Worship Matters

In this episode, the Worship Team introduces the October Worship Series, Choosing Faith. Faith is a multilayered reality that is part gift and part effort. The October series invites us to consider how we as individuals and a community understand and live out faith in our daily lives. The team also makes note that October has other events for our attention, including World Communion, Children’s Sa...

In this episode, Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, has a conversation with the Rev. Dr. Reginald Lee, Senior Pastor of Hartsville Cooperative Parish in the South Carolina Annual Conference, and consultant to Hey Preacher. The main topic of conversation is the upcoming Bridging Visions 2, an event designed to help preachers bridge the prophetic and the pastoral in their preaching....

I Will Call Upon the Lord is a worship series for the month of September. Based on the lectionary Psalm texts, this series invites us to reflect on what it means to be known by God, to be a people of hope, to reflect the glory of God and to be safe in the shelter of the Lord. Listen in as Dr. Diana Snachez Bushong, Director of Music Ministries, and Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries...

Dr. Stan McDaniel is a church musician, professor of music, and writer of sacred music for choirs, handbells and instrumental ensembles. His latest book is titled “Servanthood of Song: Music, Ministry and the Church in the United States.” Dr. Diana Sanchez Bushong leads this wide-ranging conversation on American history, liturgical history, various genres of sacred music, and more. McDaniel writes...

Dear Children of God is a three-part worship series designed to carry us through the summer months with a sense of playfulness and encouragement. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t serious and weighty issues in this series. Based on the Epistle texts from the lectionary, Dear Children of God asks us how we might communicate the essentials of the faith with modern technology. Whether texting, email...

The third of the high holy celebrations of the liturgical year, Pentecost is sometimes called the birthday of the church. It is certainly a day of empowerment and celebration, as the Worship Team at Discipleship Ministries presents in the two-part series “All Access.” If Easter “rends the veil” and opens God’s heart to the world, then Pentecost is where we are equipped and transformed to be able t...

In this episode, Lisa Hancock interviews members of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement who were part of a team that wrote worship resources for our Eastertide series “Believing Into Christ.” They discuss the intersectional perspectives on creation justice that weave throughout the resources and the various ways congregations can engage these materials throughout Eastertide and beyond....

Lent and Holy Week and Easter are often times of intense activity and special worship experiences in the local church. The Worship Team from Discipleship Ministries presents an innovative worship series that takes the worshiper from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Titled Steadfast Love: A Lenten Playlist, this series takes music from a variety of genres to help deepen our experience of the profoun...

This high and holy season is a favorite in many communities. Join the Worship Team from Discipleship Ministries as they discuss resources for Advent with an experiential emphasis as again we are invited to “Come, Let Us Adore Him” this season. And then hear how we launch a new calendar year with reflections on what it means to be community with “Re-Membering the Body” for Epiphany and Baptism of t...

One of the most popular features on the Discipleship Ministries website is the ongoing series History of Hymns. These insightful articles give worship planners and music lovers a deeper look into our favorite hymns for worship. The editor and most frequent writer of the History of Hymns is Dr. C. Michael Hawn, DMA, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music, Perkins School of Theology, South...

Dr. Diana Sanchez-Bushong, Executive Director of Worship Ministries and Director of Music Ministries, discusses the project to vet contemporary music for its theological soundness and appropriateness for worship in United Methodist congregations. Joining her are two members of the 2024 team – Dr. Nelson Cowan, Project Manager; and Felicia Patton – both United Methodist musicians and worship leader...

Joining Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries for this episode is the Rev. Sara McKinley, formerly Director of the Office of Clergy Excellence at the Florida Conference Center in Lakeland and now Senior Pastor of First United Methodist Church in Naples Florida. Sara was born in England, raised in Africa, worked in the Far East, traveled extensively throughout the world, and chose to li...

