DiscipleQuest: a lifelong quest for spiritual growth, discovery, and action.
DiscipleQuest is open to anyone in 6th grade or anytime afterward and continues for a lifetime. Participants are taught to teach, trained to train, and coached to coach. While the process has milestones, every participant continues on as long as each draws breath. That’s what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Using Andy Stanley’s book, Communicating for a Change, the Me-We-God-You-We format, and the lectionary (RCL or the LCMS’s Lutheran Service Book variant): discussions on the main point and key question you find in each week’s readings.
via Communicating the Lectionary for a Change – Google Groups.
Shepherd of the Ridge Lutheran Church develops many of our own slide images and backgrounds for our services and sermon series. Sign up to get these images for your church’s use. Find more on our Facebook page.
The Michigan District offers monthly webinars on a number of topics, especially leadership. Sign up to know when the next one is, or watch the archived videos on YouTube.
Looking for something from the old site? Check The Archive.
An All Saints’ Day hymn I wrote in 2011 to the tune of, “Earth and All Stars.”
1:
Night into Day, Breath into clay
Father Almighty, You made all things good
Forked tongue and lie, by sin all die
Mankind undone by the fruit from the wood
Hostile the serpent with Eve and her seed,
You vow to save us with Your Son’s blood.
2.
Word became flesh, laid in a crèche
Ancient of Days now a baby in arms
Flesh nailed to tree, grave, victory!
Jesus released us from sin and its charms
Head of the serpent crushed under His heel,
The old accuser Jesus disarms.
3.
Chief Cornerstone reigns on His throne
Spirit comes forth from the Father and Son
Saints from all lands by His commands
Sent forth like branches that all may be one
Rooted by faith in the Word of the Lord,
Speaking His truth that hell might gain none
4.
Trunk lifts us high, points to the sky
Father, we thank You for those gone before
Who shared Your love that we sing of
That generations join Your holy corps
Open our hearts, Lord, to tell all the world
That all be grafted to the vine’s core.
Lyrics for Root of the Saints by Strength and Song Publishing licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Tune: “Dexter” by David N. Johnson © 1968 Augsburg Publishing House. Used by Permission: LSB Hymn License .NET
LSBX File for Lutheran Service Builder
Jesus Army evangelism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Note: Liturgical resources have moved to the Liturgies page.
Halloween Jn 3.16 Tract:
A half-page tract to be handed out with candy on halloween. Customize with your
church info.
Surfingfor Jesus: Using the Internet for Evangelism and Ministry
Reclaiming Daily Prayer: This
is my MDiv Thesis entitled “Reclaiming Daily Prayer”. It is in pdf
format.
Church Officer Workshop Bible study & Answer key: Bible study on Rendering Sacrificial Service from Pastor Jonathan Meyer or both in a zip
diversities: A paper
by Rev. Herb Mueller of the Southern Illinois District on how we deal
with diversities and differences. Excellent reading.
The Church
Culture: A brief paper describing corporate cultures and
looking at how to apply it to the local congregation.
Funeral Preferences Form
Word 5 for Mac
Word 97/98
WordPerfect for WinDOS
The
Gospel in C.S. Lewis’ novel The Screwtape Letters
PDF
HTML
Abortion Rights and Who’s Left, a discussion of abortion rights (HTML)
Other Sites
Ongoing Ambassadors for Christ:
The LCMS Youth & Adults Evangelism program
EvangelismMoment: Evangelism Ideas from St. Paul’s, Delaware, IA
Note: If you’re looking for hymns, they can be found here.
English: Antiphon of Advent Français : Antienne de l’avent O Emmanuel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Challenge of Change: (Docs/Audio) A Presentation by Rev. Bob Weinhold (Dubuque, IA) comparing contemporary liturgies and music to the change from German to English in the LCMS
The Theology of Music? (MP3): A presentation by Rev. Dean Duncan on music as a language
What is Lutheran Worship.ppt: A Powerpoint presentation on Lutheran Worship by Rev. Michael L. Keith
Matins and Vespers: This is an explanation of Matins and Vespers through the lens of Scripture with an eye on using them for daily prayer. It is slightly modified from a chapter of my MDiv treatise from St. Cate’s. It is in Word 6.0/95 format.
Worship and Catechesis: An explanation of the liturgy, looking at each part of the liturgy through the lens of Scripture. Word 6/95 format.
Study Questions
Quiz
Whole File
Entire file, PDF format
3rdCommandment: A Chancel Drama
Adopting: A Chancel Drama
Baptism: A Chancel Drama
body: A Chancel Drama
Candy Store: A Chancel Drama
CleanUp: A Chancel Drama
Dinner: A Chancel Drama
First paper: A Chancel Drama
Forgive you: A Chancel Drama
Going: A Chancel Drama
HairyPuppy: A Chancel Drama
LetGod: Chancel Drama: done from memory from an OAFC skit. I just remembered the ending. The rest I made up.
