sisters – shema); 2) theological (it reminds us that it is God who calls us to worship); 3) scriptural (calls to worship are often adapted from psalms and other scripture passages); and 4) practical (a call to worship signals the start of a service and focuses a...
read moreMother’s Day: thoughts & a prayer
Mother’s Day has become sort of a thing. Like it has happened with Memorial Day and Passover Seders on Maundy Thursday, more and more of my colleagues have developed an ambivalent/tense/negative relationship with the second Sunday in May. “It’s just a Hallmark holiday,” some will say. “It has no place in the church calendar,” other will say. Still others will bemoan the particular ministry complexities of this day, arguing, “not everyone has a mother,” or “not everyone has/had a good...
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