"You have been a way for God to speak to me. Thanks for the sharing and motivation. I have been more creative in worship,personal and group, because of your calling. Thank you and keep on! "
- Santhia Jo Collins

Our Advent worship series is well under way --thank you very much-- and just yesterday we sketched out Epiphany. We're excited about going from a week-by-week planning to more long range planning.

Karen Maxwell
Director of Music and Worship Arts
Barrington United Methodist Church

Can I just say that I LOVE planning for worship!. working on my November- December worship guide, thinking on Advent-Christmas season with the wonderful help of Marcia McFee Worship Design Studio "Here is our God" sermon series..... Come Emmanuel Come! can't wait!!!!

Ximena A. Varas

Thank you for yesterday's first reboot session. Although I've heard you say these things multiple times (Detroit Annual Conference) and I have The Worship Workshop book... I am now at a point where the subtler things are settling in. Just in time to retire (LOL). No, retirement is still 6-7 years away... and if I can help my congregation gently shift to a bester way of experiencing God's presence, I will have accomplished a lot.

Specifically, now, writing a synopsis for each worship event and for the series as a whole will be a quantum leap for me, and an immense help for my team (a music director and two visual arts specialists; all three helped lead/create worship at Detroit Annual Conference 6 or 7 years ago). And this is God's timing: the stuff you said we (Reboot Workshop) will be working on during the next couple of weeks, planning for Advent, will set up our October 14 Worship Planning Meeting at Hardy UMC. Nice!

+++John

Thank you so much for this wonderful invitation to "reboot" our worship, and for the inspiration it has provided… My history as a pianist/keyboardist/ choir director/soloist is varied and wonderful… God sent [a pastor] who has been "rebooting" with me - at her suggestion. We have both been on the same page, seemingly, and are eagerly planning toward a better, God-honoring, FUN season - Stewardship throughout November and "Coming Home" for the Advent season!

Today - All Saints Day and Communion Sunday we entered the first Sunday of her new series on Stewardship. In advance, she sent all those involved a copy of the four Sundays, complete with the scripture she'll be using and a synopsis of the series, Praise the Lord.

The services were still "broken" up by song here, reading here, now its time for this or that, UNTIL today! I invited myself to play during awkward moments, something I just never felt comfortable doing here. You gave me permission to be all I am, and offer all I am as their "director of music and arts".... I had many smiling encounters afterward. And talked with several eager participants about things I needed in the future. Yay!

Shar Boerema
Director of Music and Arts
Whitehall United Methodist Church
Whitehall, Michigan

We signed up for the Reboot webinars, but it was under my Director of Music, Marta Myers. We've found them very helpful. I just wish we could stop the worship world for a couple of weeks to digest it all and do more planning. :-) We have budgeted for WDS for next year and we had a GREAT consecration Sunday yesterday, so I think you'll be seeing/hearing more from us. Thanks for reaching out.

Rev. Nancy J Kollhoff, Pastor
Atchison United Methodist Church
Atchison KS USA

"You have been a way for God to speak to me. Thanks for the sharing and motivation. I have been more creative in worship,personal and group, because of your calling. Thank you and keep on! " - Santhia Jo Collins

Our Advent worship series is well under way --thank you very much-- and just yesterday we sketched out Epiphany. We're excited about going from a week-by-week planning to more long range planning.

Karen Maxwell
Director of Music and Worship Arts
Barrington United Methodist Church

Hi Marcia – just wanted to let you know that we focussed on "flow" for this morning's service and were delighted with the results! Thanks so much for all you taught us last week – Brenda Voisard, South Valley Unitarian Universalist Society

These last 40 days have been a real blessing and I hope someday I will be able to attend one of your workshops in person.
Blessings,
Carolyn Patterson

Dear Marcia and crew,
Thank you for the ReBoot series. I had no idea an on-line course could be so meaningful and practical. Now, I'm a believer.

So much to compliment!

Structure: The structure of the course worked well for me. Getting the topic and related videos/articles early in week, and then having the hour long conversation with Marcia on Thursday......provided a schedule/routine for the course. This structure divided up the "homework," making it feasible to fit it all in a week. And, being able to listen to the Thursday morning webinar at any time was great. I never made it "live".....and was delighted I could listen at any time.
The structure, with weekly, specific assignments, held me accountable in a way that allowed me to feel progress.

Approach

I'm so eager to continue to learn more about crafting worship. Up to this point, occasional workshops and lots of reading have been helpful.
The Reboot approach kicked it up a notch. Rather than a one time infusion (like a traditional workshop), I could build, week to week, and cultivate a new approach. This approach, like having a coach working alongside me, helped me shift/learn new ways of crafting worship. I needed this in order to change some habits.
Having it last several weeks provided another opportunity to integrate new approaches.

Content: The five areas we focused on in ReBoot were great choices, at least for me. I felt inspired, challenged, and affirmed.

Joining WDS:Thank you for that option. I knew, once ReBoot was done, my biggest challenge was figuring out how to write brief summaries of worship....far in advance. I couldn't figure out how to do that without writing sermon first.
So, for January, I used your Bread, Bath and Beyond as a template, a way to experiment with planning ahead and writing those summaries. Having an example to follow has been wonderfully helpful. And what a relief to have sermons planned through beginning of Lent. (And yes, now am carving out time to plan Lent.)

I've been looking forward to writing this thank you note. Thank you for the vision and hope behind the WDS, and for the structure, approach and content which have been an ideal fit for me. I'm grateful, and renewed.

Blessings
Kim Risedorph
Lead Pastor, Asbury UMC, Livermore CA