Joy Engelsman

Many churches have planned their own versions of a Worship 101 series. In fact, this series is a blend of Worship 101 series from two very different congregations with different needs and approaches to such back-to-basics reflections on worship. The one goal they shared was a desire for the series to bring greater unity to their congregations...The following Worship 101 series is easily adaptable to your context and available time. If your congregation needs theological reflection on worship and you have just a few weeks, focus on the major movements of worship. If you have more time, dive more deeply into specific worship practices, applying theology as you go.

Let’s start at the very beginning…a very good place to start.

What happens at the very beginning of your worship service? Is it a “good” way to start? How intentional are you about the opening moments? While I think there are many appropriate ways to begin a worship event, I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of a processional as a very good way to start.

Eleanor Vander Linde loved music! She hummed through her housework, she sang in the church and community choirs and she provided music lessons for her four daughters—who all grew up loving and performing music. In a short memoir of her life Eleanor wrote, “My whole life I lived with music, music in my heart, mind and voice!” In honor of Eleanor, I’m sharing two lessons that we, who also love music, might learn from. 

“People can’t worship when they’re learning.” I was working with another planner—I’ll call him Mike—on a combined worship service of our two churches. Together we were responsible for selecting songs, recruiting singers and deciding the order of worship. Mike and I shared many important traits: both of us loved Jesus, both of us were committed to the Church, both us wanted true and good worship to happen at the combined service.

Tucked into a neighborhood of middle class homes in Denver where South Race Street makes a diagonal intersection with East Cornell Avenue sits a 1960s-style building covered by a low-hanging shake roof. For 30 years, a vibrant congregation filled the pews on Sundays, engaging various generations in worship and experimenting with newer styles of outreach and music. Then, 20 years ago, the congregation voted to accept an opportunity to merge with another church in order to plant a ministry in a newer part of the Denver metro area that had few worship options.

When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

(arr. Kornelis)

There are some tunes that journey with us and attach themselves to our lives—songs we can’t get out of our heads.