worship

Multigenerational service resources on WorshipWeb

If you are looking for ways to develop multigenerational worship services then look no further than the UUA’s WorshipWeb. Engaging a wide spectrum of ages in one service can be challenging, but WorshipWeb offers lots of resources to help make it happen.

WorshipWeb has drawn together articles on multigenerational worship from the Alban Institute and other sources. One useful article is the staff group of the MidAmerica Region’s “Ten Good Ideas About Multi-Generational Worship,” which include “keep it simple,” “keep it moving,” “think homily rather than sermon,” and “use multiple learning styles, engaging all five senses.”

WorshipWeb also includes a compilation of InterConnections articles about multigenerational worship and has a list of anthologies of stories and sermons for children. There are also book suggestions, such as Come Into the Circle: Worshipping with Children by Michelle Richards, and Story, Song, and Spirit: Fun and Creative Worship Services for all Ages by the Rev. Erika Hewitt.

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Live-streaming services draws in stay-at-homes

UUA Growth Strategist Tandi Rogers couldn’t make it to church one recent Sunday because of a sick child, so she looked around for the next best alternative. She found around a dozen congregations that were live-streaming their services in a time frame that worked for her.

She notes, “I hope more congregations will consider using this technology as a way to lower their walls and to connect to members who are unable to attend for a variety of reasons.” Read her full post on the Growing Unitarian Universalism blog.

The UUA’s website has resources for congregations considering live-streaming. To livestream a service you need a video camera, microphone (sound quality is more important than video quality), and the ability to upload to a free service like Ustream or Livestream.

Rogers notes that some congregations post their Order of Service. Some pan out to show the congregation and choir in addition to focusing on the speakers, and some allow online participants to engage in a real-time chat about the service.

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Letter: Holston Valley worship includes children

To the editor:

The congregation of Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, serving Gray, Kingsport, Johnson City, Bristol, and surrounding areas in northeast Tennessee, voted in its annual meeting to continue Expanded Sundays, the experiment it began last year around including children in the worship hour. There is paid child care for those 2nd grade and below if they choose to not stay during the service.

We are excited about this step. We include kids in all parts of the service. A middle school student just shared a marvelous and challenging This I Believe. Others have done Greeting and Welcoming functions, presented readings, played music, danced and sang with the choir. Religious education is 9:30-10:30 and is growing–especially the adult RE since parents have more freedom with their children involved in class at the same time.

This congregation has high hopes for its children and enjoys their presence and participation in worship. HVUUC’s social justice project this year is Hunger in Our Neighborhood. Children and adults bring cans of food to a tub in the front of the sanctuary during the first hymn. More experiential elements have been added to the service, including ritual singing, This I Believe, and more hymns from the teal hymnal that communicate the sermon’s message in various ways. I hone the sermons to 15 minutes without changing content, and I reference the Lesson for All Ages to tie the two together.  I’m sure the sermon goes over the heads of some, but parents do report their kids making references to what happens in the service.

—the Rev. Jacqueline Luck, Holston Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

Editor’s note: Some other congregations that include children in a substantial portion of worship services are Emerson UU Chapel in Ellisville, Mo., and the UU Church of Ogden, Utah.

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Using contemporary music in worship

One of the best places to keep up with trends in contemporary music as it is used in Unitarian Universalist worship is the blog “Liberal Religion Gets Loud” by Vance Bass, contemporary music/worship director at First Unitarian Church in Albuquerque, N.Mex.

In March, Bass posted a list of more than 200 songs that a band has either played during worship at First Unitarian or that were on CDs played as a prelude to worship. The list ranges from Raffi to Stevie Wonder.

Also on the blog is a sermon (March 13, 2011) by Bass about contemporary music and a post that notes that not all music is appropriate on Sunday morning, even if well played. There is also a video description of contemporary music at Albuquerque.

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Military meditation manual available

Bless All Who Serve: Sources of Hope, Courage and Faith for Military Personnel and Their Families, a new pocket-size book of readings and songs from many faith traditions, plus reflections by veterans and military chaplains, is available free to military chaplains, ministers, and enlisted men and women of all faiths.

Chaplains and ministers should email Julie Shaw for copies. Other military personnel and their families may email Lorraine Dennis at the Church of the Larger Fellowship for a free copy. All others can purchase it for $8 from the UUA Bookstore.

Bless All Who Serve was written by the Rev. Matthew Tittle and Gail Tittle, both military veterans, and published by Skinner House Books.

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Top-selling books at GA 2010

The top-selling books at General Assembly 2010 in June, in order of sales, were the following, says Rose Hanig, director of the UUA Bookstore.

