Worship Weblog
Friday, September 30, 2005
September Visit to Grant Recipients
Note: This entry was written by Betty Grit, manager of the Worship Renewal Grants Program of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
Through the Worship Renewal Grants Program we partner with congregations throughout North American who have developed a process for renewal in worship. From proposals, websites and conversations we learn a great deal from these congregational leaders. But we have found that we learn the most when we are able to visit them in their setting. This week I visited three 2005 grant recipients in the Detroit area.
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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Preparing to Pray 9/29/05
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
(These verses are taken from Isaiah 61, a chapter quoted in this week’s reading on Paul’s first missionary journey—see below.)
Interdisciplinary Application • World • Worshipers • Worshipping Communities • (1) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Leadership in the Context of Church Planting
The following is a portion of a statement drafted at Calvin Theological Seminary in a recent consultation with church planters. For more, see “Leadership: A Working Definition,” a document prepared by the Leadership Development Team of the Christian Reformed Church, available at the CRC’s Resources page. Also see CICW’s Leadership page.
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Beware Journalistic Flattery of the Church
Christianity Today managing editor Mark Galli writes in this week’s CTLibrary newsletter:
Interdisciplinary Application • News • Worshipping Communities • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Monday, September 26, 2005
WOWAW 15: ‘Worship extends beyond the bounds of the assembly’
This week’s Words of Wisdom About Worship:
Paul is quite clear in his reminder in Romans 12 that worship extends beyond the bounds of the assembly into acts of service in the world. . . . there is more to worship than merely performing rituals . . . Walls separating the sacred and the secular, which were torn down by Jesus, are raised by human hands when worshipers separate the ritual waters of baptism from the table fellowship acts of service in the world . . . In true and authentic worship of God there is a dialectical relationship rather than a dichotomy between faith and practice, justice and ritual action, theological talk and doxological living, and sanctification and human liberation.
- Melva Costen, African American Worship, Abingdon Press, 1993, p. 126; quoted here and here.
Earlier: WOWAW 14
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Preparing to Pray 9/23/05
God be gracious to us and bless us
and make your face to shine upon us.
That your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Let all the people praise you. Amen.
The worship service designed for Sept. 25 by CICW begins with the above opening prayer from Psalm 67.
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
‘Christ Plays’ 181-199
Staff discussion of Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:
Interdisciplinary Application • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Prayer for Those Who Proclaim
Prayer for Those Who Proclaim
Scripture: Colossians 4:2-6; Psalm 116
This sermon was preached by the Rev. Stephen Rhoda of Sioux Center, Iowa, and posted at crcna.org under Reading Sermons (also see these links from the Center for Excellence in Preaching).
An excerpt:
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Making Meetings More Meaningful
This week’s featured story from Alban Weekly is Preventing Burnout in Board Members. Lawrence Peers’ 6 suggestions for making board meetings more than “business as usual” include this:
1. Begin the meeting with a time of prayer, meditation, or reflection on Scripture to remind the board that its work is sacred. Sometimes I’ve observed a board beginning with prayer or reflection but then rushing into its agenda to get to the “real work.” When done well, this worship-full beginning is not merely another agenda item to check off but a way to set the tone and context for the board’s work.
Peers’ article is an apt reminder that church meetings are an ideal setting for reflection on the purpose and practice of worship. John Witvliet addresses this, and offers practical points, in a recent Q&A column in Reformed Worship, which is reprinted at CICW’s Teaching Worship collection.
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Monday, September 19, 2005
First United Methodist Featured in the Santa Monica Daily Press
One of our 2005 Worship Renewal Grants recipients is First United Methodist Church of Santa Monica. First’s pastor, the Rev. Patricia Farris, was the subject of a lengthy article and Q&A in the Santa Monica Daily Press earlier this year. The article is linked from First’s website; it begins on the bottom of page 1 and continues on page 7. An excerpt:
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WOWAW 14: Music, Worship, and Mystery
This week’s Words of Wisdom About Worship:
Because God, and therefore the worship of God, cannot be reduced to the rational, song has always been basic to the act of worship. Music is not added to the words to make them more pleasing; it is integral to the way the words are being used as openings to the transcendent, as windows to the mystery, as joining in the dance of the Trinity.
-Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, pp.177; more
• Listen to a reading of this quote(mp3)
by Howard Vanderwell
Earlier: WOWAW 13
Interdisciplinary Application • Leadership • Liturgical Arts • Music • Reading • Worshipers • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Friday, September 16, 2005
Preparing to Pray 9/16
With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:6-8, NRSV
As we gather for worship this week, O Lord, help us to make a faithful connection between “faith and practice, justice and ritual action, theological talk and doxological living, and sanctification and human liberation.” (Melva Costen, African American Worship, Abingdon Press, 1993, p. 126, quoted here).
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Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Conversations About Leadership and the Changing Church
Note: This report was written by Betty Grit of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
One of the joys of working at CICW is listening in on so many conversations about church life. This morning, almost 200 pastors and church leaders gathered for breakfast and to hear a conversation between Brian McLaren and Rob Bell. Hosted by Zondervan, this event introduced us to new publications by these authors.
Leadership • News • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Worship Renewal: Continuing the Discussion, and the Definition
An article on the front page of the Grand Rapids Press last Saturday (the article is unavailable online) centered on worship renewal and mentioned the Worship Renewal Grants Program of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. The statements in the article by CICW’s Betty Grit and the Rev. Eleazar Merriweather, a grant recipient, emphasize that worship renewal does not just mean change for its own sake.
“We’re finding there’s a hunger for worship renewal,” said Betty Grit ... “There’s not one formula that fits all. It’s not so much a matter of forms as perhaps how engaged people are in worship.” ...
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‘Christ Plays’ 147-181
Staff discussion of Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places:
Interdisciplinary Application • Reading • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink