GC Podcast | Grace Communion International Resources

In 2026, the GC Podcast is introducing a new format. Instead of monthly episodes, the podcast will feature two miniseries released throughout the year. This shift allows us to go deeper into meaningful conversations that support our shared journey of Kingdom Living.  We’re excited to launch the first series in the February Equipper. The series features Rev. Dr. Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and keynote speaker for the 2026 Denominational Celebration. Joining host Cara Garrity, Dr. Kim explores what it means to live as citizens of God’s kingdom in today’s world. What does it look like to live faithfully in Christ, formed in community, and engaged in mission?  Stay tuned for this rich and timely series....

Missional Formation w/ Cara Garrity Cara: Welcome to GCPodcast, a podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience. Today, we will be exploring some elements of missional formation. So, go on ahead and settle in. Maybe ground yourself with your feet on the floor, take a couple of deep breaths and invite the Holy Spirit to make this a time of transformation for us. Let me start us off with a word of prayer. Loving God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we thank you for your presence with us. We thank you that you are a God that wants to be known. We thank you that you are a God that invites us into your ministry and mission of making yourself known. We ask you, God, that you would make us tender to be molded and shaped by you, that you would give us willing hearts to be made more into your likeness, to be made more into who you have always meant us to be, God. We thank you that you are so faithful to guide us, to transform us, to make us new, and to draw us into your very life. We ask your blessing over this time as we reflect and meditate and invite you into our contemplation of what it means to be formed missionally. We ask you, Holy Spirit, to do your work within us; surprise us, do more than we could ever imagine. We thank you that you are so faithful for your work to be complete. We pray this in your wonderful and your glorious name. Amen. So first, I want to take a minute to just explore a little bit what it even means to live missionally. That might be a buzzword we are used to hearing if we have been around in the church community for any amount of time. Let us dig a little bit deeper into what does that look like? What can it look like? Where do we even get that from? What might that mean for us? I want to look in the Gospel of Matthew. After Jesus’s resurrection, we read in the Gospel of Matthew that he came to his disciples. In Matthew 28:16-20, we read this. 16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Amen. This is what has come to be known as the Great Commission, where we as disciples are sent by Jesus on his disciple making mission. In this English translation, the phrase “therefore go” in the ancient language has a little bit more of this sense of an ongoing action. As we make disciples, there is a sense of we’re living sent. It is a way of being more than just a series of isolated actions. We are being called to be the sent people of a sending God. Remember, even Jesus himself was the Son of God sent to us, the word of God made flesh to dwell among us. We are called to be the sent people of a sending God. In his book, Surprise the World, The Five Habits of Highly Missional People, Michael Frost suggests five habits that might open us to the missional formation by the Spirit. I want to read an excerpt for you right here where he talks about these missional habits and how we might think of these habits in participating in Jesus’s mission. He writes this. Sometimes called missional rhythms or missional practices, missional habits are those habits we foster in our lives that in turn shape our missional outlook. by missional I mean all that we do and say that alerts others to the reign of God. South African missiologist David Walsh wrote, “Mission is more than and different from recruitment to our brand of religion; it is the alerting of people to the universal reign of God through Christ.” In other words, mission derives from the reign of God. In that respect, the ideas of our mission and God’s kingdom are irrevocably linked. Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ. Let me say that again. Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ. These five habits that he suggests may open us up to the formation of a missional way of living. Summed up in an acronym, “bells,” B-E-L-L-S. Now the B stands for bless. What that means is to bless others. There are a lot of diverse ways to bless others. A word of affirmation, an act of kindness fulfilling a need, being a tangible blessing to another person, to a neighbor. And particularly with this habit, we are called, challenged to think beyond the confines beyond the walls of our church community only. The E stands for eat. That speaks to hospitality, to the spending of quality time with another, to coming around the table and breaking bread, getting to know one another, and sharing in that company. And again, with this we are surrendering to being formed a missionary. So, while it’s wonderful to break bread with those in our church community, we are in these missional habits also challenged to think about and to embody the habit of eating with those outside of the walls of our church community. Our first L is listen, and this is exhortation, an encouragement to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, to find those consistent times where you sit in stillness, where you sit in meditation and reflection, where you sit with the word of God, maybe in nature, where you take a prayer walk. Whatever that looks like for you, season to season, each week to each week. But how are we sitting? How are we being still? How are we pausing, stepping aside from the day-to-day rhythms to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit? What is God doing? What is he saying to us? What is he showing us? What is he doing in our very midst, within us and through us? He is an active God. Let us listen for his voice. The second L is learning Christ. Now this is a deep embodied, holistic learning of Christ. This goes beyond knowing some facts or fancy theological terms. But this is talking about the whole-person discipleship, being formed into Christ likeness, learning Christ as in knowing him with your entire being and growing more and more deeply into his life and his person, being drawn into him, being formed into his likeness as a disciple. Learning Christ, not just with our minds, but with our minds, our hearts, our souls, our bodies. Learning Christ to be like him. The S is sent. This S for sent is meant to be an encouragement to consistently reflect and even tangibly journal the ways that we have been living sent, the ways that that week we have alerted our community, our neighbors, our friends, our family, to the reign of God through Jesus. How did I live sent today? How did I live sent this week, this month? What did that look like? And the idea of this phrase, formational habit, is that as we reflect on that, we begin to identify more and more what that looks like, what it looks like for us. And to be shaped into people who proclaim and demonstrate the gospel, the reign of Jesus Christ as second nature. We see that as we are formed and as we surrender to being formed in mission through various habits, this BELLS framework is a helpful one that we may consider — less, eat, listen, learn, and sent. A second guide that I want to propose to us today is a simple phrase that we will think about is where. Where are we sent? Where do we practice these habits? Where do we live missionally? Where we live, where we work, and where we play. Remember Matthew 28:19-20. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Amen. We are living sent, and it is an ongoing action, and so we are living sent in our everyday lives. And what do we do in our everyday lives? We live, we work, we play. Where are our typical rhythms? Where do we spend our time? Who do we spend our time with? Where do we spend our time that we do not even necessarily pay particular attention to that if we did start paying particular attention to, we would start to listen and hear the Spirit’s voice and see what God is doing? And so how do we begin to see God at work everywhere we go? And how do we proclaim and demonstrate the kingdom of an extraordinary king in ordinary moments, wherever we live, wherever we work, and wherever we play? [00:13:29] Now I want us to dive into a couple of reflective exercises. As we explore and continue together to surrender ourselves to missional formation to say, yes, Jesus, you have sent us, continue to form me as a sent person. Continue to give me and make me feet that are willing to go. The first thing I want us to do is meditate on the passage, John 20:19-22. This passage we find in the Gospel of John, again after Jesus’ resurrection, when he comes to the disciples, and he sends them. Meditate on this passage with me. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. As you reflect on this passage, I want you to pause this podcast, as much time as you want, to reflect, to meditate on these questions, but imagine yourself seeing, touching the hands inside of Jesus just as these disciples did. What comes up for you? Read this passage or hear this passage again and receive the breath of Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Notice. What is your response? And hear Jesus saying the words, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” to you. How does that feel? So once more. 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Amen. Now I want to invite you into reflecting through these two frameworks that we were introduced to today. Explore what they could look like in your own life to begin practicing them and experiencing what it might mean in your life, for your formation. [00:17:11] Let us return to this concept of where we live, work, and play as the places where we are sent — our ordinary everyday spaces and places, rhythms, our ordinary and everyday lives. Where are the places that you live and work and play? How can you nurture meaningful relationships in these places? How have you nurtured meaningful relationships in these places? And then if you do not live in your church neighborhood, how might you be able to create an intentional space of live or work or play in that neighborhood? [00:17:56] And then bells, B-E-L-L-S, bless, eat, listen, learn, sent. Which of these is most natural for you? Which is most challenging? What would it look like to consistently practice one of these over the next month? How do you want to respond to God’s invitation to form missional rhythms in your everyday life? [00:18:27] And finally, I have three more questions of reflection for us. And again, please pause this podcast, take as much time as you need to reflect, to pray, to journal, to doodle, as you consider these questions and surrender yourself to the work of the Spirit and transformation and formation into Christ’s loving mission for all his people. What joys and fears come to mind when I think about living a sent life? What joys and fears come to mind when I think about living a sent life? What do I have to gain as Jesus forms me in his likeness and mission? What might I have to surrender? Who has God made me to be? What gifts, passions, quirks, stories, scars, triumphs are He revealing in me? How might the Spirit use who I am personally to form me in mission? I want to wrap up today with a prayer of blessing over all of us. This prayer is written by Ted Loder and is from his book of prayers, Gorillas of Grace, Prayers for the Battle. This prayer is titled, “Teach Me Your Ways.” Teach me Your ways, Lord, that I may come down from my heights and be open to the same Spirit who moved over the face of the waters in the first day of creation and moves also over the chaos of this time to fashion a day like this, a world like ours, a life like mine, a kingdom acting as leaven in the bread of earth. And make me aware of the miracles of life, of warm and cold, of starkness and order, of screaming wind and impenetrable silences, and of the unfathomable mystery of amazing grace in which I am kept. Teach me Your ways, Lord, that I may praise You for all the surprising, ingenious ways You bless me, and for all the wondrous gifts You give me, along with all the pain and joy I sustain. Teach me Your ways, Lord, that I may accept my own talent openly, nurture it hopefully, develop it faithfully, and give it freely. Teach me Your ways, Lord, that I may love Your kindness and practice it toward the hungry of the world, the poor and sick, and oppressed, that I may learn the healing humility that comes from You. Teach me Your ways, Lord, so that my heart is flooded with Your mercy— emptying it of what makes it firmly opposed to Your ways, so that it beats more in rhythm with You and pounds greatly for Your kingdom. Amen. Lord Jesus, teach us your ways that we may live as your sent people. Thank you for listening to this episode of GCPodcast. We hope you found this time valuable. We would love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions or feedback. And remember, healthy churches start with healthy leaders. So, invest in yourself and in your leaders.The post Missional Formation w/ Cara Garrity first appeared on Grace Communion International Resources.

Team Building w/ Cara Garrity Welcome to GC Podcast, a podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience. Cara Garrity: In this episode, I (your host, Cara Garrity) will lead us through some team building experiences and exercises. Now today’s exercises are best experienced with your ministry team. So, consider dedicating an upcoming team meeting, or at least scheduling 20 minutes or so to team building in your next meeting agenda. [00:40] We know that an important piece of GCI’s healthy church vision is Team Based —Pastor Led ministry. But there are a lot of diverse ways to lead a ministry. What is so great about team-based ministry? When we minister alongside one another on teams, we reflect the unity and diversity of the body of Christ. Let us consider 1 Corinthians 12: 12-26 together. And it says: 12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. Amen. [03:18] I want to encourage us to see our ministry teams as a reflection of the body of Christ — many parts, but one body. And if we do this, how might this shape the way that we approach team-based ministry? And I want you to pause and, for a couple minutes, discuss this question with your team. How might this shape the way that we approach team-based ministry if we were to see our teams as a reflection of the body of Christ — many parts, but one body? Now think about, practically speaking, how this might shape the way that we approach the practical aspects of how we run our teams? how we recruit people into our teams? how we run our meetings and communicate? how we assign different responsibilities? How might this image of the body of Christ inform how we conduct our teams in that sense? Take a couple minutes with your team to brainstorm and discuss this. [04:45] Now your team, I want to suggest to you, is a unique expression of the body of Christ. I want us to take some time now to discern and celebrate who God has brought together on your team to serve for this season. So let’s start with this — and I would encourage you, especially for those visual folks on your team, if you haven’t gotten these supplies already, get a big piece of poster board paper, one of those post-it papers, some markers, some pens, or even if you just have a blank piece of paper on the table that everyone can see and something to write with. Grab some of those, and we’re going to use that for this exercise. And then the first thing that I want us to start with is a reminder of the purpose of your team. What brings your team together? What is your purpose? For what do you exist? Now, this may come, for the purpose of this exercise, for your team in the form of your local congregation’s mission and vision statement. This will come in the form of GCI’s vision of Healthy Church or mission statement of “Living and sharing the gospel.” Whatever that looks like for you, what brings your team together? What is your purpose? And now what I want you to do is take some time and go around your team. Each member, I want you to answer the question: how do you uniquely contribute to the purpose of this team? And take two minutes to quietly reflect on this before you start answering this question. [06:44] You are going to go ahead and pause this podcast while you go through and take those two minutes of silent reflection and then share as a team. The question is: how do you uniquely contribute to the purpose of this team? And now as you are sharing, I want you on that poster board, paper, whatever it is, draw an outline of a body. And as each member shares, label the various parts of the body with the keywords, the unique gifts or skills or passions that they contribute to the purpose of the team. And just label the various parts of the body with those keywords or gifts, whatever that is, that comes up in your discussion. How does each member of the team uniquely contribute to the purpose of the team? What gifts, talents, skills, passions? Now look at this image that you have created. It is a visual representation of your team as the body of Christ. And I want you to look at it and to praise God for who he has brought together to your team. And to see that he has brought together different giftings, different talents, different passions, different skill sets. And I want you all to look at that and talk about the specific ways or the specific, I guess combinations or expressions of that, that you see on your team. What sticks out with you? What do you appreciate and celebrate the expression of the body of Christ that God has brought together? What do you notice? And then I want you to take a few minutes and just praise God for bringing you all together. And I want you to affirm one another that you all need one another, that you all belong as members of the body of Christ and an expression of the body of Christ on this team. [09:06] So go ahead and pause this podcast and take a few minutes to do that and celebrate your unique expression that is represented visually by this drawing. Now, the next exercise that I want us to do, to consider is if we are considering or engaging with our ministry teams as a reflection and expression of the body of Christ, then we are going to embody this belief that we belong one to another, that we are connected, that we are made one in Christ. What would it look like to commit to belonging to one another as team members? [09:59] Go ahead and pause the podcast and discuss that as a team for a few minutes. What would it look like to commit to belonging to one another as team members, to be united in Christ? Here are some simple suggestions that you can start out with. You could rotate prayer partners after each meeting. Whether you have weekly meetings or monthly meetings, whatever that looks like, you just get a prayer partner on that team. And you share your prayer requests, and you follow up and you pray with that person once a week or during that month. You add prayer for one another to each meeting agenda, every single time you meet. You take turns starting each meeting with a liturgical prayer or spiritual formation exercise that is meaningful to each one of you. You are bringing that expression of who God has made you to be, that gifting, that uniqueness to one another. And you are growing together and forming in Christlikeness together, with one another. Maybe consider some practices and committing to some practices like this together as a team. [00:11:25] And for right now, what I want to ask you to do is to take about maybe five to 10 minutes — depending on the size of your team or however this flows for you all —and I want for each person to pray for the person on your right. I want you to thank God for what they bring to this team. And you can use the visual representation from the previous exercise, as a reminder, as something to come back to. I want you to thank God for what they bring to this team, affirm their belonging to the body, their belonging on this team, that their participation on the team is important, and that we celebrate with one another. Take five to ten minutes for each member on the team to pray for one another, the person on your right. Go ahead and pause this podcast and do that with one another now. So, I want to encourage us to remember that the teams we serve are more than just production lines, groups of people that we complete checklists alongside to get things done in the church or gears in the machine to make sure things happen and get done. We serve on teens because in Christ, we are many who are made one, each uniquely, fearfully, and wonderfully made, brought together to form the one body of Christ and in him. We belong not only to him, but to one another. We come together in cooperation to be his hands and feet, to participate in his present ministry, in our midst. And what a beautiful thing that these teams that we get to serve on, that we get to build out in our local congregations, to be a local expression of this body. So let me pray for us. Lord God, I thank you so much. Father, Son, and Spirit, you yourself are, in your very being, unity. In diversity and unity, Father, Son, and Spirit, three in one. I thank you that you, Jesus, have brought us, your people, many into one in your body. We thank you for being so good to us. We thank you for giving us according to your will for your good, good purposes. And we thank you for the immense privilege it is to participate in your ministry. And that we do not do it alone, but that we do it primarily with you, that we participate in what you’re doing, but that we get to do it alongside one another too. We thank you for your relationship and community. And we thank you that it reflects who you are. I pray for a blessing for all our teams. That you would continue to grow them with one another, that they would continue to mature and expand as expressions of your body. That people would be able to operate in the gifts and the skills and the talents that you’ve given them to serve those in their neighborhoods, to join in what you are doing in their midst. I thank you for being so faithful to guide us, and I praise you in your holy name. Amen. [15:19] So together as a team, I want to offer a few reflection questions as we have completed these two exercises together as a team. The first is, what difference does it make when we view our teams as reflections of the body of Christ? And how does this challenge us? How does it inspire us? So, take a few minutes to discuss this. Next, what practices or actions does your team want to commit to continue growing in maturity and unity as an expression of the body of Christ together? And finally, what would it look like to continue creating space for people to use their giftings to be active participants in the body of Christ and the life of your local congregation? So, I want to leave you all with the encouragement of Ephesians 4: 1-16. And it draws us back to the purpose of coming together, diverse, and united, as ministry servants alongside one another in his church. So, Ephesians 4 says: As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” 9 (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. May it be so in our teams, in our congregations, throughout our denomination. Until next time, friends, keep on living and sharing the gospel. Thank you for listening to this episode of GC Podcast. We hope you found this time valuable. We would love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions or feedback. And remember, healthy churches start with healthy leaders, so invest in yourself and in your leaders.  The post Team Building w/ Cara Garrity first appeared on Grace Communion International Resources.

Creative Expressions of Worship w/ Lucy Santibanez-Enerio Cara: Welcome to GC Podcast, a podcast to help you develop into the healthiest ministry leader you can be by sharing practical ministry experience. In this episode, we welcome Lucy Santibanez-Enerio, who will lead us through creative expressions of worship. We invite you to co-create your own experiences of spiritual formation through personal and communal practices. We believe that through such personal and communal practices, we open ourselves and surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in and through us. May the work of the Holy Spirit in our midst grow us up into the healthiest participants in the ministry of Christ that we can be to the glory of the Father. Amen. Lucy: Hello friends, my name is Lucy. I grew up in the Philippines, and I started being involved in the music ministry when I was 10 years old. One of my core memories in being transformed through worship is when at a young age, during Sunday service, we were singing the song, “Knowing You, Jesus.” And I looked around the fellowship hall of our local congregation, and I see all ages and all generations who were connecting to God, declaring that there is no other greater thing in life than getting to know their personal Savior. Since then, I’ve always felt that I, and all people, are called to pursue God’s presence because there is peace in his presence, there is hope, joy, and rest in his presence. I found that God has a way of speaking to me personally through music. A few years down the road, I found myself being drawn to psychology for my undergraduate studies, and eventually I completed graduate degrees in music therapy. But primarily, all I really wanted to do was worship God and see people join near to God in worship. So, through it all, I continue to be part of worship teams, and I currently serve as a volunteer worship leader and music team coordinator at GC Steele Creek in Charlotte, North Carolina, all by the grace of God, according to his plans. Today, we will be exploring creative expressions of worship that extend beyond the familiar congregational worship gatherings to a more personal spiritual expression. So, whether you’re a seasoned worshipper or someone looking to deepen your connection with the Lord, we hope you are able to find meaning and resource from this experience. Our theme for today’s practice is “Making Room to Encounter God in the Mundane.” Like many of us, I am always in awe of sunrise and sunsets. One, because of the beauty and the mystery of the rising and the setting ball of energy millions of miles away from us interacting with our skies and setting off awe inspiring colors. And two, in a way, this phenomenon that we often tend to overlook feels like God’s way of taking care of us, motivating us to wake up and also signaling us to take the rest that we need. Creation is reflecting the beauty of our Creator, and I can’t help but break into song about God’s goodness when I witness the beauty of his creation. Psalm 19, verse 1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” Human beings are made for worship. In the posture of worship, we fall into the arms of God and saying, “Have your way in me, Lord.” Disciplines of worship put us in a place to be receptive and responsive to the Holy Spirit’s movements and invitation. The discipline of worship focuses our attention on the beauty of the Trinity, the source of all that is good, true, and beautiful. There are so many ways and forms of worship, more than we recognize in the ordinary moments of life. We worship when we come together in celebration of God’s goodness. We worship when we come to the foot of the cross to lament an expression of our grief. We worship in our giving, in holy communion, in making meals for others, in making spaces livable and beautiful, and in so many forms – crafts, woodwork, poetry, visual arts, movement, music. After all, God is the ultimate artist, the creator of the heavens and the earth. he communicates through his creation and relates with his creation. We come to him to worship individually and as a congregation. We worship in silence and solitude or in holy roars of praise. The Bible tells us of how David actively pursued God’s presence in worship. In the book of Psalm and 1 and 2 Samuel, we learn about David’s raw expressions of praise to God amidst life’s highs and lows. Whether it’s in periods of grief and anger or moments of shame, David cries out for forgiveness. In times of joy and excitement, David praises God by dancing and exuberant singing. In moments of need, David surrenders his human desire for control, and instead seeks and aligns himself with God’s heart. he teaches us to do the