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Articles & Lectures
on Worship &Liturgy

Donations are gratefully received if you find something useful.

Discernment Basics for Call Committees and Church Councils New!
For Call Committees and Church Councils/Boards, this is a short article on the basics of the discernment process.

Five Devotions on Discernment New!
These devotions can be used by Committees, Councils/Boards, and organizations of the church, or other small group settings.

Your Will Be Done: Does Our Language Follow Our Prayer? New!
This article addresses how we can make use of discernment language in church business meetings to discern and follow more effectively the will of God.

Discerning God's Will: A Group Spiritual Process
Complete Notes and Schedule for a Day of Discernment that draws on scripture, ancient and modern spiritual sages and group process for engaging an entire church in seeking God's will. See also an Article on the day as it worked in one church in Florida, as well as two sermons that I have preached in conjunction with these events: The Spirit Descending and Does God Speak Anymore?

What Do You Bring to Worship?
A short article about the active participation of the person in worship.

Worship Workshop Schedule
See a typical schedule with links to lectures that I use when doing a day long Worship Workshop for parishes seeking worship renewal. This one from fall 2000.

Why Do We Worship? What Is Worship?
Good for worship committees, assisting ministers (deacons), church councils, altar guilds, any interested group. Bible foundations, plus origins and development of worship in the Christian Church.

Key Bible Passages on Worship
Great Handout for study about worship.

Official Responses to BEM & Eucharist Every Sunday
A short compilation of official denominational responses to the proposal in Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (BEM) for Eucharist Every Sunday. Most interesting.

Is There Room in the Church for Private Confession?
Or, Who Lost the Key to the Office? A Historical-Theology Review presented at a ministerium study.

Ritual & Symbol in Worship
The human race is a remembering people, who instantly define symbol and ritual as soon as some event of great impact, be it catastrophe or utter joy. Witness the symbols and rituals that accompanied the Sydney Olympics and the 2000 Political Party Conventions. People are moved, and then they are moved to remember, and remembering in many cases is passed down through the generations. This lecture from fall 2000 explores the roots and importance of symbol and ritual in all aspects of our lives.

Renewing Congregations: Worship as Key Ingredient
Congregations that are redeveloping and renewing themselves are often swayed by the idea that worship must cater to those who do not know of Christian ways. Then what of the people of God? Where shall they worship and remember their baptisms, their history, their traditions, namely all that Christian worship tradition through the ages has brought to those being saved in nurturing them along their pathways? Worship is indeed a key ingredient to the lives of the faithful. This lecture from 1998 explores how one plans worship for both believers and non-believers to nurture both in faith and love.

Options for the LBW Liturgy (Roman Rite)
This is a simple handout that I have used in many places that essentially outlines the Roman Rite and shows where seasonal substitutions and variations for the liturgy can occur while being true to the traditions of the Church. From 1998.

A Lenten Retreat: the History and Traditions of Lent
A complete Schedule and Lecture notes for a Saturday retreat I did for a parish in Lafayette, Indiana.

Who Will Console Us?
An article from the St. Petersburg Times about the work I do in creating worship responses to various situations, here focusing on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks. .