In this episode, Diana Sanchez-Bushong and Lisa Hancock interview Becky Posey Williams, Senior Director of Sexual Ethics and Advocacy for the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCOSROW), and Rev. Stephanie Arnold, senior pastor at First United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Alabama, about their work planning and hosting a Service of Lament, Confession, and Hope for survivors of sex...

Ordinary Time is anything but! At least that is the choice before us. In this episode, the Worship Team introduces the first two worship series after Pentecost for this long summer season we call Ordinary Time. Ascribe to God begins on Trinity Sunday and reminds us of some of the attributes of the God we worship. That is then followed by Open Your Heart, a short series based on 2 Corinthians and i...

Sustaining the glow after Easter Sunday has passed is always a struggle for the local congregation. The Worship Team shares the resources prepared for more of Eastertide and looks forward to another celebration of Pentecost. Last episode we presented the resources for the first three weeks after Easter in a collaboration with members of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (See Worship M...

Eastertide makes an early appearance this year, giving us the opportunity to spend the first half of this season of Resurrection preparing for Earth Day, which also happens to be the Fourth Sunday of Easter. In this episode, Lisa Hancock interviews members of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement who were part of a team who wrote many of the worship resources for our Eastertide series, “H...

The worship team takes a moment to reflect on the Worship Matters podcast – how it started, what we were trying to accomplish, and what we have learned along the way. We share our favorite episodes and guests, special events, and how Covid and the ongoing disaffiliation impact all redirected some of our content along the way. Listen as the team shares some of the outgrowths of the podcast, leading...

The season of Lent begins on Valentine’s Day in 2024. It seems a strange juxtaposition and yet a perfect opportunity to spend time reflecting on Depths of Love, which is our Lenten theme. Far from a hearts and flowers expression, the love presented in the Gospels gives us insight into the God we worship and the calling we have to live out this love by the commandment to love one another. Join the...

Here on the brink of another calendar year, the Worship Team shares some details – and some excitement – about the things that are coming for 2024. We start with the familiar and the Lenten worship resources already available, but then go on into worship webinars, teaching materials on sacraments and membership, workshops for annual conferences, the new iteration of School of Congregational Develo...

The Worship Team continues the journey through Year B with a discussion about Epiphany and Baptism of the Lord. There are some significant events coming up in this season, so listen in to how worship can help your church in “Becoming the People of God.” Ordinary Time is anything but ordinary, as you know, so let this season in January be a time of revitalization and hope for your local context. Th...

What could be more fun than planning for Advent and Christmas? Join the Worship Team as we present the resources prepared for the upcoming Advent season: Our Spirit Waits. The season of Advent reminds us both that we are waiting for the promise to be fulfilled and that this waiting is an active, passionate longing for what God has in store for us all. Listen in as we discuss resources and possibil...

We continue from our previous episode to discuss the resources for the month of November posted on our website. The Worship Team shares the thinking behind the decision to depart from the lectionary and present a three-week series on the theme of Gratitude: “Our Hymn of Grateful Praise.” Listen in as we unpack some familiar biblical texts and liturgy and music as well as some creative ideas on how...

In this episode, the worship team share the resources that are available for the end of August through All Saints Sunday on November 5. Listen in as we share the ideas behind the lectionary worship series, the significance of the graphics chosen for each week and series, and the liturgical and musical highlights of each series and the season overall. You can get a little insight into how these res...

A Conversation with the Rev. Linda Furtado, Director of Spirituality and the Arts, Scarritt Bennett Center. What happens in the intersection between spirituality and the arts? How does worship become a crucible for this intersection and foster an awareness of the spiritual? These questions and more form the basis of the conversation between the Worship Team and Rev. Linda Furtado. In addition to b...

What can the preacher do to help their congregation navigate this time of disaffiliation as we look forward to General Conference of 2024? How can we lead from the pulpit? What images can help us find a way through? What do we cling to for hope in these complicated days of our denomination? Dr. Alyce McKenzie and Dr. O. Wesley Allen join the worship team to help us consider these and other importa...