This is a simple idea for 'unfinished worship' - getting people to interact and participate in the leading of worship in a safe, pressure-free way.  Ask people to open their Bibles at the Psalms, then sing a simple, celebratory song.  After you've sung it for a few minutes, invite people to read a verse or two from the Psalms that jumps out to them.  You can keep the music or rhythm going on underneath, but make sure people can be heard.  In a bigger group you might need to pass a radio mic around, but if you can avoid that all the better.  We've used this lots of times now, and it helps people who would never pray outloud to speak out, lead and shape the congregation's praise.  You can close the activity by singing the song again.

Sara co-leads engageworship.org together with husband Sam, drawing from her experience in music, worship and youthwork. The rest of her time is spent enjoying her daugher Ella's company and exploring rural Cambridgeshire.

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Linda Nicolson

15 Jun 2009 08:44

 

We used this idea in our worship service last night - we sang a couple of songs and then as we went into the worship section we introduced the idea to the congregation. We sang "Here I am to Worship" (Tim Hughes) and then the people began reading out verses, while the music carried on very quietly underneath. From the front it was quite a moving experience, hearing the different voices calling out the verses of praise and declaring God's greatness, and it actually went on for much longer than we had anticipated! Thanks for a great resource! Linda

Sam Hargreaves

15 Jun 2009 09:04

 

Great, so glad this was useful! We used it on Saturday morning at an event.