Symposium 2009 - Standards for Excellence in 91ÁÔÆæ
91ÁÔÆæ planners and leaders often speak of excellence in worship. What are these standards and who determines them?
Helping Children Understand the Psalms
The Psalms have been a great source of inspiration for generations of Christians but children seldom get the chance to interact with more than a handful of Psalms in a meaningful way. This workshop will explore how we can help children do this and why it matters.
Building a Healthy and Interdependent Church Community
The session presented several practical tools for building a church community that welcomes and embraces diversity in membership. Highlighting examples from churches including members with disabilities, this session offered ideas that allow people to see one another through God's eyes.
Second Life: New Creations
In this hands-on workshop, participants delved into the limitless process of multi-colored mono-prints, working with various found objects that are considered to be dead or discarded and seeking to imbue/resurrect them with life through the creative process, thus making a "new creation" --2 Corinthians 5:17--.
Creating Scripts from the Bible
The Bible is a rich source of dramatic material for worship. From medieval tropes to contemporary sketches, this workshop surveyed the ways people have adapted scripture for performance and then formed groups to create original scripture plays.
Preaching As Celebration
This workshop explored celebration as the distinct perspective and genius the African American Church has brought to the preaching task.
Praying Around the Communion Table: Cultivating a Spirit of Thanksgiving
Discover ways that the prayer of thanksgiving at the Lord's Supper provides a shape and vocabulary to guide us in lives of gratitude as well as connect our practices in church with the actions in our daily lives.
Profession of Faith: Can it Be Revitalized?
Our faith formation is marked by certain milestones. One milestone is public profession of faith or confirmation. When this occurs might vary, but at whatever age, this milestone needs to be vital. This session explored how to recapture a sense of the privilege of professing your faith, make it a celebration, and regularly reaffirm it.
Getting Past the Fish: The Book of Jonah for Christian 91ÁÔÆæ
The book of Jonah is replete with themes near to the heart of Christian life, worship, and witness.
Training and Engaging Lay Leaders of All Ages in Planning and Leading 91ÁÔÆæ
This panel of 91ÁÔÆæ Renewal Grant recipients reflected on their experiences with worship renewal and offered practical ideas to help congregations engage all worshipers from youth to the elderly Panelists were from Bridge Street AME, Brooklyn, N.Y.; South Grandville Christian Reformed Church, Grandville, Mich.; St. Luke AME Zion, Grand Rapids, Mich.; Granite Springs Church, Lincoln, Calif.
Preaching to Expose the Principalities and Powers
Church leaders and other saints in our congregations frequently find themselves struggling with money, technology, politics, the institutional church, etc. - what the Bible calls "principalities and powers."
Mentoring Musicians and 91ÁÔÆæ Artists
How can we change our leadership paradigm from directing people to helping them grow?