Faith
About this blog
Thinking the Faith, Praying the Faith, Living the Faith is written by the PC(USA) Office of Theology and Worship.
Thinking, praying, and living the faith is at the core of ministry in the Office of Theology and Worship. In the following videos, learn more about what thinking, praying, and living the faith means to the leadership of the Office of Theology and Worship. Discover why it matters and what difference it makes in our lives, work, and worship.
Charles Wiley
Barry Ensign-George
David Gambrell
Christine Hong
Karen Russell
Recent posts
- Our Challenging Way: Faithfulness, Sex, Ordination, and Marriage
- Unity, Confessions, and the Book of Order
- Come and See
- Please and Thank You
- Back to Basics on Ash Wednesday
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Posts with tag: worship
April 8, 2014Please and Thank You
The primary purpose of Christian worship is, of course, simply giving glory to God. But worship also provides us with regular opportunities to practice the theological habits of grace and gratitude. Like learning to say “please” and “thank you” at home, worship seeks to shape us in a way of life that befits God’s holy realm, our eternal home.
- Posted at 3:24 p.m.
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March 6, 2014
Back to Basics on Ash Wednesday
In the congregation where I worship, I have the solemn joy of visiting each class of children’s choirs and talking to them about Ash Wednesday. Last night was the third year running … which means we’ve now entered the realm of sacred and inviolable tradition.
- Posted at 9:47 a.m.
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July 22, 2013
If You're Happy and You Know It
The words and gestures of the liturgy ought to work this way. A simple phrase, such as "The Lord be with you," is intended to evoke an immediate, almost instinctive response: not only the verbal rejoinder "And also with you," but a sense of community, a shared way of faith and life, and an entry into prayerful participation. A simple gesture, such as the lifting of open, outstretched hands in prayer, ought to direct our hearts to the worship of God, alert our minds to the presence of Christ, and connect our souls in the communion of the Spirit.
- Posted at 1:22 p.m.
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October 30, 2012
What If
If we tell the truth about our mistakes and God-neediness, we’re afraid others will ridicule, condemn, or reject us (like Christ on the cross?).
- Posted at 5:44 p.m.
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October 5, 2012
Vatican 2 at Fifty
Last night I had the honor and joy of participating in a worship service at Bellarmine University to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the convocation of the Second Vatican Council. On October 4, 1962, the feast of Saint Francis, Pope John XXIII went to Assisi to pray for the council. The service included the prayer that Pope John XXIII used to convene the council, subsequently prayed by the bishops at the opening of each session.
- Posted at 8:55 p.m.
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September 18, 2012
Keep the Feast
Recently someone asked me why the word “festival” is used to describe all those “red-letter days” in the Christian year—like Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, but also Baptism, Transfiguration, and Ascension of the Lord, among others.
A teachable moment!* We have nearly forgotten that “festival” originally meant “of or pertaining to a feast” (Oxford English Dictionary). We’ve come to think of “festival” in a more general way, as a grand gala or communal celebration—like a music festival or an arts festival. But a festival, at least in the original sense, is meant …
- Posted at 2:18 p.m.
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September 8, 2012
I Love to Tell the Story
One of the things I love about the forthcoming (2013) Presbyterian hymnal, Glory to God, is that it is shaped by a story -- the story of our salvation in Jesus Christ.There are lots of ways to organize a hymnal: topical categories, theological doctrines, liturgical seasons, even alphabetical order (we tried that with the Worshipbook). But Glory to God is shaped by the story of salvation history.
The first half of the hymnal, therefore, is all about Christian faith, telling the story of God's Mighty Acts. It begins before the beginning, with hymns and songs …
- Posted at 9:45 p.m.
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September 2, 2012
The Church Needs a Table
On the way home from worship today I heard a (rerun) episode of America's Test Kitchen Radio. Host Christopher Kimball was interviewing Mary Roach, author of Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, about what and how astronauts eat in space. This exchange caught my attention:- Posted at 1:03 p.m.
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August 16, 2012
Love is All You Need
Love is always patient and kind, it is never jealous, love is never boastful nor conceited, it is never rude or selfish, it does not take offense, and is not resentful...
- Posted at 2:32 p.m.
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August 8, 2012
Stewards of the Mysteries
Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. (I Cor. 4:1)
If you receive the Font and Table enews (which is what this originally appeared as), you hear a lot about Invitation to Christ from us. Well, it’s in the process of being extended to other Reformed bodies as well.
