Worship Resources
Worship Planning
Recorded Webinars
Our library of recorded webinars offers practical guidance and inspiration for planning and leading worship services.
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Additional resources
Blessing of the Animals
Blessing of the Animals
The Presbyterian Earthcare website has links to a Blessing of the Animals service, along with articles and a hymn which churches are free to use.
Blessing of the Animals/St. Francis Day
This order of service comes from the Season of Creation website.
St. Francis Day Resources
These come from the Episcopal Church.
A Service for the Blessing of Animals
This order of service comes from Discipleship Ministries of the United Methodist Church.
Tips for Holding a Blessing of the Animals Service
This blog post discusses practical considerations and promotion, as well as liturgy and theology, related to holding a Blessing of the Animals service.
Children’s Bulletins
Children’s Worship Bulletins
This site offers reproducible children’s bulletins with Bible-based activities. There are two age levels with a monthly, quarterly, or annual fee.
Sermons 4 kids
Free downloadable children’s worship bulletins for each week in Word format are available on this site. There are also additional children’s activity sheets for each week.
Children’s Sermons
Children’s Messages
This document provides advice for those giving children’s messages.
Childrens Sermons
This site offers free children’s sermons in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Dollar Store Childrens Sermons
The children’s sermons on this website follow both the RCL and the Narrative Lectionary and use simple objects.
Sermons4Kids
This website offers free children’s sermons in English and Spanish for each Sunday in the RCL.
Sunday Childrens Focus
This is another site which offers free children’s sermons.
Worshiping with Children
There are many ways to involve children in the worship service here; they can be adapted for use as children’s sermons.
Father’s Day
Father’s Day
The Centre for Mennonite Brethren studies lists prayers and resources for worship on Father’s Day.
Father’s Day Worship Guide
The Pastor’s Workshop has Calls to Worship, Prayers of Confessions, Illustrations, and Quotes for Father’s Day.
re:Worship
This site offers a large selection of worship prayers, hymns and songs, and other resources for Father’s Day.
Liturgical Dance
Liturgical Dance as a Form of Worship
This article covers the basics of liturgical dance, dance attire, and the past and future of liturgical dance.
Moved by the Spirit to Dance With the Lord
This article from The New York Times is about Praise Dance, a form of worship that seeks to articulate the word and spirit of God through the body.
Music Videos
Igniter Media
They offer a free one-month subscription.
Worship House Media
They sell videos individually. This is the streaming information for WorshipHouse Media.
Worship Lyric Videos
Videos are sold individually; they are less expensive than Worship House, but just the lyrics are shown. They also offer bundles at a reasonable price.
Here is how to check if a song is covered by your CCLI license.
- CCLI’s SongSelect makes it easy to confirm if a song is authorized under your license.
- Simply visit SongSelect.ccli.com and enter the song title in the search box. If your initial search results don’t include the song you are looking for, check the box next to “Expand search to show all songs” for more results. Find a match and you’re good to go. If you don’t find a match, it’s likely the song is not covered by the license.
- To confirm if a publisher catalog is authorized under your license, search the Copyright License – Covered Catalogs list at https://ccli.com/us/en/copyright-owners-lists
- When in doubt, CCLI’s Customer Service is ready to help.
Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day
The Centre for Mennonite Brethren Studies has a variety of worship resources suitable for use on Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day Resources
Prayers, poems, stories, humor, sermons, skits, and a children’s sermon are on The Desperate Preacher’s website.
re:Worship
This site has numerous prayers, hymns and songs, and other resources for Mother’s Day worship.
Today We Celebrate Our Mothers
Discipleship Ministries has a Call to Worship, Opening Prayer, and Offering Prayer for Mother’s Day.
Narrative Lectionary
Narrative Lectionary
This closed Facebook group discusses sermon texts, shares resources, and offers mutual support around the shared experience of using the Narrative Lectionary.
Spirit & Truth Publishing
Along with their downloadable Narrative Lectionary curriculum, they also sell resources for intergenerational worship based on the Narrative Lectionary.
The Text This Week
This worship planning website has a section with resources for the Narrative Lectionary.
Working Preacher
This site has worship resources as well as a weekly podcast based on the Narrative Lectionary.
Paraments
Autom
Autom serves the Catholic community by selling church supplies, including paraments.
Christian Book
Although known primarily as a bookseller, Christian Book also sells paraments.
Cokesbury
Cokesbury is connected with the United Methodist Church and sells paraments as well as books and other church supplies.
Concordia Supply
This church supplier sells paraments in sets as well as individually.
PRC Booklets
Celebrating Advent with Children in Worship booklet
Worship Notes for Kids booklet
When printing, select “booklet” under “Page Sizing & Handling.”
Sermon Preparation – Free Resources
DesperatePreacher.com
Sermons here follow the Revised Common Lectionary. There are also other worship resources. The content is geared toward an ecumenical audience.
