Worship planning resource launched

The new Worship Planning Page from the LCA’s Commission on Worship (CoW) is up and running.

The new site, which can be found at www.staging.lca.org.au/worship/wpp, was launched in late October. It is designed to serve and equip anyone involved with the preparation of worship services within the LCA/NZ.

CoW Administration Coordinator Mrs Libby Krahling said the main reasons for replacing the old worship planning site were to improve its security and functionality and to offer an expanded range of resources.

‘The new site features a whole new layout for service preparation and many more resources’, she said. ‘You should find it quicker and easier to find what you need, whether it’s the prayers for the week, Bible readings, music suggestions or a children’s address. I’m really keen to make service preparation as easy and stress-free as possible, especially for parishes without a pastor and for those who don’t have a lot of resources.’

Much of the new website’s redesign and new resources are a direct result of the WPP survey, which was conducted earlier this year. For example, all Word and PowerPoint document resources open directly from the links provided on the page.

Libby encouraged anyone involved with worship preparation to subscribe on the site homepage to free weekly emails, a quarterly e-newsletter and advance notice of new resources.

The Worship Planning Page (WPP) features a fully stocked service order in Microsoft Word, with accompanying standard and widescreen PowerPoints for each week. These are designed for congregations without any administrative support or for use in an emergency. They feature selected liturgy for the day, the text for the Bible readings and lyrics for public domain hymns.

Services are available at least four weeks in advance. If you need to plan further ahead, visit the Planning Ahead tab to view the lectionary calendar for the year and view the Sunday-by-Sunday resources, which include all of the key information you will need for planning worship services. A searchable database of sermons, which will allow people to browse sermons by Bible text and lectionary cycle, is under construction.

CoW has a number of exciting projects underway which will further improve the site in the next 12 months. These include:

• New music for worship, which is written by Australian and New Zealand Lutherans. This will be made available through the WPP store.
• New backing tracks/musical accompaniments for popular hymns
• Updated lay-reading sermons
• New service orders for lay-reading services.

To learn more about the new WPP, watch the video introduction on the homepage of the site, or visit https://vimeo.com/366871556

For specific queries, contact Libby Krahling at cowblog@staging.lca.org.au