When worship is done right, it connects teens with God and each other like nothing else. But it can be difficult for teens to overcome their insecurities and inhibitions to enter God's presence. Now, with Uncommon Worship Experiences, you can invite students to trade their self-doubt for confidence in God's love and acceptance! This comprehensive resource will help you create a culture of worship in your group by fostering an atmosphere of freedom and leading by example. Inside you will find articles and Bible studies that explore every facet of worship - what it is, what it is not, why we do it, how to do it right, and much more. Also included are reproducible planning and evaluation sheets, creative group prayers, biblical meditations and activities, sample worship service plans, a sample camp worship booklet and tons of helpful suggestions for creating a worshipful environment at your next group meeting, Sunday School class, retreat, camp, lock-in or outreach program. With Uncommon Worship Experiences, you will have all the tools you need to enter God's presence and bring your group along! Includes CD-ROM with easy-to-print files of every article and additional responsive readings.

Offering helpful suggestions on how to avoid the common problem of restricting liturgy to words being spoken in the front of the church, "Creating Uncommon Worship" is filled with ideas on how to enrich the liturgy by creating a context of action, movement, and symbolic expression involving the whole assembly.

The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2 extends the tools offered in The Book of Uncommon Prayer by providing more experiences that bring students into a deeper awareness of God. This collection of scripted services, blessings, rites, and prayers meets the growing desire of young people to step outside the “noise” of their lives and linger in a slower, quieter place. Inside you’ll find:• A service to start the new school year• Blessings for a new youth room • A modified Seder meal• Hard Communion• Many blessings for everyone from babies to waiters• Lots of prayers for Advent, politics, sunsets, and more• A comprehensive guide for engaging the five senses in worshipThe Book of Uncommon Prayer 2 is an essential resource that can provide you with step-by-step instructions for meaningful services while also providing you an indexed reference for prayers and blessings that can be accessed at the drop of a hat. Geared toward all denominations and all levels of ministry involvement, The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2 creates an accessible, essential set of worship and prayer experiences that will draw your students to the still, quiet, love of Christ.

In a culture where teenagers are growing up inundated with images, experiences, and media that moves and changes at the speed of light, it's no wonder many of them learn better when they're doing something-not only listening to someone talk to them. So rather than stand up front and only use words to teach about Jesus calling the disciples to be 'fishers of men,o why not provide an experience that incorporates the idea of fishing? Using simple things like an inflatable boat and goldfish crackers can turn the 'old storyo into something new that your students think of every time they snack on a goldfish cracker or see a boat. It turns the lesson into an experience. Sacred Space provides dozens of ideas to help students engage in scripture and apply the lesson to their own lives. Whether you're looking to teach a biblical theme, the life of Christ, or a gospel passage, or even when celebrating holidays, you'll find step-by-step instructions to create the space and experience necessary to draw your students into the story. Through art, listening, writing, and multi-sensory prayer stations, your students will experience God's Word in a whole new way. This is more than a toolbox for your ministry-it's a holistic way to approach teaching and communicating God's Word. Authors Dan Kimball and Lilly Lewin bring their years of experience developing these kinds of experiences in youth group settings and churches. In addition to worship experiences on the life of Christ, you'll find ideas for teaching on: The life of David Women of the Bible The Sermon on the Mount Justice The Gospel of Luke Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter And more Use these ideas in your typical gathering to enhance the teaching and musical worship, or develop these experiences into a special event, or a new, unique service without singing or teaching. Inside you'll find everything you need (except the actual supplies!) to create experiences that can transform the way your students encounter God, and help them engage in and learn from the Bible in more meaningful ways.

This collection of scripted services, blessings, and prayers meet the growing desire of students to step outside the “noise” of their lives and worship in a more settled way. Geared toward all denominations and all levels of ministry involvement, The Book of Uncommon Prayer 2 creates an essential set of worship experiences that will draw your students to the still, quiet, love of Christ.

Compiles cultural, theological, and psychological perspectives on spiritual experience in worship from scholars and laity, paying particular attention to the role of the arts in facilitating spiritual transformation.

Acclaimed church leader, blogger, founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan unpacks the lifecycle of a typical church, identifies characteristics of each phase, and provides practical next steps a church can take to move towards sustained health. Think about your church for a moment. Is it growing? Is it diminishing? Is it somewhere in between? Acclaimed church leader, blogger, and founder and chief strategic officer of The Unstuck Group, Tony Morgan has identified the seven stages of a church's lifecycle that range from the hopeful and optimistic days of launch, to the stagnating last stages of life support. Regardless of the stage in which you find your church, it carries with it the world's greatest mission—to "go and make disciples of all the nations . . ." With eternity at stake the Church should be doing most everything within its power to see lives changed forever. The Church should strive for the pinnacle of the lifecycle, where they are continually making new disciples and experiencing what Morgan refers to as "sustained health." In The Unstuck Church, Morgan unpacks each phase of the church lifecycle, and offers specific and strategic next steps the church leader can take to find it's way to sustained health . . . and finally become unstuck. The Unstuck Church is a call for honest an assessment of where your church sits on the lifecycle, and a challenge to move beyond it.

Spiritual formation is the key to the survival of our faith. According to worship leader Rory Noland, in order to stem the tide of nominal Christianity we need to reclaim our worship services as formative spaces that are substantive and purposeful. Combining discipleship and worship—what Noland calls transforming worship—he offers a vision for worship as spiritual formation.