Forming Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, & Daring Justice Through Worship Arts

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As Christian clergy or lay-leaders serving in congregational ministry settings, we have an ongoing opportunity to shape and nurture the faith of our people through our choices as worship planners/presiders. This is a high and holy calling, and sometimes, it can also seem like an overwhelming or impossible task! In these tumultuous times, we may wonder how to craft faithful, relevant worship liturgies that are grounded in the ancient traditions of the Christian church while also addressing the pressing concerns of our congregants today. Using a highly participatory, creative approach, this course will explore both the theological principles and the embodied practices needed to explore worship arts as a powerful means of spiritual formation. COURSE CODE XYZ will introduce participants to a rich variety of accessible worship arts resources, in conversation with notable creators, scholars, and practitioners.

During our one week intensive, students will be introduced to both the “how-to” and the “why-to” of robust worship leading. We will survey the theological and biblical foundations of worship, and consider how our work as contemporary worship leaders can help to form deeper spirituality, bolder discipleship, and daring justice in our congregational contexts. Students will also apply what they are learning in each classroom session; we will explore a variety of worship arts modalities and then design and deliver worship liturgies that incorporate those modalities, so that every student has the opportunity to produce and preside over a series of biblically-grounded, contemporary worship arts components in a highly supportive classroom setting.

As the text of the United Church of Canada’s A New Creed reminds us, we are called to “to seek justice and resist evil” in our particular time and place. In a world that seems increasingly fragmented and chaotic, this course offers an intentionally ecumenical approach, welcoming students from all Christian traditions and using ecumenical resources extensively throughout the course. At the conclusion of the summer intensive, students will have thoughtfully crafted a collection of creative, dramatic, embodied worship arts experiences. This collection of worship resources will expand their worship repertoire for their own congregational settings, will help to identify and reduce performance barriers, will increase student knowledge and comfort with course materials, and to practice applying the formational power of worship arts to its’ ultimate doxological purpose. Together, students will learn how to craft and lead public worship services that are deeply engaging and aesthetically pleasing for their congregants, while simultaneously offering theologically hospitable, liturgically congruent, and spiritually formative content that is faithful to the gospel (and utterly disruptive to the status quo!)

Students will encounter a carefully curated collection of worship arts materials during our week together on campus, including musical repertoire from the forthcoming UCC hymnal, “Then Let Us Sing.” Through engaging lectures, classroom discussions, communal music-making, and a daily series of creative classroom exercises, students will learn how to assess, adapt, and more strategically employ classic hymns and contemporary worship music, and to integrate digital worship materials, dramatic arts and theatre techniques, liturgical resources and poetry, visual art and iconography, and intergenerational and intercultural worship materials into their worship services. Organized around the principles of Christian hospitality, these simple, yet transformative worship arts practices will provide students with many new resources to use in their own church settings, not merely as a collection of novel yet disparate worship components, but rather as strategic, connectional “building blocks” that they will learn how to thoughtfully assemble into powerfully formative, fully integrated worship experiences that engage and equip their people, helping their faith to flourish. When prayerfully and thoughtfully applied, these worship arts principles and practices will reflexively promote deeper spirituality, bolder discipleship, and more daring justice within local Communities of Faith.

Synchronous only

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