Posts in Worship Resources
Faith Lens: Glimpse of the Kingdom
Faith Lens: Glimpse of the Kingdom

The Easter season is seven weeks long. Nearly every week the gospel lesson includes disciples encountering Jesus and failing to recognize him. This week’s gospel encounter is crammed with significance. There is a miracle and allusions to Peter’s failure to stand firm during the horrible events of Holy Week, as Jesus asks him repeatedly, “Do you love me.” Both are important and theologically significant, yet by focusing on them we may miss what is most significant. Namely, Jesus is in the world today if we have eyes to see.

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Worship Resources, ELCA, ResourcesBrian FlatgardFaith Lens, Youth and Young Adult, 2022 Holy WeekComment
Spanish resources available at Sundays and Seasons
Spanish resources available at Sundays and Seasons

All Creation Sings includes a fully bilingual setting of Holy Communion (Setting 11/Liturgia 11). To support use of this liturgy as well as Evangelical Lutheran Worship Setting Seven: Santa Comunión, Sundays and Seasons now provides many more hymns and songs in Spanish.

Most hymns from Libro de Liturgia y Cántico are available for download to Deluxe subscribers. Service music (#181-274) is available to both Standard and Deluxe subscribers.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian FlatgardELCA WorshipComment
TuneUp: A way to recruit singers by teaching them to match pitch
TuneUp: A way to recruit singers by teaching them to match pitch

ALCM Webinar Series “TuneUp: A Way to Recruit Singers by Teaching Them to Match Pitch,”
Friday,4/29/2022, 11am MST/PDT, 12pm MDT.

The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians invites you to join its webinar to “help people sing with confidence.” This session offers ways to “recruit people to TuneUp” as well as useful techniques to get them to quickly and easily match pitch.” Register as part of the spring or full-year webinar series.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian FlatgardAssociation of Lutheran Church MusiciansComment
Lutherans Restoring Creation provide creation-focused worship service for Earth Day
Lutherans Restoring Creation provide creation-focused worship service for Earth Day

An online worship service for Earth Day (4/24/2022) is being finalized by Lutherans Restoring Creation and they are excited to share it with all. If you want to integrate it into your worship service be sure to register now as private/preview links will be sent soon. Click here to register.

They are honored to have the Rev. Dr. Carmelo Santos sharing the message of the day according to the Readings for April 24th. The service — in English, Spanish, and ASL — will be available to all via YouTube and Facebook starting Friday April 22, 2022.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian FlatgardLutherans Restoring Creation, Climate ChangeComment
Additional worship texts for Good Friday and Easter
Additional worship texts for Good Friday and Easter

As we approach Holy Week and the Easter season, you may desire worship texts that hold in tension the joy of the resurrection with the reality of violence and suffering in our world in Eastern Europe and around the globe.

Below are three newly composed worship texts by Gail Ramshaw — For Good Friday, For the Easter Season, and an Eastertide Lament — available for use in your context during Holy Week. Guidance for use precedes each selection.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian FlatgardELCA Worship, 2022 Holy WeekComment
Faith Lens: Lost and Found
Faith Lens: Lost and Found

After 106 years of searching, a ship lost miles below the icy water near Antartica was recently found! Explorer Ernest Shackelton’s ship, Endurance, was exploring these frigid waters when it became trapped by ice and could no longer move. Scientists say that because it sank in such cold water the ship is almost perfectly intact, as if it sunk yesterday! Such a discovery!

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Worship Resources, ELCA, ResourcesBrian FlatgardFaith Lens, Youth and Young Adult, Russia and Ukraine WarComment
Faith Lens: On a Journey
Faith Lens: On a Journey

Right now, far away from some of us but near to others, Russian has invaded Ukraine. Confronting power hungry leadership and complex socio-political tensions, the global community watches and waits. Ground invasion and the startling aftermath of dropped bombs consume our collective conscious. War brings heightened anxieties and unanswered questions; it leaves people displaced and refugees fleeing. The journeys of our refugee siblings are filled with uncertainty.

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Worship Resources, ELCA, ResourcesBrian FlatgardFaith Lens, Youth and Young Adult, Russia and Ukraine WarComment
Lent Reflection 2: Vulnerable in the Wilderness
Lent Reflection 2: Vulnerable in the Wilderness

In this sacred season, we turn inward, reflecting on our dependence on God’s grace. Marked by ashes at the start, we enter the 40 days of Lent with penitent hearts and awareness of our need for God’s mercy. Repentance and self-reflection are important practices, but it’s easy to stay here, forgetting that the season is about so much more than our own self-examination.

Martin Luther captured this well. Luther defined repentance in two ways: “contrition…and in taking hold of the promise.” Read more in this post in English and Spanish.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian Flatgard2022 Lent, Hunger, ELCA World HungerComment
Lent Reflection 1: Journey in the Wilderness
Lent Reflection 1: Journey in the Wilderness

We have a curious set of readings for this first Sunday of Lent. Biblical scholars believe that Deuteronomy 26:5-10 is a script for someone making an offering of what was called the “first fruits,” a religious practice for farming communities. These verses fit well with this somber season. Lent is, if nothing else, a time of looking backward and a time of looking forward.

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ELCA, Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian Flatgard2022 Lent, Hunger, ELCA World HungerComment
Turning: Lent 2022 worship resources for narrative lectionary
Turning: Lent 2022 worship resources for narrative lectionary

WorshipWell offers a Turning, worship resources based on the Gospel of John. “Poring over the Lenten texts from John’s Gospel, we are dizzied by all of the turning: God turning toward humanity’s pain as Jesus weeps at raw and unbearable grief; Jesus turning Lazarus’ death into something confusingly hopeful; Jesus turning into a servant, turning clear water brown with the disciples’ gathered dust, turning them toward loving their neighbor.” Read an overview here and visit worship-well.com where this series is available at no cost.

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Resources, Worship ResourcesBrian Flatgard2022 Lent, WorshipWellComment