House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-First Century, by the Revs. John Buehrens and Rebecca Parker. Necessity of Virtue, by Nancy Sherman. Serving with Grace: Lay Leadership as a Spiritual Practice, by the Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom.

Story, Song, and Spirit: Fun and Creative Worship Services for All Ages, the Rev. Erika Hewitt. People So Bold, Theology and Ministry for Unitarian Universalists, by the Rev. John Gibb Millspaugh. All Our Relations, Winona LaDuke

The Growing Church: Keys to Congregational Vitality, edited by the Rev. Thom Belote. Information from a conference of leaders of growing UU congregations.

Bless All Who Serve: Sources of Hope, Courage, and Faith for Military Personnel and their Families, by the Rev. Matthew and Gail Tittle. Cathedral of the World, the Rev. Dr. Forest Church. Stone Blessings: a Meditation Anthology, the Rev. Robert Walsh. Sunday and Every Day: My Little Book of Unitarian Universalism, by Patricia Frevert (for children).

All except Necessity of Virtue and All Our Relations continue to be available at the UUA Bookstore.

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Add innovation to Sunday worship

From August’s InterConnections feature story, now online at UUA.org:

Is it worth the risk to try something new on Sunday morning?

Absolutely, says the Rev. Erika Hewitt. So do the Rev. Mark Belletini and the Rev. Wayne Arnason. Hewitt, Belletini, and Arnason shared worship experiences at two workshops at General Assembly 2010 in June, and InterConnections. All three talked about ways to introduce change to worship to bring it more depth and meaning.

For starters, it’s important to do rituals properly, says Belletini, minister of the First Unitarian Universalist (UU) Church of Columbus, Ohio. Take the annual water service, which will be coming up this fall in many congregations. How do you make it meaningful when it can easily veer off into “Look where we went”?

Go to the full article.

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Spanish-language hymnal ready

The Spanish-language hymnal, Las voces del camino: Un complemento de Singing the Living Tradition, is available from the UUA Bookstore for $18. It presents more than 70 songs in Spanish, including songs from Singing the Living Tradition, plus other selections from Spanish-speaking cultures the world over. There are discounts for orders of 10 or more.

The hymnal (English translation is Voices on the Journey) was first introduced a year ago, then withdrawn due to errors in translation. The hymnal was proposed in 2003 by a member of the First Unitarian Church of San Jose, Calif., and is a joint production between the UU Musicians Network and the UUA.

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How your church can appeal to a younger crowd

In the introduction to her book, Designing Contemporary Congregations: Strategies to Attract Those Under 50, the Rev. Laurene Beth Bowers, pastor of the First Congregational Church in Randolph, Mass., describes some of the people in the congregations she has served over the years:

They are people I love and care about, but they are also a stubborn and stagnant people who have sacrificed for too long at the altar of “everything must stay the same” and who need gentle encouragement and caring confrontation by passionate leaders who will love them enough not to let them remain there.

Bowers suggest ways to lead congregations into change that can be more inviting to a younger generation. Among her suggestions: Create worship that moves. Add nontraditional music, dance, drama, and personal witnessing, with elements no longer than three minutes each, plus a 10-minute sermon. And yes, it’s OK if it goes more than an hour. “It moves, so you don’t notice the time,” one congregant told her.

She includes chapters on worship, social justice, life-cycle rituals, and evangelism. Her 128-page book is available at the UUA Bookstore for $14.

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Skinner House books support lay leadership, multigenerational worship

Two books, Serving with Grace: Lay Leadership as a Spiritual Practice by the Rev. Erik Walker Wikstrom, the worship and music resources director for the UUA, and Story, Song and Spirit: Fun and Creative Worship Services for All Ages by the Rev. Erika Hewitt, minister of the Live Oak UU Congregation in Goleta, Calif., are available from Skinner House Books.

Serving with Grace includes chapters about learning to say no, mindful meetings, mission and community, relationships with other leaders, and spirituality of service. Wikstrom writes, “Imagine church not as a place led by a few overly taxed people, but one where leadership is a broadly shared ministry that members of the community undertake for the deep joy of it.” This small 90-page book will no doubt be given to many new lay leaders as an introduction to leadership. It is $12 from the UUA Bookstore.

In Story, Song and Spirit, Hewitt notes a “collective anxiety” about doing multigenerational worship because we’re mostly used to sitting and listening. She has created services that call for active participation, including storytelling, music, and acting, that will engage children and adults.

The book includes requirements for nine services, including one for Water Communion and one for Christmas. The book is $12 at the UUA Bookstore.

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