We Want You!! 

We are planning ahead for our worship gatherings for the rest of the year.

Our desire is to make our worship experiences a time to connect with God and one another, to refresh and to challenge us in our learning to live as followers of Christ.

We also place a high value on creatively entering these experiences and meeting the needs of the artistic and creative community around us.

As we plan for the coming year we are searching for people who would like to help plan in one or more of the following ways:

• Be on a worship planning team for one of a series
• Be a worship coordinator for one of a series
• Offer your gifts through song, poetry, writing, painting, sculpture, drama, dance, storytelling, etc.
• Offer your services as a reader, greeter, hospitality, setting the space (decorating), designing programs, powerpoints, giving the welcome, prayers, etc.
  

2010 Theme: Transformation - Freedom through Movement

Please contact Jay Smith to talk more about your ideas and input and to volunteer to participate or lead.

Fueling Creative Convergence Project - 2008/09

Read the full project proposal. 

The Calvin Institute for Christian Worship last year gave us a "Worship Renewal" grant to fund our "Fueling Creative Convergence Project." The aim of the project was to ask questions and begin to find answers through collaboration. These were the goals of the project:

- To create an effective worship planning procedure which results in worship gatherings that include multiple voices, allow for the history and tradition of the worshiping community to be honored while allowing flexibility and freedom for the inclusion of creative elements to create new traditions and experiences.
- To better understand the ways in which the artist enters into worship and incorporate these into our worship services.
- To find the ways in which the artist may serve the congregation without being "used by" the congregation.
-To help the congregation understand how to have a Christ honoring relationship with the artist.

Here is the summary that was written for the proposal:
Imagine an initiative which infuses worship with creative expectation through deep integration of the exploration of the artist's role in the worshiping community. Suppose a church gave a collaborative leadership role to believing artists in worship planning to gain a deeper understanding of both the contribution and worship needs of the artist.

We were given $13,000 to work on the project earmarked for several great opportunities including: Artist's in residence, creation of works, an intensive class offered for free to our team and communities on worship through the John Leland Center, Hosting a local conference for artists and church leaders to explore our findings and share new ideas and experiences.

Most importantly, we began a journey to explore how to plan and worship together in an authentic, organic way which builds community rather than preference divisions. The project began May 2008 and continued through June of 2009. At the end of the project we shared our findings at a national conference of other grant winners.

Thank you so much to those who helped with the initial proposal and year-end summary and presentation! We have been successful in implementing some of the project results, and for 2010, we have begun a community-wide theme of Transformation - Freedom through Movement, as a way to bridge our worship and arts communities. Please stay connected and share your gifts with us; for questions about the Calvin Institute or grant, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

You can read the full Fueling Creative Convergence Project proposal here. Thank you to the Calvin Institute for Worship! 

This project was made possible through a Worship Renewal Grant from the Calvin Inistitute of Chrsitian Worship, Grand Rapids, MI with funds provided by the Lily Endowment, Inc.