Money: A Chancel Drama
PeterPrays: A Chancel Drama
Storeroom: A Chancel Drama
Thankful: A Chancel Drama
WhoseBirthday: A Chancel Drama
A SERVICE OF CAROLS AND CANDLELIGHT
New Adam Christmas Liturgy.zip: A doc/pdf package with a liturgy for Christmas eve, complete with Holy Communion and candle ceremony. The liturgy draws elements from Genesis 3 and Romans 5 to emphasize Christ as the New Adam. (Revised 1/24/05)
AdventSeries-ComeHehasCome: An Advent Series which uses Vespers from LW. The hymns chosen are mostly from the “Christmas” section of the hymnal. Full
Packet w/ Sermon Series
O Antiphon Christmas Eve: This is a Christmas Eve service/children’s program built around the O Antiphons and the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”. It is in Word 6.0/95 format
Incarnation–The Divine Service: a Christmas Eve liturgy with Communion. The Christmas story is used as the outline of the service, the elements of the liturgy tied in with the events of the Incarnation. MSWord/pdf
GetOut: Children’s Christmas Play
SomeoneSpecial: Children’s Christmas Play
MT HC Narr Svc.rtf A Maundy Thursday Liturgy by Rev. Thomas Handrick
TENEBRAE: This is a Tenebrae service. It is in Word 6.0/95 format.
Cursed is the One who hangs from a tree; Blessed be the name of the Lord: Lent Series Outline (PDF)
Passion Narrative: This is a narrative reading of the Passion from the Gospel of St. John. It is in Word 6.0/95 format.
Treasure Cove Closing Service: A Sunday non-Communion service to celebrate the close of VBS (Accompanying Sermon)
Athanasian Creed-Responsive: The Athanasian Creed formatted to be read responsively with the congregation.
CTS, Fort Wayne’s Liturgical Helps
Scholia.net’s Advent & Christmas resources
From Sesame Street Unpaved: “We knew that young children liked cartoons, game shows, and situational comedies; that they responded to slapstick humor and music with a beat; and above all, they were attracted by fast-paced, highly visual, oft-repeated commercials .”
“…TV commercials helped make Sesame Street possible…anyone who knows what to do in Nikes, what your bologna’s first name is, and what not to do with the Charmin, knows the power of commercials. But you probably don’t know that the rapid-fire pace, slick production, and catchy music of television commercials inspired Sesame Street‘s unique look and appeal. Kids like commercials and banana-peel humor and avant-garde video and audio techniques we have to infuse our content into forms children find accessible.”
The approach we’re taking is not new. Children’s Television Workshop has been doing it since 1969. But if they can pull it off successfully, teaching kids letters and numbers, why not apply the same teaching theory to Lutheran Catechesis?
Note that this is not just Sesame Street with new Lutheran scenes. In fact, this project is not a TV show or anything of that sort, although it may incorporate such in part. Instead, we use the theory behind Sesame Street: that you need to teach in a medium where the kids will respond and relate in order for them to learn.
Rev. Eric Zacharias proposed the name “Mustard Seed,” playing off the Sesame roots and tying in Jesus’ words in Mt 13:31, Mt 17:20, Mr 4:31, Lu 13:19, & Lu 17:6. I decided to build on this name and change “Street” to “House” to tie in with the Church and generate a feeling of “safeness.”
A variety of methods can be used for teaching. They include, but
shall never be limited to:
The Mustard House Project is a joint effort by a number of LCMS Pastors and laypeople. Rev. Dale Critchley is the coordinator.
By means of various resources such as Yahoo!’s
discussion forum and other cheap or free internet resources and
each participant’s personal and congregational resources, and a whole
lot of prayer, we hope to make this program a success (although
“success” has yet to be defined).
Contributors need only pay for whatever resources they choose to
use in production. Essentially, your only cost is for an internet
connection and the equipment to access the various resources.
Those wishing to use the resources created by this group need pay
nothing. A goal of this project is to make quality catechetical
resources available to all at no cost. Everything will be free to
download.
Note that some materials may eventually come available in
non-electronic form (CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs, printed manuals, etc.).
Every effort will be made to make equivalents to these resources
available online in alternate formats, and the media will be made
available at or near cost of the actual media used. This endeavor is
not intended to profit anyone tangibly.
If you would like to contribute to the project and/or have ideas
to share, simply register for the Mustard
House Discussion list. More information is available at YahooGroups.
–Rev. Dale Critchley, LCMSPastor.com
Webmaster & Mustard
House Project Director
The Mustard House Project(Here’s my idea: Shockwave games for play on websites. I have a few ideas, like a “Carmen Sandiego”-style game that teaches the geography of Israel and other prominent locations; also a “Click on the book of the Bible that comes first” game or a Pac-Man-style “Eat the words to the memory verse in order” game. I’m open to other suggestions.)
Music files are all available for download at the Mustard House YahooGroups files page. Included there are sheet music and MIDI files for about half the catechism and several Bible verses, all put to TV themes, commercial jingles, and hymns.
If you would like to contribute to the project and/or have ideas to share, simply register for the Mustard House Discussion list. More information is available at YahooGroups.
–Rev. Dale Critchley, LCMSPastor.com
Webmaster & Mustard House Project Director