Worship
We invite you to explore a variety of resources. We have categorized them by activity, and they represent a variety of approaches to living a Christian life. This menu is not designed as a “to-do” list, but rather as an offering for individuals to sample and find the activities that bring them closer to God in this particular practice.
In worship, we praise God. We gather to hear God’s word, we offer prayers and confession, and we are sent out into the world. In worship, we encounter God, and we respond to God.
“What is corporate worship?
In corporate worship, we unite ourselves with others to acknowledge the holiness of God, to hear God’s Word, to offer prayer, and to celebrate the sacraments.”
Watch
KOREuk: Worship
A short from a series of animations that simply explore and explain themes from the Bible and rituals of the church. (2 minutes)
The Way of Love: Worship
Just as God wants to enter into our lives and meet us where we are, so God desires for us to enter into God’s space, together, and be present there. How will you start worshiping on the Way of Love? (3 minutes)
Fuller Studio: Eastertide
“Death and Resurrection,” portraying the night before and the morning of the resurrection of Jesus, marks the beginning of the season of Eastertide. The scriptures are drawn from Matthew 27-28, John 19, and 1 Corinthians 15. (4 minutes)
Do
Holy Week and Easter Worship at St. Peter’s
Join us as a community in worship during the days of Holy Week and Easter as we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Participate in person or online to experience the fullness of these most holy days of the Christian year.
We worship together all through the year, on Sundays and at other times. See our Online Worship page for up-to-date information on links and service times.
Daily Devotions for Individuals & Families
Book of Common Prayer, p. 136
These devotions follow the basic rhythm of the Daily Office, which are prayers said in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and at the end of the day. As the title suggests, they are appropriate for individuals, families, and also small groups, to be used at any time.
Imagine Church
Imagine Church, from the Diocese of Atlanta, is an experiment in online worship borne of the isolation, anxiety, pain and hope of the pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice. It is an invitation to the church to be transformed through imagination and experimentation with new ways to seek and support one another as we make Jesus the center of our lives. Services are held once a month—previous services can be viewed on the site.
“If Christians worshiped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship . . . Worship is an act that develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God that is expressed in an act of worship. When we obey the command to praise God in worship, our deep, essential need to be in relationship with God is nurtured.”
Listen
So many of our worship experiences take place within a church building - it can be hard to imagine worship without candles and stained glass and pews - but there are many ways we can bring worship out into the wider world, knowing that God is out there, too. (18 minutes)
What does it mean to glorify God? Is it simply singing songs? Does it somehow how to do with our behavior. Why is God so interested in his glory? How does this connect to the Image of God? (52 minutes)
What is worship, why do we do it, and how can we enter more fully into worship on Sunday and everyday? Dallas Willard answers those questions with his characteristic wisdom and gentleness in this archive interview with John Ortberg at Menlo Park Church. (44 minutes)
Read
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down,
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
7 For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
To Worship is to Touch Life by Richard J. Foster
”Worship is our response to the overtures of love from the heart of the Father.” This brief book excerpt (from Celebration of Discipline) examines worship as part of our spiritual growth.
The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton
What's at stake in our worship? Everything. Worship is the dangerous act of waking up to God and God's purposes in the world…But true biblical worship does not merely point us upward--it should turn us outward as well.
Way of Love: Worship
Gather in community weekly to thank, praise, and dwell with God
Getting Started
Individual
Make the effort to participate in worship once a week for a season.
Small Group
Choose and share a liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer during your meeting.
Congregation
Include testimonies of gratitude or blessing in worship once a month.
Going Deeper
Individual
Notice new people at your worship service. If possible, sit next to them and help them engage with the service fully.
Small Group
Look at the liturgical calendar together. Pick a saint or feast day to celebrate as a group. Prepare foods, read the history, sing songs, and say the prayers associated with that day.
Congregation
Ask members to describe a worship gathering they would invite friends to. Incorporate that wisdom into an intentional worship gathering.
The Episcopal Church offers this printable primer on the faith practice of worship:
Pray
Prayer before worship:
O Almighty God, who pours out on all who desire it the
spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Prayer after worship:
Grant, we beseech you, Almighty God, that the words which we have heard this day with our outward ears, may, through your grace, be so grafted inwardly in our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honor and praise of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