Discipleship Ministries
This worship planning website of the United Methodist Church includes sample sermons for each Sunday of the Revised Common Lectionary.
How to Preach a Justice Sermon
This booklet, although it was written for those preaching on Long Island, NY, has information which would be useful for anyone who wants to preach a sermon on justice.
Ministry Matters
This site from the United Methodist Church offers resources for topical preaching, lectionary preaching, sermon series, and Bible & theology.
Sermon Seeds
The United Church of Christ offers this sermon preparation resource designed for use with the Revised Common Lectionary. Besides the lectionary texts for each week, there is a reflection on the focus text.
The Text This Week
This is a worship planning website which offers links to sermon resources for the Revised Common Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionary. You can also search for resources based on a scripture passage.
Working Preacher
Luther Seminary offers this website with resources for sermons based on the Revised Common Lectionary and the Narrative Lectionary, along with other resources about the craft of preaching.
Sermon Preparation – Resources to Purchase
HomileticsOnline
This sermon preparation resource states that “It’s not filled with word-by-word sermons; rather, it’s a tool for compiling better topical messages.” It includes sermon inspiration, commentary, sermon illustrations, and PowerPoints, as well as children’s sermons and other worship resources.
Preaching Today
This site is connected to Christianity Today. It includes sermons and sermon illustrations, as well as articles related to preaching.
SermonCentral.com
You will find sermons, sermon illustrations, sermon series, and preaching articles, along with video and other media for worship at this site.
Sermons.com
This site offers sermons, illustrations, quotes, humor, commentary, PowerPoint, children’s sermons, and bulletins.
Worship Planning
Call to Worship: Liturgy, Music, Preaching, and the Arts
This quarterly journal is published by the Office of Theology and Worship of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is sold in print and download formats.
Discipleship Ministries Worship Planning
This United Methodist website has hymn suggestions, prayers, preaching resources, children’s messages, and more.
ELCA Worship Page
This comprehensive selection of downloadable worship resources is grouped under Lectionary, Liturgy, Ministry Rites, and General categories.
Intergen
This Australian website offers free worship series and other resources for lectionary Sundays and church seasons.
Leading in Worship
These prayers, poems and litanies are written in a Mennonite voice for ears of all kinds.
Lectionary Liturgies
This site offers liturgies based on the RCL readings for each Sunday of the church year.
Ministry Matters
This website from the United Methodist Church has articles on leading and planning worship, worship music, prayers and litanies, worship media, and special services.
re:Worship
This blog of Christine Longhurst offers scripturally-based resources for worship planners and leaders.
Reformed Worship
Reformed Worship is a collection of resources available through social media, monthly enewsletters, a website, and a growing digital library, all based on a quarterly print magazine that provides practical help and support to worship planners.
Rev-o-lution
Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell provides the RCL and Narrative Lectionary readings with commentary for each Sunday, along with prayers for worship.
The Text This Week
This website provides links to resources for study, reflection, and liturgy which correspond to the Revised Common Lectionary and Narrative Lectionary; there is also a Scripture Index.
Words for Worship
This Unitarian Universalist Association website has a search system to find prayers, stories, images, music, and other material.
Worship Design Studio
This subscription-based website provides access to “years of highly acclaimed series materials and worship arts training that will enliven your task of design and leadership.”
Worship Resources
The Christian Reformed Church provides links to liturgies and worship-related music, articles, webinars, and more.
Worship Ways
This site provides original liturgies written in English and in Spanish by United Church of Christ pastors, based on readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.
Zeteo
This site is a collaborative project of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and the Christian Classics Ethereal Library/Hymnary.org which provides access to content from over 100 online resources. It can be used for sermon planning, worship, teaching a class, or studying, and is for all Christian traditions.
Worshipping with Children
‘Praygrounds’ encourage little children to come
Resource UMC offers an article about churches adopting a trend to incorporate space near the front of the sanctuary for young children to sit and play during worship services.
Worshiping with Children
This excellent website includes lectionary-based resources as well as articles exploring all sorts of issues related to worshiping with children.
Young Worship Tool Box
This article from Hope4CE has instructions for making boxes for children filled with interactive tools to help them experience and participate in worship.
Youth Sunday
6 Tips for a Successful Youth Sunday
The Center for Youth Ministry offers tips for planning and implementing Youth Sunday.
Reinventing the Youth Service
The Reformed Worship website has Principles for Planning Youth-Led Worship, as well as a Sample Worship Planning Bible Study, a Sample Order of Worship, and Sample Worship Planning Teams.
Youth Ministry Basics: Youth Led Worship
This article has a timeline for planning youth led worship.
Youth Sunday Worship Ideas
Rev. Dr. Jeff Binder has a list of ten things to consider when planning Youth Sunday.
