Additional information
by Mary Scifres (Author), B. J. Beu (Author)
Worship at Home: Advent and Christmas 2020 is packed with weekly worship services you can do on your own or with others and includes services for each week in Advent, Christmas Eve, the Sunday after Christmas, and Epiphany. This book is for congregations and individuals who want to stay spiritually connected and growing, even when they're not worshiping together in the same space. It provides everything you need to conduct meaningful, spiritually fulfilling, traditionally rooted worship services at home or in other intimate environments. Each service includes essential worship elements, from gathering to benediction, with words and actions you can say and do yourself. Included are links for online musical selections plus traditional hymn suggestions from a variety of hymnals. You'll find helpful ideas for how to use this resource in a variety of settings, and how to create worshipful spaces, even in your own home. The Worship at Home series is organized by the liturgical year, with a new book for each season: Advent and Christmas, Lent, Easter and Eastertide, Pentecost, and the weeks after Pentecost. Ways the resource can be used by individuals and families include: - Individuals can use the resource for personal devotion and worship at any time, wherever they like. Go through the entire service, or simply choose whatever portions are helpful. Read a prayer and meditate. Watch a video clip and reflect on it. Sing a song or hymn. - Families can use Worship at Home in the same ways, any time and any place. - Suggestions are included for creating worship spaces at home, and for involving children in the services. Here are some ways the resource can be used by a congregation or group: - Pastors or group leaders can use Worship at Home as the worship plans for weekly church services. The pastor might prepare a sermon or homily, but everything else is ready to go. - People can use the resource for worship in any space--at a senior care center, in a park, on the lawn, at the church, and so forth. No bulletins or hymnals are needed. - People gathered to worship via Zoom, FaceTime, Facebook or Instagram Live, or livestream will all be reading aloud the same prayers from these books, singing the same songs or singing along with a video. Worship at Home provides a participatory experience and a sense of community, even when people are worshiping remotely.
Author Biography
Mary Scifres (Author)
Mary Scifres is a United Methodist pastor, teacher, and consultant who inspires and equips twenty-first-century leaders in creative worship, church growth, visioning, and strategic planning. She is co-author of The United Methodist Music and Worship Planner and its ecumenical counterpart, Prepare!, and author of the worship evangelism book Searching for Seekers. A graduate of Boston University, she holds both the Master of Divinity and Master of Sacred Music degrees. Mary lives in Laguna Beach, California.
B. J. Beu has served churches in the United Church of Christ for the past twenty years. Beyond his work on this resource, he has contributed sermons to The Abingdon Preaching Annual, developed and led worship services for his conference's Annual Gathering, and served on the worship team for the UCC's General Synod in 2013. A graduate of Boston University and Pacific Lutheran University, he is passionate about creative worship, preaching, and advocating for peace and justice. B. J. lives in Laguna Beach, California.
