Intergenerational

Peggy Goetz on Churches and Stroke Survivors

Stroke is a leading cause of disability in adults around the world, so your congregation probably includes—or will soon include—stroke survivors. And about a third of stroke survivors suffer from some form of communication impairment. Peggy Goetz researches the experience of stroke survivors in their church communities.

September 12, 2014
Kendra Buckwalter Smith on Authentic Global Worship

Kendra Buckwalter Smith is the worship coordinator at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PTS has chapel four days a week, and Smith meets with every person or team that plans a chapel service.

August 29, 2014
Musician Sally Ann Morris on Seminarians Learning Worship

Sally Ann Morris is the chapel musician at Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She’s involved with each of Wake Div’s twice-weekly, 45-minute chapel services.

August 29, 2014

A Commissioning Liturgy for Young People Going Away

After high school many young people move away, often leaving home for the first time. This major life event can be acknowledged in the church. Here is a commissioning service based on 1 Corinthians 12.

August 13, 2014
John Huizinga on Worship Change Accountability

John Huizinga is pastor of Lombard Christian Reformed Church in Lombard, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He works to develop leaders within the congregation to take ownership of various church ministries.

August 4, 2014

Combining Two Worship Services Renews Congregation

Lombard Christian Reformed Church in metro Chicago used to have both a traditional service and a contemporary service. Now everyone attends a single, Sunday-morning service. It’s not blended worship. Instead, the worship renewal results from slowly and yet actively responding to the Holy Spirit.

August 4, 2014
C. J. Newendorp on Ancient-Future Church Renewal

C.J. Newendorp is a pastoral intern at Emmanuel Reformed Church in Paramount, California, and an MDiv student, class of 2015, at Fuller Theological Seminary.

August 4, 2014

The Wardrobe of Easter: Love

What better place to celebrate the Good News of God’s agape and to get the instruction manual for learning how to live it out toward others than in the congregation of saints on Sunday morning? There we gather to hear about and to celebrate, to receive instruction and to pledge anew.

April 13, 2014 | 5 min read
Deepening a Congregation’s Ability to Talk about Worship, Pt.2

We will explore what we can learn from the challenges and gifts of two churches of the recent past, Christ Temple in Jim Crow racism-laced Jackson, Mississippi, and the Anaheim Vineyard Fellowship in the late 1970s.

February 20, 2014