Creative Worship
For those who are looking at creative ideas for worship there there are lots of ideas on the Engage Worship Website.
There is a good resource from Engage Worship called: How Would Jesus Lead Worship.
Below are some ideas and resources for your church as well as the 'When the Music Fades..' Webinar
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Turing your Church Building into a Creative Prayer Space
Creative Prayer Spaces:
This allows your church building to be open for people to encounter God in a different way: this is ideal for non-believers and Christians.
Prayer Labyrinth:
Labyrinth is an interactive installation for spiritual journeys. It's for anyone who wants a break from surfing the surface of culture to contemplate the deeper things of life.
Labyrinth reshapes a 12th-century ritual for the 21st century. It's a path which takes you on a symbolic journey, creates space to unwind and think - in particular about our relationships with ourselves, one another, our community and God.
Designed for young and old alike, it provides a mixture of rituals and visuals, of contemplative words and contemporary ambient music, of symbols and media to help guide the spiritual traveller.
Labyrinths were a feature of many medieval cathedrals; unlike a maze they have only one path - there are no dead ends. People walk the labyrinth slowly, as an aid to contemplative prayer and reflection, as a spiritual exercise, or as a form of pilgrimage.
This contemporary version will include music, meditations, art, media and symbolic activities at intervals along the path. Participants walk the Labyrinth with a booklet and ideally will download the meditations and music from your church website, so they can use their own headphones.
The path has three stages - the 'inward' journey, the centre or ‘Holy Space’ and the 'outward' journey. The theme of the 'inward' journey is letting go of things which hinder our wholeness and inner approach to God. The centre of the Labyrinth is a space of meditative prayer and peace. The theme of the 'outward' journey is relationship - with ourselves, with others and with the community - seen in the light of our relationship with God.
Download Over of Labyrinth and what props are needed
Download Full Script / Mediations for Labyrinth
Download printable sections for the Labyrinth
Download Prayer Labyrinth Suggest Outline Map
Other creative resources for prayer can be found at 24/7 Prayer Website
Sunday Services
Reflections for use during services
Reflections can be really good for lament and also to engage people in worship - this can be as simple as a reflection around a candle or getting other people to be involved.
You can also ask someone to record a reflection / mediation that you will project onto the screen during worship.
This can be from the Psalms or something different - it involves words and images that we can reflect on.
Involving more people in the service is something that has been really encouraging to see, why not try or keep doing:
This Time Tomorrow: this is when someone in the church shares what they will be doing this time tomorrow so that people can pray for them - it also helps people to see their job as their ministry
Prayers: involve other people in leading prayers or do something creative like this:
Testimonies: share what God is doing in individuals lives
Music: encouraging the congregation to hum along to a song and reflect on their experience. Maybe use this opportunity to use non-Christian music in worship or listen to worship from another language.
There are also several churches and organisations that have produced sung worship for you to use as a video in the service:
Temple Baptist Church, Pontypridd have uploaded them on their YouTube Channel
Sound of Wales YouTube Channel have a mix of modern and traditional songs
Teaching: use this opportunity to teach about Whole Life Discipleship, a good teaching series is Fruitfulness on the Frontline from the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity
Creative Teaching: You could explore different ways of teaching from the Bible using TED style Talks or PechaKucha as a way of multiple voices sharing on the same Bible passages or themes - this is a really helpful way to engage people who are not used to church and used to hearing multiple voices and perspectives.
*TED talks are 20 minute talks, designed to be presented alongside others for people to ask questions afterwards.
PechuaKucha is a storytelling format where someone shows 20 slides for 20 seconds (only images are allowed on the slides)
Missional Communities
Missional Communities are a group of Christians worshipping in a different way and context that allows non-christians to join in.
This tends to be around interest groups or specific locations.
If you have a small group structure it is easy to incorporate this into the life of the church - keep producing the messages and then havel space in the missional communities for this to be explored, this may look like.....
Sports: a group of you may go and play golf, go on a cycle ride and half way through stop - reflect on a passage of scripture or the church online message. Discuss what it means in your life and what a difference it makes.
Outside Church: go for a walk in the forest or somewhere in nature - on your walk reflect about God's creation, use it to worship and pray. If you are with others stop and reflect on a passage of scripture or the message from the church
With Outdoor Church this isn’t just normal church happening outside, instead it attempts to participate with creation. And it isn’t just a fellowship group doing an outside activity. We aim to learn, worship, meditate, pray and practise with the trees, at the spring, along the shore...
Discipleship Groups: these are groups that meet in someone's home and they really go deeper into the message that was preached on Sunday.