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Do you want to involve children in the sacramental life of the church? This ideas-filled resource shows how to engage children and young people in worship, the Eucharist and other sacraments in ways that are profoundly missional and attractive.
Young people can seem so worldly, cynical, resistant to traditional forms of evangelism, yet they have enormous capacity for the spiritual, an openness to faith and the imagination to approach God with awe and wonder. A majority of young people have no contact with the life of faith; they have not heard the stories of Christ and or had the opportunity to experience the powerful message of the Gospel. How can the church to proclaim the Gospel afresh for this generation with imagination, style and substance? This resource book is brimming with stories, techniques and ideas for creative mission and worship that engages children and young people. Based on extensive experience working with young people in churches, schools and youthwork settings, this is a toolkit which can help give voice to that first point of contact with young people, and the first faltering steps in evangelism.
“Spirituality” has become a buzzword in our contemporary culture as individuals strive for meaning and fulfillment. Its detachment from the church and conventional definitions of religious practice highlights the seeming redundancy of what has come before. “Spirituality” in this light signals a new attempt to find wholeness unencumbered by outmoded doctrines and stale rituals. It is the conviction of this publication that the intuition behind contemporary searches for spiritual reality is a good one. It acknowledges that there must be more to life than what secular media or consumerism might tell us. The joyful message of Perspectives on Prayer and Spirituality is that the spiritual quest is a valid one and worth exploring. There is treasure to be found. However, the surprise is that we must rediscover what we have left behind. In the words of G. K. Chesterton, “it is not that the Christian ideal has been tried and found wanting, rather it has been found difficult and left untried.” This book offers us the tools to mine the riches of Christian spirituality and find that elusive treasure. The title, Perspectives on Prayer and Spirituality, alerts us to the fact that life-giving spirituality stems from relationship with a personal God who can be known.
Seasons like Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter are among the busiest for clergy and leaders of worship. This addition to the popular Creative Ideas series helps you plan seasonal worship more easily with a range of easy-to-use dramas and ideas to liven up worship, all based on the lectionary readings. It includes: • dramatic readings of lectionary readings and drama sketches for all seasons of the Christian year • short and snappy dramatic dialogues exploring biblical readings from a contemporary point of view • ideas for using our worship space more creatively • ideas for non-lectionary events such as Christingle • how to write creatively for worship • CD-Rom with downloadable resources Seasons covered include Advent, Christmas, Christingle, Epiphany, Lent, Mothering Sunday, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Harvest and Remembrance Sunday.
Beyond the Children's Corner is a practical handbook to help churches become more welcoming to children and families in worship. It encourages PCCs and ministry teams to reflect on the spiritual needs of children, the pastoral needs of families, and how to remove barriers and manage change effectively. Based on multiple training sessions and extensive casework, informed by research by the Church of England’s Life Events team and the Methodist Church, it explores: • The changing needs of modern families; • What tells you it’s time for change; • 'Quick wins’ to make the worship space more welcoming and spiritually imaginative; • Engaging children in spiritually nourishing worship; • Children and contemplative worship – what to do about noise; • Building and sustaining relationships with families and children. Many books on All-Age Worship focus the service itself. Beyond the Children's Corner explores how children and adults can be truly integrated as the church community, covering parents’ perspectives, the church building and the challenge of change as well as what happens in worship.
How can one achieve fresh expressions of church against a backdrop of millennia of church history, liturgy and tradition? "Creative Ideas for Alternative Sacramental Worship" explores a theology and method of creative, alternative worship which returns to the heart of the encounter with God - through ritual, symbol and in its ultimate expression, in sacramentalism. Created by an active practitioner in this field, Church of England priest and curator of the alternative worship experience Blessed, Simon Rundell provides examples, vision and practical know-how to enable readers to create and engage in alternative worship which is innovative, missionary and creative, using the richness of tradition and the depth of the catholic and orthodox spiritualities. This work provides a DVD of material for the reader to adapt and implement as well as a wealth of ideas for the reader's own expressions of postmodern worship.
This resource provides 64 complete and ready-to-use sessions for children's worship. It will enable children to acquire a familiarity with the life of Christ and the events of the church year in a vivid and memorable way.
One of the biggest challenges for worship leaders and educators is coming up with ideas for including children in worship. These books provide a whole year’s worth of activities and ideas complete with artwork and visual aids. The activities have been developed and used in an Anglican parish (Church of England) over the last eight years by a professional educator, artist, and experienced children’s minister. The worship outlines include simple children’s liturgies and a complete lesson or story plan that harmonizes with the lectionary. Through fun ideas, children encounter a real aspect of the Christian faith focused on a theme from each Sunday’s Gospel. Each outline includes a variety of options, which make them appropriate for small and large groups of children as well as mixed age groups. Illustrated throughout, the text and full-color artwork are included on a CD ROM for downloading, printing, and copying.
This resource provides 65 complete and ready-to-use sessions for children's worship. It will enable children to acquire a familiarity with the life of Christ and the events of the church year in a vivid and memorable way.
One of the biggest challenges for worship leaders and educators is coming up with ideas for including children in worship. These books provide a whole year’s worth of activities and ideas complete with artwork and visual aids. The activities have been developed and used in an Anglican parish (Church of England) over the last eight years by a professional educator, artist, and experienced children’s minister. The worship outlines include simple children’s liturgies and a complete lesson or story plan that harmonizes with the lectionary. Through fun ideas, children encounter a real aspect of the Christian faith focused on a theme from each Sunday’s Gospel. Each outline includes a variety of options, which make them appropriate for small and large groups of children as well as mixed age groups. Illustrated throughout, the text and full-color artwork are included on a CD ROM for downloading, printing, and copying.
