Worship Ideas for Eastertide

If you're having trouble viewing this email, you can see it online. BRINGING YOU RELEVANT INSPIRATION, RIGHT FOR THIS MOMENT April 2025    Do the Sundays after Easter ever feel like a bit of a liturgical letdown? Everything has been building up to Easter celebrations, and now it is done. Another church season is wrapping up and things feel just . . . ordinary.  In some of our contexts we refer to this post-Easter season as "Ordinary Time," but there is nothing ordinary about worship—and certainly nothing ordinary about the God we worship. While the natural ebb and flow of Feast or Festival Sundays calls for ordinary Sundays, that doesn't mean we shouldn't pay attention to these Sundays and think deeply about them. To help you do that, we have included links to several resources for the season after Easter as well as ideas for Ascension and Pentecost. But we also want to encourage you to mark sometime during this calendar year the 1,700th anniversary of the first Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed. The "Resources on the Nicene Creed" section on this enews provides a list of helpful articles and liturgies for such celebrations. If you create a resource to mark the anniversary of the Nicene Creed or have other resources you think will bless the broader church, consider submitting them at ReformedWorship.org. Don't forget to check the website regularly for newly posted content! Rev. Joyce Borger Senior Editor editors@ReformedWorship.org   FEATURE The Nicene Creed at 1700 Years Old What It Is, and Why It Still Matters In the early 300s, the church was struggling with the question of how best to talk about the Father God, Jesus the Son, the Holy Spirit, and their relationality. What are the right words to use? How do we balance the seemingly conflicting truths that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God, yet there is only one God? There is a Father and a Son, which suggests a generational timeline, but one didn't come before the other. How does this all work?  READ MORE   HIGHLIGHTS   Practicing Easter Good Habits to Keep All Year Round Many people are used to the idea of Lenten practices—giving up coffee or chocolate, perhaps, or doing some kind of regular spiritual discipline during the weeks before Easter. The worship planners at All Nations Church took that concept and applied it to Easter. What would Easter practices look like? Why do we do what we do every Sunday? Why do we go through the same motions? These practices are for Easter, but since every Sunday is a little Easter, they are encouragement for all Christians, in every season. Image: mutia_paint/freepik.com   The Great Fifty Days Seven Service Plans from Easter to Ascension In many churches, there is a gap between a theology that is based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and a liturgy that no longer gives it central place. Easter Sunday has become the joyful end to the solemn weeks of Lent, rather than the beginning of the season of Eastertide… These services attempt to reclaim the focus of the early church—to broaden our understanding of the effect of the resurrection on the church and its beliefs. Image: VladisChern/Shutterstock.com READ MORE READ MORE ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Children's Pages for the Christian Year: Ascension and Pentecost An Easter Liturgy: For Use on the Sundays of Eastertide  After Easter: A Series for Ascension, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday—and Beyond The Fruit of the Spirit: Ascension and Pentecost Services with Devotionals More resources from ReformedWorship.org for Eastertide, Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday  Lectionary Resources from Reformed Worship: YEAR C   RESOURCES ON THE NICENE CREED The Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed at 1700 Years Old: What It Is and Why It Still Matters Singing the Salvation Story: The Nicene Creed in Song Marking the 1700th Anniversary of the Nicene Creed: Idea Starters We Believe . . .: A Service Based on the Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed for Trinity Sunday Singing the Faith: Resources for Including the Creeds in Worship Professing the Faith of the Church: A Q&A on Using Creeds in Worship   CALVIN INSTITUTE OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP   Reformed Worship Calvin Institute of Christian Worship 1855 Knollcrest Circle SE Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 US    Copyright © 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. All rights reserved.     Visit our website to view our award-winning quarterly worship journal  616-526-6088 | info@reformedworship.org You are receiving Reformed Worship updates because you are a current or past subscriber to our print magazine, signed up on the website, or asked to be subscribed to the mailing list.    This email was sent to drvitus2.love@blogger.com. Click here to unsubscribe.