Worship Design Studio More Resources for Summer Ordinary Time 2012 Featured Media Resource Tabled http://tabled.ca/ C.S. Lewis once said that what the church needs is not better arguments, but better metaphors. Tabled.ca is a collection of creative communion installations created with the hope of capturing the imagination and exploring the beauty and gravity of the Eucharist. Birthed within community, this group will be added to as creativity and purpose allows. from the Tabled.ca website Try out some of these communion installations to enrich the symbolism surrounding the Eucharist, linking the holy eating practice to rich scriptural images, or use them as inspiration for your own creative engagement with your community s sacred meal. Soiled A work already in progress, humanity is invited to participate in the redemption of all things. In defiance of our instant society and in rhythm with the seasons, the Kingdom takes root in us and through us. Allow the weight of your folly to be carried by the tree. Uproot the cup. Join the renewal.
Featured Website Creative Prayer http://www.creativeprayer.com/ For many of us involved in planning and leading worship, the dip in attendance often associated with the summer months along with the absence of our usual worship collaborators like musicians, artists and worship planning teams, can feel disconcerting. It is not unusual for us to feel like we are not quite measuring up to our usual standard, going into kind of a holding pattern until things get back up and running in the fall. Why not turn this sentiment on its head this summer and think about ways to take advantage of the smaller numbers in your pews! Faith McCloud s contemplative prayer stations offer one such opportunity for meaningful and memorable worship catering to a smaller scale (though they could certainly be used in larger gathers as well). Creative Prayer offers ideas for over 70 different kinds of prayer stations and worship services that make use of them. She describes a prayer station, saying, The entire purpose of a contemplative prayer station is to create a time and space for people to experience God in their lives. Prayer stations can be highly creative or an incredibly simple approach to prayer and spiritual reflection. Typically, a space is set up where people can enter and participate at their own pace and level. The website lists a selection of prayer stations by theme and type. The description of each prayer station describes everything you need to know to plan for, set up, and the station, including: Description of the station and theologies embodied in it Directions for leadership List of any materials you ll need Prayer station instructions Directions to be included with individual components of a station Check out Faith s new e-book with even more prayer station ideas.
I loved the stations Faith describes as Wordless Worship that celebrate prayer through all of our senses! She forms these stations into an hour long worship experiences that is truly multi-sensory. You could also use them individually or as part of a series of services celebrating the many ways in which we can experience connection to our world, to each other, and to God. Audio Smell Taste Tactile Kinesthetic Posture Visual Use any of the stations Faith describes and they are, combine them in different ways, or use them to seed your own ideas and involve others in creating your own. Make them a whole worship service, or a consistent part of a series of worship services. So many possibilities await! Taste and See Eat one item in the bowl, savoring it. What is its texture and taste? What comes to mind when you taste it? What memories or feelings does it provoke? What does this taste tell you about God? What experience of worship does this taste evoke? Perfect for an intergenerational summer worship series! ********************** Featured Music Resource Sanctuary Jazz http://www.chuckmarohnic.com/ sanctuary_jazz.asp Jazz musician and former Director of Jazz Studies at Arizona State University, Chuck Marohnic, offers a wonderful resource to church musicians, worship leaders and ministers who want to explore the possibilities of jazz music in worship. With video tutorials, sheet music, cds and articles, Chuck s website puts live jazz worship within the reach of any worshipping community. Make ordinary time extraordinary with a new joyful noises this summer!
The Jazz Hymnal offers a unique selection of songs, both original compositions and traditional hymnody in harmonically-enhanced jazz/pop arrangement that challenge both the players and the listeners beyond the usual diatonic realm. There are even suggestions about where to add improvised solos and some innovative ideas about congregational involvement. Included are 51 songs written in several different formats that include jazz lead sheets, piano scoring, etc. You will find beautiful new ballads and great new grooves such as hip-hop, reggae, samba and more. Check out his other books of hymn and song arrangements as well, along with CDs which include many of the same songs. Need to learn the basics? Check out Chuck s free multimedia jazz lessons. You can also read Chuck s tips for improvisation. And for a step by step approach to learning to play jazz from the beginning, order Chuck s Jazz Keyboard Study book. Jazz is an infinite statement of recreation. It lives, as all music does, within the confines of musical constraints The beauty of Jazz is that it finds its freedom, its limitless expression of human experience, within the confines of that fixed structure. Jazz is a living metaphor for the image of God that, being embodied in us, resists all efforts to be constrained by our brokenness. ~ Michael Lee A series of YouTube videos offers concrete tips and techniques for incorporating jazz in worship, from creating jazz accompaniments for traditional hymns to improvising during scripture readings as a form of biblical interpretation. Want to hear Chuck s jazz ministry live? Check out the online worship community Darkwood Brew live-cast on Sundays at 5pm CST. Or take a look at some past episodes here.
Featured Books on the Bookshelf in Marcia s Worship Design Studio At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time by Sarah Arthur This guide to prayer for the liturgical season of Ordinary Time is a journey of the imagination guided by poets and authors, both classic and contemporary who have known the things of God but speak in metaphor. These are writers who tell the truth, as Emily Dickinson put it, but they tell it slant. Author Sarah Arthur organizes these readings thematically, in groups of three to six, for each of the 29 weeks of Ordinary time. Their themes range the breadth of human spiritual experience: from conviction to calling, quarreling to awakening, dark nights, redemption and everything in between. Use the book to broaden your verbal liturgical imagination, as inspiration for a sermon series, or as a guide for an Ordinary Time prayer group or vespers worship service. Gifts in Open Hands: More Worship Resources for the Global Community edited by Maren Tirabassi and Kathy Wonson Eddy Gifts in Open Hands was inspired by the bestselling Gifts of Many Cultures: Worship Resources for the Global Community, also by Tirabassi and Eddy. This fresh, new edition, like the previous, contains a wealth of multicultural liturgies, prayers, affirmations, blessings, and poetry by people from the global community. These beautifully written pieces can be used in worship and celebration of sacraments, sacred seasons, and all other occasions in the life of the church. The inclusion of black-and-white images for reproduction in church bulletins is included again in this volume, and an important new feature is the arrangement of translations so that materials in other languages are available to English-speaking as well as bilingual worship planners. There is also a thorough appendix with additional graphics and musical resources. Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals Common Prayer helps today's diverse church pray together across traditions and denominations. With an ear to the particulars of how various liturgical traditions pray, and using an advisory team of liturgy experts, the authors have created a tapestry of prayer that celebrates the best of each tradition. The book also includes a unique songbook composed of music and classic lyrics to over fifty songs from various traditions, including African spirituals, traditional hymns, Mennonite gathering songs, and Taize chants. Tools for prayer are scattered throughout to aid those who are unfamiliar with liturgy and to deepen the prayer life of those who are familiar with liturgical prayer. Ultimately, Common Prayer makes liturgy dance, taking the best of the old and bringing new life to it with a fresh fingerprint for the contemporary renewal of the church.