Abingdon Press

Kim Hill, Ginghamsburg Church Worship Team

Written by: Kim Miller, The Ginghamsburg Church Worship Team.

Description

Churches all over North America are starting contemporary worship services or incorporating elements of contemporary worship in more traditional services. While many books have discussed why contemporary worship is necessary to reaching the unchurched, too few have provided solid, practical help for planning and executing this new style of worship.

In Handbook for Multi-Sensory Worship, the worship team of Ginghamsburg Church — recognized as one of the most innovative congregations today in worship planning and development — offers just this kind of nuts-and-bolts guidance on how to prepare for and execute worship in a contemporary key. Included in the handbook are worship themes that are geared to felt needs in the congregation. This book explains how to choose appropriate themes, build a service around them, and identify lections that build on these themes. Congregations will learn how to identify and address the felt needs of the pre-Christian audience around the congregation.

Worship aids are thematically based:

• Music - which songs to use and where to get the music and permission to use it
• Video clips - what to use, where and how to get them, and how to get permission to use them
• Graphics and images - where to find images that support sermons
• Dramas - the book includes sources of dramas and examples that can be used by congregations and guidance on how to draw people into drama and train them to participate in worship in this way
• Contemporary calls to worship, prayers, offertory prayers, and sentences

The handbook contains 30 complete contemporary worship services and detailed how-to instruction. The CD contains a large number of projection images linked to the text of the handbook, and to the Internet, for use in worship services.

Back Cover

Churches all over North America are searching for new and innovative ways to reach the members of their communities who have little or no experience of Christian faith, yet who truly hunger to experience God’s love and care. Worship can be the most powerful tool for reaching those who need to discover God’s call and plan for their lives. Yet if that is to happen in our contemporary culture, worship must be alive; it must relate to the everyday and ordinary experiences of people, while at the same time giving voice to their deepest hopes and aspirations.

In this book Kim Miller and the worship team of Ginghamsburg church—recognized as one of the most innovative congregations today in worship planning and development—share what they’ve learned about how worship can touch and transform all of God’s people, drawing them into a deepening experience of God’s love, and setting them on the path of Christian service and discipleship. While many books have discussed why new worship styles are necessary if churches are to reach the pre-Christian population of North America, too few have provided solid, practical aids to planning and executing such worship. Here the reader will find inspiring calls to worship, amusing and illuminating dramas, meaningful corporate prayers, suggestions for uplifting music, and many other solid, practical ideas for how to prepare for and execute worship in a contemporary key.

The CD-ROM included with this book showcases a catalog of images that have been used as part of the multi-sensory worship experience at Ginghamsburg, and includes a short introduction about how to incorporate visual images into a worship service. The images on the CD-ROM were developed by the talented Ginghamsburg media team to accompany many of the worship celebrations included in the Handbook for Multi-Sensory Worship. The images on the CD-ROM can be purchased via download from Cokesbury Online in the Digital Store (www.cokesbury.com/digitalstore/default.asp) for use or adaptation in your own church service.

In addition, graphic artist Jason Moore has created an interactive “teaser” on the CD-ROM to inspire and show the reader what the individual pieces can look like in a live worship setting.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
CELEBRATION ONE
    God's Invitation
CELEBRATION TWO
    Longing for Belonging
CELEBRATION THREE
    To Life! A Communion Celebration
CELEBRATION FOUR
    Happiness: What's Your Equation?
CELEBRATION FIVE
    Outside the Lines
CELEBRATION SIX
    The Choice: A Communion Celebration for Lent
CELEBRATION SEVEN
    Jesus Now: A Lenten Celebration
CELEBRATION EIGHT
    Journey of the Heart: A Lenten Celebration
CELEBRATION NINE
    Following From a Distance: A Palm Sunday Celebration
CELEBRATION TEN
    Living the Unexplainable: An Easter Celebration
CELEBRATION ELEVEN
    The Move: Where Do I Go From Here?
CELEBRATION TWELVE
    God's Green Light
CELEBRATION THIRTEEN
    Breaking the Ball and Chain
CELEBRATION FOURTEEN
    Destination Known
CELEBRATION FIFTEEN
    Please Pass the Blessing: A Mother's Day Celebration
CELEBRATION SIXTEEN
    The Language of Love: A Pentecost Celebration
CELEBRATION SEVENTEEN
    The Presence: A Communion Celebration
CELEBRATION EIGHTEEN
    Passing the Presence: A Father's Day Celebration
CELEBRATION NINETEEN
    Remember Who You Are
CELEBRATION TWENTY
    Traveling Companions
CELEBRATION TWENTY-ONE
    Why Jesus?
CELEBRATION TWENTY-TWO
    Life-Givers: A Communion Celebration
CELEBRATION TWENTY-THREE
    Coming Out of the Closet
CELEBRATION TWENTY-FOUR
    Who Are You? A Welcome Weekend Celebration
CELEBRATION TWENTY-FIVE
    Closing the Goodness Gap
CELEBRATION TWENTY-SIX
    Honest to God
CELEBRATION TWENTY-SEVEN
    Give It Up: A Communion Celebration
CELEBRATION TWENTY-EIGHT
    Worship: The Big Picture
CELEBRATION TWENTY-NINE
    Blessed Are the Harnessed
CELEBRATION THIRTY
    Stamped for the Dance
CELEBRATION THIRTY-ONE
    Get on Your Feet
CELEBRATION THIRTY-TWO
    God's Toolbox / Miracles Happen: An Advent Celebration
CELEBRATION THIRTY-THREE
    The Cosmic Party: Everybody In: An Advent Celebration
CELEBRATION THIRTY-FOUR
    The Christmas Promise: An Advent Celebration
APPENDIX A
    Songs and Hymns
APPENDIX B
    Web Sites for Resources

Details

Length:	207 pages
Size:	8 1/2 x 11 inches
Format:	Softcover
Available Date:	October 1999
Published By:	Abingdon Press
ISBN:	0-687-06860-6