Resources & Tools

Worship Resources

This is a new area on the Conference web site. Links and resources are available here.
Inspiring Worship
(from Natural Church Development - see the Congregational Development pages)
Worship is about a real encounter between the worshipper and God.  God can be experienced through liturgical, traditional, contemporary, post-modern, casual, formal, high-church, low-church, or whatever style.  The form and style of worship should serve to set an environment in which worshippers can experience the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  Worship should never be only about the gathered congregation, but should be engaging for new people who might be unfamiliar with church culture and traditions.   Some questions to ask about inspiring worship are:
  • How often do people express through changed behavior that they have experienced God's presence during worship?  When was it and why?
  • How do you regularly plan, evaluate and improve your church's worship services?
  • How can you include more people in planning your church's worship services?
  • How does the worship music move people into a closer relationship with God?
  • How do the preaching and liturgy serve God's purpose of connecting to all people?
  • How are you using your best quality communication tools, technologies and resources in worship?
Resources for planning inspiring worship:
Licensing
  • www.ccli.com - Christian Copyright Licensing for copying music or displaying lyrics in worship or church events. Also offers podcast and webcast licenses.
  • www.cvli.com - Licensing for video use in worship or church events
  • www.onelicense.net - music licensing for worship
  • www.copyrightsolver.com - performance licenses for music outside of worship services, webcast/streaming licenses, copying or distributing music on cd/dvd or web sites
Worship Media Resources

Slides, videos, backgrounds, sermon illustrations, countdowns, and more...

 
Marcia McFee Worship Design Studio
New England Conference subscribes to Marcia McFees Worship Design Studio for every church in the Conference!
You can register and access these resources now!
 
Greetings, New England Conference!
 
Marcia McFee here - your personal worship consultant! It was such a delight to be with you for the "Winter SPA" in snowy Manchester. While I was there, I arranged with conference leadership to extend a subscription to my Worship Design Studio online planning resource to EVERY church in the conference! This is now FREE AND AVAILABLE TO ALL CHURCHES through this conference subscription! 
 
In the Worship Design Studio, you will get worship planning help for EVERY season of the liturgical year. I produce an audio PODcast of interviews with nationally-known preachers, music directors and visual artists in advance of each liturgical season. They talk about the upcoming season and brainstorm various thematic ideas to help get your worship team jump-started in their planning. I also post resource ideas and materials with the PODcast. See the column on the left for more about what you get with this subscription.
 
This resource is FREE OF CHARGE TO YOU through conference funds. Don't miss out on this chance to benefit from continuing education and worship resourcing. Simply follow the instructions below and get started.
 
Here's how to get started!
  1. Contact your District Superintendent for login information
Other Worship and Music Resources
GBOD Resources
The General Board of Discipleship offers a tremendous amount of music and worship resources for our United Methodist churches. Visit www.gbod.org/music. 
The Rhythm and Roots Project – Nisha Purushotham
Nisha Purushotham is a multi-instrumental composer, performer and artist educator born in New Delhi and raised in New England. Since 1992, she has lived and worked in diverse rural and urban communities. She is a classically trained pianist and skilled world percussionist, studying with Caribbean and Indian master drummers in the United States and Cuba. Her original music features world percussion and stories of the land and people she has encountered in India and the Americas. As a performing artist, Nisha explores the sacred through original songs, polyrhythmic drumming, silence, spoken word, chant and communal expression. In 2000, Nisha started The Rhythm and Roots Project which offers workshops, presentations and retreats that build community, animate creative expression, nurture cultural knowledge and engender mindful living.
 
Global music for worship and special events
Nisha Purushotham is a valuable resource person for local churches interested in cross-cultural community building and incorporating global music into their worship and ministries of outreach, education, spiritual formation and social justice.
 
Extensive United Methodist connections and experience
Nisha is experienced in working with United Methodist conferences, churches and programs. Most recently, she offered drumming workshops at the Annual Wellness Festival of Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center. On World Communion Sunday she led global music at Calvary Church, United Methodist in Arlington, MA, where she also served as guest musician for the summer of 2010. 
 
In July 2010, Nisha and her mother, Rev. Gwendolynn Purushotham, co-facilitated a leaders retreat centered in liturgy and music for cabinet members and staff of the Upper New York UM Conference. Previously, she was the Director of Music at Open Table of Christ UMC, a multi-class and multi-racial congregation in Providence, RI. There she guided an intergenerational music team of 22 lay people who integrated world percussion and global songs of praise and justice into weekly worship and ongoing social justice actions.
 
From 2004 - 2007 she offered Afro-Caribbean drumming workshops at Aldersgate UMC in Worcester, MA forming the Aldersgate Drummers, a youth drumming ensemble who participated in services in Worcester area UM churches. In 2007 the Aldersgate Drummers were a featured act at Worcester's Annual African American Festival.
 
Nisha has also facilitated performance workshops for New Covenant UMC in East Hartford, CT, Grace Church, United Methodist in New York, and the UMW.
 
Additional details and contact information
For more information about Nisha and The Rhythm and Roots Project please click on the brochure, visit www.nishapurushotham.com or contact Nisha at nisha.purushotham@gmail.com