Psalms Praise
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. Over the years this has been one of our most fruitful ideas for releasing congregations to lead one another.
Ask people to open their Bibles at the Psalms, then begin singing a simple, celebratory song. After you've sung it for a few minutes, invite people to read a verse or a sentence from the Psalms that jumps out to them. (We underline that it really should just be a verse or a sentence - not all of Psalm 119!)
You can keep the music or rhythm going on quietly 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.
Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year B)
Proper 18, Ordinary/Lectionary 23 (Year C)
Proper 20, Ordinary/Lectionary 25 (Year B)
Proper 25, Ordinary/Lectionary 30 (Year A)
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Comments
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Linda
We sang "Light of the World (Here I am to worship)" and the band played on quietly. It took people a few moments to kick off but then the Psalms just kept on coming.
Sara's comment about it helping people who would never pray out loud to speak out is absolutely true - people who had never spoken in one of our services joined in.
This tool was a fantastic blessing on that evening and helped tear down any division between congregation and 'them lot at the front'. It was very moving - thank you Sara and Sam!
It's quite hard for me to describe how powerful this was - we sang Stuart Townend's version of 'Psalm 23 (I will trust in you alone)' and then the piano kept playing as people read and joined in. It went on _far_ longer than we had anticipated but the Holy Spirit was at work. What an answer to prayers and what a great idea Sara and Sam have given The Church.