The Association for Reformed and Liturgical Worship (AR&LW) has requested permission to make the original PCUSA Invitation to Christ more broadly Reformed in order to extend the Invitation to other Reformed bodies. This has been granted and is in the process of …
- Posted at 2:34 p.m.
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July 13, 2012
There Isn't a "Me" in Community?
This week one particular article piqued my interest.
I was initially taken with the article’s title, “Books Increasingly Show It’s All About Me”. I’m interested in anything that might shore up my feeling that it really is all about me.
- Posted at 3:27 p.m.
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June 26, 2012
Give Them Somthing To Eat
I’m going to let you in on a secret about the lectionary. Not many of us know or remember that the Revised Common Lectionary was designed to be a eucharistic lectionary. That is to say, the readings for Sundays and festivals of the Christian year were selected with the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper in mind.
- Posted at 10:00 a.m.
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June 6, 2012
Sharing Christ
People gathering in a "sanctuary" (or safe place) to share the word, to share "common food," and then being sent to share Christ with others—it sounds an awful lot like "doing what the church does" when we gather in the presence of Christ around Word and Table.
- Posted at 11:30 a.m.
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May 2, 2012
Song and Sacrament
One of the strong signs of sacramental renewal in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is the expansion of our repertoire of hymns and songs about Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
- Posted at 5:23 a.m.
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April 10, 2012
In the Breaking of the Bread
What was so important about the breaking of the bread that—after walking and talking with Jesus, after hearing him teach the scriptures and preach the gospel—this was the sign that finally opened their eyes?
- Posted at 5:18 p.m.
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April 7, 2012
Lessons from the Easter Vigil
We're celebrating the Easter Vigil this evening in the congregation where I worship. If you've never had the opportunity to participate in the Easter Vigil, it's the "swiss army knife" of liturgies. It's got everything ...
- Posted at 5:15 a.m.
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March 30, 2012
A Prayer of Confession for March Madness
In between scouring the internet for new articles about the tournament, showing off my Sports Illustrated cover, and running to the store to buy a new UK shirt, I read this verse last night in my one-year-Bible:
But watch yourselves! Otherwise, your heart might be led astray so you stray away, serving other gods and worshipping them.
Deuteronomy 11:16
- Posted at 10:05 a.m.
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September 7, 2011
This Bread
When the church gathers at Christ's table we are like grain -- once scattered over the hills, now gathered into one whole loaf, gathered from the ends of the earth.
- Posted at 12:31 p.m.
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August 18, 2011
Evening Prayer at the Airport
I usually don't enjoy hanging out in airports. This evening, though, while waiting for a flight, I wandered into the chapel / mosque at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) just in time for evening prayer.
- Posted at 5:29 p.m.
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July 22, 2011
Bread of Life
A desperate situation continues to develop in the Horn of Africa: food crisis, drought, and famine are putting ten million people at risk of starvation. As the body of Christ, how are we called to respond?
- Posted at 3:42 p.m.
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July 6, 2011
Big Tent, Big Font
Given that the theme for the 2011 Big Tent Event was "Grow Christ's Church Deep and Wide" we wanted to have a deep and wide font as a sign of the source of Christian life and identity: our baptism into the name of the triune God.
- Posted at 11:12 a.m.
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June 29, 2011
The Worship Curmudgeon: Call Us to Confession
“Let’s now say together the prayer of confession.” That’s how one ill-trained liturgist called us to confession one Sunday. There was actually no call to confession, just an announcement that said, in effect, “Ok, we’re gonna do this now, folks.” Argh!
Apt sinners that we are, we need called (dragged?) to confession. Without a call to confession, we have no idea why we’re saying we’re sorry to God. Without it, a confession of sin feels like we’re going to say I’m sorry because our mother told us we had to apologize to our sister. We mumble the words, …
- Posted at 3:28 p.m.
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June 14, 2011
Confessing the Faith on Trinity Sunday
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday. How will your congregation confess the faith?
- Posted at 3:38 p.m.
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June 1, 2011
Our Daily Bread
There is at least one celebration of the Eucharist each day at the National Cathedral. The only time in recent memory when that celebration was in question was Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
- Posted at 7:21 a.m.
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