I find myself returning to again and again in my ministry. These and the spiritual gifts passages in Ephesians 4:11-13 and Romans 12:6-8 are critical in our understanding of the proper stewardship of time.
Of all the contributions C. Peter Wagner made in the past, a major one was his discussion of the relationship between church growth and spiritual-gifts discovery.
The conflict between form and freedom in worship is not new, and we have both sides in our congregations. Some wish we would throw out the liturgy so we could be free to "move with the Spirit." Others are tired of innovations and want to return to the good ol' days when they knew what was happening and could follow the bulletin play by play.
DEVOTIONS The Nuts and Bolts of Worship These foundational principles can guide your planning team each week and beyond. The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship gathered insights about worship planning from 100 congregations and assembled a crash course of collected wisdom about the topic. Here are some highlights:
Worship planners and leaders need more than skills and understanding of worship; they also need pastoral virtues.
Worship planners are spiritual leaders, not just technicians. In the early church ...
These are some of the procedures that are helpful in planning a worship service.
Finding the Focal Point
Center worship around a theme—a focal point or central idea that gives the service sequence and depth. Sometimes the theme is supplied by the season of the year. Other times a special emphasis of the church, like a Family Sunday, suggests worship themes.
Finding balance, to appreciate both expressive praise songs and traditional hymns, is possible. Both can be included in an extended time of free-flowing worship.
Eddie Espinosa and the late John Wimber of The Vineyard identified five different kinds of choruses and how they could be linked into a sequence. The five phases are (1) invitation, (2) engagement, (3) exaltation, (4) adoration, ...
There is a great deal we can do to enliven the worship offered up on most Sundays by our parishioners. These aren't major changes of the structure of worship; they're minor alterations with major significance.
1. Prayers that evidence thought. It's a temptation to regard prayers as mere conversational interludes during which we can voice whatever we happen to be feeling at the moment. ...
Printer view of these results
