Worship Weblog
Friday, September 26, 2008
Ezekiel 34 for Christ the King Sunday
Ezekiel 34:11-19
by SAMUEL L. ADAMS
Interpretation 62 no3 304-6 Jl 2008This Scripture reading appears in the common lectionary on the Sunday that celebrates the lordship of Jesus, Christ the King Sunday. The portrait of the royal figure in this passage from Ezekiel is quite specific. This is a ruler who compensates for the innate human tendency to tear each other down and create a fractious society. This Shepherd-King acts as a compassionate leader, who tends to the neediest of the flock first and who judges human beings according to whether they have followed his lead. Ezekiel does not believe that all evils will cease in this new age, but he does acknowledge the authority of the Deity who seeks to bring us together in koinonia. Since this text comes to us on Christ the King Sunday and right before Advent, the promise it brings should not be overlooked. Ezekiel 34 bears witness to nothing less than the gracious intervention of a royal shepherd coming to rescue a fearful world.
Leadership • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • Permalink
Worship Leader on pastors and musicians: ‘Holy Headlock or Wedlock’
Holy Headlock or Wedlock
(Cultivating an Enriching and Creative Relationship Between Pastors and Worship Leaders/Musicians)
Taught by Scotty SmithHow good and pleasant it is when pastors and worship leaders/musicians dwell together in unity, but all too often it just doesn’t happen. Many times the planning and execution of God’s worship looks more like a playground for insecure leaders trying to validate themselves than a holy and humble exercise in the mutual stewardship of God’s glory and grace.
Monday, October 20, 2008
11:00am, Pacific Time
Duration: 1 hourThis Webinar will provide a conversation about the privileges and challenges involved in having left-brained and right-brained types—pastors and poets, orators and artists—develop the kind of working relationship that reveals the beauty and power of the gospel. How we relate to one another outside of the worship center either mocks or validates what we are praying will happen in the worship center.
Pastors and worship personnel are welcome into this very frank and encouraging dialog. Whether your current situation is so very sweet, or you’re desperate to find a different job, bring your story and an open heart.
‘Wine Before Breakfast’ at the University of Toronto
Considering that college students are notorious for sleeping in after late nights studying (and socializing), who would actually turn up for a eucharist service at 7:22 on Tuesday mornings?
Simple: University of Toronto students who are serious about their faith and want to pray, worship, grow, and struggle with Jesus.
“Wine Before Breakfast,” which takes place each Tuesday in the chapel of Wycliffe College, currently attracts about 45 students every week. According to Dr. Brian Walsh, who leads the Home Missions-funded campus ministry at the University of Toronto, the 8-year-old event is an “innovative and creative” eucharist service filled with music, food, and prayer.
News • Worshipping Communities • (0) Comments • Permalink
Alban Weekly on ‘Vital Congregations as Intentional Communities of Practice’
In my experience, vital congregations are more than a collection of individuals drawn together by similar personal experiences and needs that in turn are expressed through common beliefs or by similar styles of religious life. Vital congregations are communities of practice, where we immerse ourselves in those “patterns of communal action,” that in Craig Dykstra’s words “create openings in our lives where the grace, mercy and presence of God may be made known to us.”
Leadership • Reading • Worshipping Communities • (0) Comments • Permalink
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Prayer on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks
Among the recommended resources and reflections for today:
- ”How Do We Pray?” by John Witvliet on Sept. 12, 2001
- ”Truth-Telling Comfort” by Walter Brueggemann on Sept. 12, 2001
Leadership • News • Reading • Worshipers • (0) Comments • Permalink
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Witvliet interviewed at Sojourn Music
Listen to Sojourn Music‘s interview with our director, John Witvliet, about worship renewal in North America and the work of CICW.
In this interview conducted by Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper, Dr. Witvliet talks about the grant opportunities, classes, conferences and other resources that the Institute makes available to worship arts ministries.
Leadership • Liturgical Arts • (0) Comments • Permalink
Dyrness interviewed at worshippodcast.com
Listen to worshippodcast.com‘s interview with author and professor Bill Dyrness, who is also member of our Grants Advisory Board and contributing author to our book A More Profound Alleluia.
In this episode, Dr. William Dyrness discusses the content of his new book, Senses of the Soul: Art and the Visual in Christian Worship. This book is based on the results of research conducted with Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations in the Los Angeles area. Dr. Dyrness is Professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Seminary. Other recent books published by Dyrness include Reformed Theology and Visual Culture (2004) and Visual Faith (2001).
Grant recipient featured in VMC newsletter
Read this article(pdf) about one of our grant recipients, The Table, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, from the newsletter of the Virginia Mennonite Conference.
