Monday's Catch: 'Worship Circles: Worship Settings Don’t Have to Look Like a Concert' And More

Worship Circles: Worship Settings Don’t Have to Look Like a Concert
In recent years, modern worship settings have increasingly mirrored the energy and aesthetics of live concerts. Bright lights, fog machines, and towering sound systems dominate many church sanctuaries. While these elements can create an engaging atmosphere, not everyone connects with God in this high-energy environment. Enter worship circles: a refreshing approach that prioritizes intimacy, simplicity, and connection over production.

Worship settings also don't have to look like a lecture hall or a medieval church with a high altar. When families gather at Thanksgiving, they typically gather around a table, not in front of it.

In Planting, High-Energy Worship Is Essential
As declining congregations shrink in worship attendance below thirty percent of their sanctuary capacity, the energy in the room often drops below the threshold of a winsome gathering. When new churches cannot fill their worship space past thirty percent capacity, they will likely suffer from low energy in their worship gatherings.

Services that are poorly put together and contain too many elements can also negatively affect the energy of worship.

A Cultural Shift
We are living through several epic cultural shifts. Since the demise of the five-hundred-year Protestant-Christian cultural consensus in recent years, almost every denominational group has shrunk in size, especially in participation from younger people. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, churches saw fewer young families with children. The loss of America’s “mainline” Protestant churches is significant for the country in terms of the faith development of Americans and the way politically diverse churches helped hold us together as church families through moments of national division.

Working Americans Turn to Food Banks as Fed Inflation Battle Drags On
Once a month, Kersstin Eshak visits a food pantry in Loudoun County, Virginia to stretch her family’s budget. Eshak’s husband works at a big box retailer. She works as a substitute teacher. They have income, but with prices up nearly 23% over the past five years — and still rising — their earnings just don’t stretch quite far enough some months. Food banks across the nation are seeing a similar story: A post-pandemic wave of demand for food driven by working people caught in America’s cost-of-living crunch.

President Trump's obsession with tariffs and his other economic policies, including larger tax cuts for the rich and deep spending cuts in programs designed to help low income and no income Americans, are going to make things worse.

Fla. church opens doors to anyone in need of food, shelter: 'This is what the Lord wants us to do'
The founder of a Florida church comprised mostly of homeless people explained how the Lord provided her with the space to open the doors to those in need of food and shelter, the embodiment of Christ-like behavior. 100 Church, located inside a storefront in North Port, began offering free community dinners in October 2020, when many churches had stopped providing such services due to the government's COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. That same year, 100 Church provided shelter to anyone needing a place to stay.

America needs a new sanctuary movement today
As President Donald Trump categorically bans people from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border and cancels flights for incoming refugees, it’s worth recalling this isn’t the first time the federal government has failed the world’s most vulnerable — nor would it be the first time everyday Americans decided to fight back.

Related article: Episcopal bishops uphold sanctuary policies, oppose threat of immigration arrests in churches

Who Is a Young Adult?
Defining who a young adult is in your community is one more step toward connecting them in the church and making disciples.

Five Reasons Millennial Pastors Are Not Moving to Larger Churches
They are the second largest generation in America’s history. At 74 million persons, they are only surpassed in size by the Boomer generation. Born between 1980 and 1997, they are shaping our businesses, our government, and our culture. And they are shaping our churches.

Discipleship Bands
A discipleship band is a group of three to five people who read together, pray together, and meet together to become the love of God for one another and the world.

Discipleship bands can be independent small groups. They can be affiliated with a existing church. A cluster of discipleship bands can also form the nucleus of a new church.