same. David’s example shows us that worship isn’t about putting on a facade of perfection, but by being vulnerable and humbly turning our hearts towards God, regardless of our circumstances. Worship includes but does not have to be solely about emotion. It’s about recognizing God’s worthiness of praise, even when life feels chaotic or unfair. Being able to worship and find hope is one of the many gifts that God has blessed us with. Regardless of our circumstance, God has given us the ability to come to him and rest in him. Worship is more than an event. It is the posture of our hearts. So, we now recognize that worship isn’t confined to a specific style or practice. It’s a personal journey that is expressed both inward and outward. In the next few minutes, we’ll explore how we can take our creative expressions and offer them as an act of worship. So today I invite you to consider the act of creating, or the expression of creativity, as a form of worship. Whether it’s through music, art, poetry, or other forms of expression, our creativity can be a meaningful way to connect with our Lord. It’s about offering our time, thoughts, skills, and our whole being as an act of worship. I personally love to spend my time with the Lord through soft instrumental music, as I feel like it serves as a container of my experiences and sacred interactions with our Lord. It is a way for me to make room for God in our busy day-to-day lives, by finding pockets of time to be in tune with God and be transformed by his presence. This will be different for everyone, and that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be complicated or long-winded, but it is personal and intentional. So now, if you are inclined, I invite you to grab a notebook, or maybe some coloring tools, or any other crafts or tools that you are drawn to. If you are musically inclined, you may grab an instrument. You can also take this time to simply listen and receive what the Lord has for you. We will spend the next few minutes exploring creative expressions of worship. This is your time to connect with our Lord in a way that feels personal and authentic to you. I will be playing instrumental music to guide our time together, but for now, take a couple of grounding breaths. Feel free to receive. And open your senses to the Lord. Take a moment to ground yourself in God’s love. he continues to provide for you and has invited you to wake up today and rest in him. Close your eyes, if you can, and invite his presence into your safe space. Three simple ways to prepare our hearts to worship are to recognize, receive, and respond. Recognize by making room in your heart and thoughts. Invite and anticipate God’s presence. He is the ultimate shepherd who invites us to lay down in green pastures. He leads us beside still waters and restores our souls. Allow the following verses to wash over you as you receive his word. Psalm 8:3-4 — When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? Psalm 19:1 — The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the works of his hands. Psalm 24:1-2 — The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. [Repeat] The next couple of minutes is your time to respond through your personal creative expression. Feel free to write, draw, or journal, pray, or even sing. You are free to reflect on the earlier verses or lean into how the Lord interacts with you as you respond to him. As we conclude our time together, feel free to reflect on the creative expressions you explored with our Creator today. Consider how these expressions can become a regular part of your worship beyond the Sunday service. The Lord speaks to us in many ways, and he has given us gifts for us to use to connect with him and serve his people. May your God-inspired creativity be a source of meaningful connection with our Lord, and may you find pockets of time to make room daily beyond our Sunday gatherings. Cara: Thank you for listening to this episode of GC Podcast. We hope you found this time valuable. We would love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected] with your suggestions or feedback. And remember, healthy churches start with healthy leaders, so invest in yourself and in your leaders.The post Creative Expressions of Worship w/ Lucy Santibanez-Enerio first appeared on Grace Communion International Resources.

In this episode, Cara Garrity interviews Dishon and Afrika Afeni Mills. Dishon is the lead church planter of a GCI church plant in Charlotte, NC, and the National Coordinator for Gen Min in GCI-USA. Afrika is the Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion at Better Lesson. Together they discuss the foundational question of the purpose of the Church....