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For our final round of ordination resources, we consulted five experts from five more traditions. Their best practices will help you understand the significance of ordaining people as bishops, priests, ministers, elders, and deacons.
Scholars and songwriters don’t normally talk together. But wonderful music for Christian worship can result when they share insights.
Joel Stamoolis acknowledges it was challenging to help his church sing through the entire Psalter. But during 171 consecutive Sundays of doing so, he gathered a wealth of tips and resources. You can use them to help your congregation begin singing more psalms in worship.
Singing through the entire book of Psalms helped Wasilla Bible Church expand its lyrical breadth. This shared Scriptural repertoire is pointing people of all ages toward Jesus.
Small churches sometimes feel weak or irrelevant. Intentional worship practices can help them discover their value before God and to the community.
Most churches measure worship services against a certain ideal. They may think of worship like a concert, entertainment, dialogue, or something else. Even if they have not consciously chosen an operating metaphor for worship, their pattern greatly influences how individuals and congregations live out their faith.
You may think of pastoral care mainly as personal visits to someone’s hospital room or home. But Howard Vanderwell wrote that the entire worship service has “powerful potential for caring for worshipers’ needs.” His book Caring 91: Helping 91 Leaders Provide Pastoral Care through the Liturgy explains how.
Praise and worship music can lift worshipers’ hearts to God and unite people across culture, religious tradition, and background. But the genre is not meant to be the only kind of music in a congregation’s repertoire.
One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism is a new Protestant hymnal compiled by a core committee of worship arts ministers and scholars. It goes deep and wide into the multiple streams of black Christian music and worship.
Most congregations have never heard a sermon preached from the prophetic books of Nahum or Obadiah. Other than a few choice passages in Jeremiah or Isaiah, the major prophets are mainly ignored too. That means worshipers are missing out on more than a quarter of inspired Scripture.
Cantar coritos - cantos breves - en español e inglés en el culto ofrece hospitalidad y facilita que la congregación aprenda nuevos conceptos sobre quién es Dios.
Experimenting with a different Advent or Christmas Eve worship format may help worshipers connect with the joy and wonder of Christ’s birth. Blue Christmas, Christmas pageants, Las Posadas, or lessons and carols make room for emotions, movement, culture, and people’s gifts.
