Sacred Space

Emerging Worship ConceptsAlternative worship. Ancient-future worship. Emerging worship. Whatever name is the one that sticks, we can be sure the phenomenon is going to be around for a while. A new kind of worship experience is satisfying the younger generation, and many in the not-so-young generations.

It is satisfying a hunger to be fully involved in the worship experience, not just with the intellect, and not just with the emotions either. It’s a movement away from taking in (or putting on) a high-quality performances, and toward sharing experience in community. It relies on teamwork and creativity, providing a great potential for collaborative ministry.

This movement has wisdom beyond its years. Contemporary churches would do well to glean some of its principles, even if you’re not looking to ‘go emergent’ any time soon.

Workshops

Expanding the Worship Palette

This workshop supplies vision and tools for planning meaningful gatherings for a postmodern culture. It will help your creative people to pool their energies and to envision what can happen when they work together. We explore the potential of worship stations, participatory opportunities, imagery, readings and more as ways to facilitate authentic encounters with God. More

The Gathered Church in the Postmodern World

This workshop presents new approaches to designing worship gatherings in light of our postmodern culture. This cultural shift urges us to adapt how we communicate, plan and lead gatherings in order to connect with the culture and impart the gospel effectively. More

Books and Links

  • www.sacredspace.ie Daily prayers to guide you into God’s presence in prayer.
  • Emerging Worship and Emerging Church – Dan Kimball This book set is an informative and practical primer on emerging worship. Whether you are starting an emerging congregation or desire to put some emerging worship concepts to work in your church, these titles will serve you well.
  • Alternative Worship – Jonny Baker and Doug Gay A grassroots product of the alternative worship movement in the U.K., this book compiles home-grown materials grouped by the liturgical year. Includes a CD-ROM.
  • “Five Streams of the Emerging Church” This article by Scot McKnight puts the emerging church movement and the criticism it’s received into perspective. Published in Christianity Today Magazine.
  • www.alternativeworship.org A UK site with lots of useful information and links.
  • www.resonate.ca Among the plethora of sites on emerging culture, here’s one gathering together a small group of Canadians.

Deeper Devotion

Deeper Devotion is dedicated to helping individuals and churches go deeper with God. It brings together spiritual formation and worship arts, two areas which are vital to Christian life and community. The meditations and articles are offered here to encourage you spiritually. Workshop descriptions present equipping opportunities for your community. More

Articles

Worship Stations-Trend or Treasure?

I recall the question well. In a conversation leading up to a workshop day, a church leader asked me, somewhat skeptically, “Do worship stations appeal to more than the touchy-feely types? In your experience, do guys really go for them?” These are valid questions! My new acquaintance was mirroring a truth that worship planners need to take seriously: Our approach to worship stations is crucial to the treasure they offer. Do them poorly and they will quickly fade into a passing trend.

Today’s worshipers are thirsty for authentic experience. But is this new trend toward worship stations necessarily a part of that? We’ve become accustomed to involving our bodies in worship, and now the worship stations idea urges us to expand the milieu to the whole room. Why the current encouragement to move out of our seats? After all, moving all those people can be downright chaotic. And it calls for a whole lot of creativity and teamwork. Is it worth it? Is it preferable just to let the trend pass and hope for more comfortable days? Or is there something to be followed here–even for the objective, thinker types?

Going beyond informational learning
When the worship milieu is expanded beyond our seats, worshipers are encouraged to go beyond merely receiving information toward responding to what they have heard. The hands-on involvement of the will, mind and emotions assists in taking the experience with us into our everyday lives. It provides no instant formula, but it offers another layer to the learning process.

Symbolism puts ideas into tangible form. We easily forget what we merely hear or see. Our memory does better with things that we experience. So symbolic things that we interact with stay with us longer, providing another aid to real learning.

Opportunity to seal a moment
When we get out of our seats and involve our will, act upon a conviction, or take a step to respond to a truth, we create a moment in time to return to. Some moments will be more significant than others, and some will be truly unforgettable. I’ll share a personal experience to illustrate.

I will never forget the significance the moment brought. More »

Additional Articles

Sacred Space