Worship
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Interactive Way to Pray in Worship
At a presbytery-wide worship service (In the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination, churches are geographically grouped into presbyteries), the theme of worship was around the concept of love. The Rabbi Judy Shanks from Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, CA, was the guest preacher. She preached a beautiful sermon that wove in verses from the song, Seasons of Love from…
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Interactive Prayer Stations on Love
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3.1) I borrowed a sermon. Yep, I said it! I borrowed a sermon . . . actually, I adapted a sermon from Rabbi Judy Shanks at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, CA. She wove in her sermon with the musical…
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A Sunday (37) in Life of a Pastor/Mother: Blessings
For the past nine years I served at my church, I have counted my blessings, especially as they have changed and made space for me to pastor while being a mother. When my son was born, he was one of few babies born. It’s hard to believe eight years later, we have had 10 babies…
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A Journey in the Intergenerational Worship Experiment
This is a picture of this past Sunday, our first Sunday switching to an intergenerational worship format. On the floor, you see tubs of play dough, tools, cookie cutters, and mirrors. Since I was preaching on James 1.22-25, I had the kids look at their reflection in the mirror and use play dough to recreate…
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Children in Worship: It’s More than Having Coloring Sheets
In the first issue of PLGRM, Rev. LeAnn Watkins, rector at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in St. Paul, MN, shares how after numerous attempts of increasing attendance of bible studies and other church-related programs, her staff decided to cancel it all – everything during the weekdays except seasonal services. You can hear her tell her…
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Interactive Use of Candles and Meaning of Names
The following interactive activity can be used when exploring different names for God or stories about the meaning of names in the Bible, baptism, or names that we claim as our identity as a child of God. For a recent conference, I made the following candle. I put the logo on a 9″ tall candle…
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Interactive Prayer Stations on Pentecost III
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were…
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Interactive Prayer Stations on Easter & Empty Tomb
20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. (John 20.1) Typically, the Sunday after Easter, my church sets up interactive prayer stations. After the hoopla of Easter service with trumpets and all the festivities, we center this…
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A Sunday (16) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: Exhaustion
My kids are troopers. It amazes me how well they do going to church meetings, Bible studies, and other church-related activities. Rarely do they complain. They always find a way to entertain themselves. I do my best to not take advantage of their willingness to tag along. Today was clearly a day when exhaustion has…
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A Sunday (15) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: Marilyn Monroe
This picture is iconic. It comes from when Marilyn Monroe starred in “The Seven-Year Itch,” where she stands on the grate on a New York sidewalk and the draft from the subway below flips her skirt up. I think of this photo whenever I’m at church and the heater is on full blast. Our heater grates…
Still Waters 