Grants • News • Worshipping Communities • (0) Comments • Permalink
Stringfellow on ‘the vocation of the baptized person’
William Stringfellow, quoted in this Baccalaureate sermon at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary:
The vocation of the baptized person is a simple thing: it is to live from day to day, whatever the day brings, in this extraordinary unity, in this reconciliation with all persons and all things, in this knowledge that death has no more power, in this truth of the Resurrection. It does not really matter what [you as] a Christian [do] from day to day. What matters is that in whatever [you do, you do it] in honor of the triumph of Christ over death and, therefore, in honor of [your] own life, given to [you] by God and restored to [you] in Christ, in honor of the life into which all persons and all things are called. The only thing that really matters is to live in Christ instead of death.
Interdisciplinary Application • Leadership • Preaching • Reading • Worshipers • (0) Comments • Permalink
WCC on Creative Commons licensing for churches: ‘Love to Share’
From the World Council of Churches:
* Churches are struggling with the complexity of copyright laws and the restrictions they face when they want to use liturgical resources in a worship setting or publish non-profit worship material.
* It is difficult to find resources that can be freely shared through the Internet.
* It is hard to know how to use worship material from other countries in an equitable and just way.
* It is not easy to know where to go to find advice or to avoid being trapped by intellectual property (IP) laws.Churches, individuals, and Christian and ecumenical organizations are facing challenges when dealing with these issues. Their struggle is intensified because of the larger context of globalization, where the rules of the market dominate and a culture of commodification is everywhere. While it is important to understand the logic of the market and the laws and regulations that apply to intellectual property, there are other issues that need to be taken into consideration.
This document aims to give some direction and guidelines in this task of searching for alternatives to the current situation. It is an effort to raise questions and clarify some possible solutions and alternatives.
Interdisciplinary Application • Leadership • Music • Reading • World • Worshipping Communities • (0) Comments • Permalink
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Christian History on its relaunched website
Christian History on its relaunched website:
Interdisciplinary Application • Reading • (0) Comments • Permalink
Alban Weekly on the Transition into Ministry initiative
Alban Weekly on Lilly Endowment’s Transition into Ministry initiative:
A promising set of new experiments has the potential to make a collective impact on the way people enter pastoral ministry in the twenty-first century. The Transition into Ministry initiative (TiM)—an effort funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and participated in by more than 800 beginning pastors to date—has drawn hundreds of new seminary graduates, a variety of denominational and judicatory leaders, congregations from at least 11 Protestant denominations, several seminaries, and thousands of congregation members into a shared effort to change the experience of pastors at the thresholds of their ministries.
Interdisciplinary Application • Leadership • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • Permalink
Thursday, September 04, 2008
Charge for commissioning church school teachers
Servants of Christ, accept the service with which you have been entrusted. Do not neglect the gift that is in you. Present yourselves to God as approved workers, ever faithful to the Spirit of God.
Remember always that Jesus called you friends as well as servants. Attend to prayer, for without God you can do nothing.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Visit to First Union Church in Cedarville, Michigan
Report from Betty Grit:
On a warm, sun-filled Saturday evening in early August, twelve people gathered with me at First Union Church in Cedarville, Michigan, to talk about worship renewal. Pastor Jeff Meyers and three others from the congregation had attended the Calvin Symposium on Worship and were interested in the projects of worship renewal that had been described by a panel of church leaders. They invited me to Cedarville to discuss what worship renewal might mean in their congregation.
In this gathering I learned that many families have vacationed in the Les Cheneaux area for generations. Throughout the summer they gather at family homes and worship at First Union Church. Others worship for many months of the year in Cedarville and minister in warmer locations during the winter. The church is home to professional musicians, artisans and people with rich and diverse gifts. We spent the evening exploring how a grant might build on the strengths of the congregation to engage in an intentional year of worship renewal.
Sunday morning the congregation and visitors gathered for two worship services. As we sang “Holy, Holy, Holy” in this space surrounded by water and wooded islands, the words “all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea” had new and richer meaning. On this baptism Sunday Pastor Meyers focused our attention on Matthew 28:19 and 20. He reminded us that this afternoon we would witness baptism. We were challenged to consider what it would mean to develop a concrete plan and practice to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. Invited into communion through the words of institution spoken by a father and young son, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
Later that afternoon we gathered on the shores of Lake Huron for the baptism of 9 adults and children. As each person confessed faith in Jesus as their Savior and promised, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to follow the commandments of God, we prayed that all of us would have a growing awareness of what it means to be a disciple. What would we sing and say and do if we were truly to obey the Great Commission?
As the congregation of First Union Church consider s how a worship renewal grant might help them answer these questions, we are praying for them and for all congregations who are developing proposals to be submitted by the January 10, 2009 deadline.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
‘Seeing the Savior’ exhibit at John Knox Presbyterian in Seattle
John Knox Presbyterian Church is hosting a new exhibit through Christians in the Visual Arts, Seeing the Savior, through the end of July. From the Annunciation to his Second Coming, 34 insightful and colorful interpretations of the birth, ministry, Passion, ascension, and return of the Lord are masterfully portrayed by 13 artists from a variety of artistic and ethnic backgrounds.
Interdisciplinary Application • Liturgical Arts • News • (1) Comments • Permalink