Intergenerational
-
Heartbeat of God: Syncing with the Rhythm
This is a 5-part series focusing on exploring spiritual care practices during the season of Lent. Stephen Macchia, in his book “Crafting a Rule of Life” says, All of us have an unwritten personal rule of life that we are following, some with great clarity, others unknowingly. We wake at certain times, get ready for…
-
Interactive Christmas Service
This interactive reading was adapted from the book, The Ox and the Donkey by Gunter Spang. After welcoming everyone, I led the kids in making their ox and donkey hand puppets. Using the instructions from this YouTube video, I passed out materials for them to make puppets that will be used in worship. During the…
-
Complex Characters in the Bible
This worship series covers complicated characters in the Bible such as Jacob, David, Solomon, Esther, and Paul. I created a macrame banner because I wanted to do something that represent how our relationships with God, each other, and the world are entangled. What makes these characters as well as us complicated is that no one…
-
Palm Sunday – Tale of Three Trees
For this Palm Sunday, I brought back a pageant that we did several years ago, an adapted version of The Tale of Three Trees. Having just finished a Lent series focused on trees, it seemed appropriate to do so. Afterwards, I had three stations for people to visit to reflect on the story. Depending on…
-
Into the Woods: A Journey into Lent
This is a 5-part series intersecting care for the environment with the season of Lent. While there aren’t in-depth worship ideas in this particular post, I did want to show how worship can also weave in a fundraiser with opportunities to fellowship. This is how we took advantage of what our city has to offer.…
-
Let’s Eat: The Food of Our Faith
This is a 8-part series on food stories in the bible and how that informs our faith. On the chancel, we stacked food boxes collected from our weekly food pantry and set the large communion table covered with a white table cloth in the middle of the sanctuary. Each Sunday, the table dressing changed according…
-
Interactive Reading of Luke 2
This interactive reading was adapted from another source. Introduce the characters and practice each part. Give instructions that they will perform their parts after their words are read in the Christmas story. Below are just suggestions, but you can simplify it by having everyone do all the parts. I made signs to prompt them. Characters City …
-
Sabbath Ritual
This is a simple and easy ritual to do. I used it for a worship theme on Sabbath. I invited people to reflect on things they wanted to rest from. Participants may want to write something they need to let go of – maybe it is the weight of loss or grief that they have…
-
Story Chalkboards
At the 1-year mark of sheltering in place due to COVID-19, St. John’s opened up the sanctuary inviting participants to share their story over the past year. I had the youth in the church prep the boards and come up with questions to ask. The questions are: What have you gained?/What have you lost? What’s…
-
Reflection on One’s Gifts & Talents
Here is a simple reflection on one’s gifts and talents that they have to offer and share. A large loom was set up in the sanctuary. Also tied some fabric on the loom as an example of what to do, but also to catch people’s eye so that they didn’t walk into the loom. People…
Still Waters 