Carol Penner describes the history and work of the Together in Worship team. Together in Worship is a website that offers free worship resources in one convenient location.
Carol Penner is director of theological studies at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. She was a pastor for many years in various congregations across Canada. She has a blog of her worship resources, LeadinginWorship.com, and recently published a book through Herald Press, Unburdened: A Lenten Journey toward Forgiveness. She is a member at the First Mennonite Church in Vineland, Ontario. She will be the guest speaker at the Central District Conference Annual Meeting June 20-22.
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As a worship leader, I am always on the hunt for resources to help create meaningful and memorable services. There is a joyful satisfaction that comes from finding the right words to say in a certain moment, or finding the perfect song or visual image that pulls a service together.
That joy is what motivates me to be part of the Together in Worship team. We’ve been working together, since 2018, to create a website with Anabaptist worship resources. This committee of people from Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA came together, because we all lead worship and we all have been on the hunt for Anabaptist worship resources.
We envisioned a central website, where we could find free, organized and curated materials, including visual art, words for worship, music and videos.
I remember when Sarah Johnson, the worship resources editor for Voices Together, contacted me to see if I was interested in gathering with a few like-minded people to see what we could create together. It sounded exciting but also daunting. This idea emerged from the Voices Together information-gathering process, but it grew beyond the hymnal project. It wasn’t sponsored by the Mennonite church; it was a grassroots initiative.
From that beginning, we now have a leadership team of nine people, who are scattered across the United States and Canada. In six years, we’ve only ever had one in-person meeting. Month in and month out, we gather on Zoom. And along the way, we’ve become a community; I always look forward to seeing my TIW friends.
I remember the excitement of brainstorming a name for a website and the challenge of hammering out what its purpose would be. We settled on togetherinworship.net, “a curated collection of free online resources from Anabaptist sources that support communal Christian worship” — you can read more about the goals and background here. Finding partners was essential. We were thrilled to work with CommonWord, a resource center that is sponsored by Mennonite Church Canada and Canadian Mennonite University. We received the blessings of Mennonite Church Canada and Mennonite Church USA, but we are entirely independent.
Visioning is one thing, but who would do the work? Everyone who has served on the committee has done the work of finding, curating or inputting resources, and we’ve enlisted many volunteers along the way. We’ve recruited students to do practicums with us, learning about writing, editing and cataloguing material.
And who would pay for the work? Most of our work is done by volunteers, but we needed funding to have experts create our database and maintain it. We applied for some grants; we were thrilled one year to receive a Teacher-Scholar Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. Another year we gratefully received a grant from the Shantz Mennonite Church Bequest Disbursement Fund.
Our ongoing costs year to year are covered by donors, who appreciate having Anabaptist worship resources gathered in one place.
We strive to feature diverse voices and a rich variety of resources. Traffic to our website shows us that people are using Together in Worship. We have a portal for users to submit their own resources for consideration.
When I think of Together in Worship, I think of the people who made it happen and the joy we’ve found along the way. We are motivated by our deep faith in Jesus and our shared mission to worship. I hope you become part of this community that is creating worship together.
The views and opinions expressed in this blog belong to the author and are not intended to represent the views of the MC USA Executive Board or staff.
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