Category: Worship Education

Planning for Adult Faith Formation

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At the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE) Annual Event in Baltimore,  Zeta Touchton Lamberson led a workshop on Adult Faith Formation. Believing that the role of the church is to walk alongside adults through their journey of faith providing resources, opportunities and conversations that will draw them into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, the workshop led the participants through a process of developing an intentional comprehensive adult education program. Using the Stepping Stones on the Journey of Faith resource (available from Zeta Lamberson at billzeta@bellsouth.net) four areas were identified as important: Biblical Knowledge, Worship & Sacraments, Stewardship & Mission, and Church History/Theology/Doctrine/Polity. The participants used a brainstorming process to identify resources that had been used in their churches in four areas. Following the event the list of resources were compiled and amplified and Zeta has shared them here and would love to know of other resources used successfully with adults. Continue reading →

Biblical Storytelling

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Here is something new that isn’t really all that new to “try” – biblical storytelling.

I am part of a liturgical biblical storytelling troupe, whose members “tell” the gospel story (or another of the lectionary text) each week during worship.

Biblical Storytelling is reclaiming the ancient practice- when most of the world was illiterate- of telling the stories of the bible. Biblical Storytelling is the rediscovered ancient art of oral performance of the scriptural text. It’s the way the stories of the bible were always intended to be heard — the way they always were heard before they were written down, and even for centuries after that. Continue reading →

What’s NEXT for Christian Education?

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Report from 2015 NEXT Church Conference                                                                                    Fourth Presbyterian Church                                                                                                    Chicago, March 16-18

What is the NEXT Church?

It’s a movement within the PC(USA) that—in the midst of severe drops in giving, worship attendance and controversial issues like gay rights and Israel-Palestine conflict—shows that the denomination (and it’s churches) aren’t dead. But instead the PC(USA) is changing, expanding and transforming into the body of Christ that God calls it to be. Here’s how the NEXT Church expresses it on their website.

For me, what truly nourishes my heart and soul at the NEXT Church Conferences is morning and evening worship, connecting with friends and colleagues (as well as making new ones), the presentations on new ways of doing ministry/cultural trends/justice and societal issues, and workshops.

While the conference doesn’t explicitly talk about Christian Education ministry, it is faithfully educating Christians about what it means to be the body of Christ and to do God’s work in the world—to (according to this year’s theme) go “beyond our walls, our fears and ourselves” to be Christ’s hands and feet. Continue reading →

Interactive Worship Ideas

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At Faith Presbyterian (https://www.facebook.com/faithpresgso), we embrace our traditional worship style and space while making our service accessible and engaging for all. Children and their families are welcome at the front of the sanctuary with activities geared toward their age level. Our family worship guide follows the pattern of the service and offers extra enrichment ideas and activities for children and active learners of all ages.The outline of a traditional worship service centered around The Word is beautiful and quite freeing when we remember that The Word is The Living Word of God – incarnate in Christ, written in scripture, and enacted in the world.

For Lent, we are using a themed sermon series inspired by Rev. Whitney Wilkinson following the “Landscape of Lent.” Each week, we add a new visual element to represent some aspect of the scripture – ashes, wilderness, wind, water, mud, cave, palms, bread – and we will close with Easter in the garden. Continue reading →

Children’s Sermon Helps

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Holly Inglis was kind enough to send her handouts from her recent workshop at the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators’ Annual Event 2015. The workshop was titled “Don’t be afraid of the children’s sermon!” The description follows: The children’s sermon is one of the most important elements of worship, yet is often a source of stress and anxiety for those preparing and those listening. These resources offer practical tips for managing and leading a time with children during worship, as well as, recommended resources for messages and tools for training volunteers to lead messages. Continue reading →