If you’re looking for assistance in creating liturgies, writing prayers, putting together an order of service or reflections with children here are some great resources to help you in your job.

Top 3

Spill The Beans is a beautifully designed and prepared resource for people interested in developing all-age worship within their congregation. Spill The Beans includes prayers, litanies, liturgies, discussion points, reflections, stories and more. Darren has electronic copies if you’re interested.

Laughing Bird a gift to the wider Church from the South Yarra Community Baptist Church in Melbourne, Australia. Laughing Bird is a lectionary based resource with Australian paraphrases of scripture, liturgy and prayers.

The Billabong is a beautiful, simple blog by Jeff Shrowder, a retired minister within the UCA in  Victoria. The Billabong hosts a collection of poetry, prayer, responsive liturgies and Psalms for use within the context of worship.

The Rest:

Textweek.com has been operating for many years now and is one of the most helpful resources around. Textweek collates sermons, liturgies, prayers, articles, children reflections, images, videos… The website is in a state of flux at the moment due to the curator’s personal life but it is still one of the most helpful resources out there.

Lectionary Liturgies is a great source for written litanies, prayers, poems, responsive prayers and more by Thom Scuman.

Mustard Seeds is a great resource for people shaping a worship service coordinated by Ann Scull, a Minister in South Australia. Ann points us to images, videos, stories and other resources that link with lectionary readings.

Ten Minutes on a Tuesday is a collection of resources developed for worship leaders and preachers by the Methodist Church of New Zealand. It is given in Word format to allow you to edit and rework the material for your own context and worship style.

David Beckswith’s liturgy and worship website has a large collection of sermon, hymn suggestions and liturgy ideas all sorted into the 3 year lectionary cycle for use by worship leaders and preachers. David’s based within the UCA in Melbourne.

There are a number of great resources available to worship leaders and preachers, we’ve collated a number of them here to help you in your role.

Lectionary Podcasts:

By The Well

By The Well is a new Australian podcast with Fran Barber and Robyn Whitaker. The podcast often invites speakers, preachers, theologians and teachers in to help explore the readings in the week’s lectionary.

BTW has quickly become an invaluable resource to preachers and teachers everywhere.

Sermon Brainwave by Working Preacher

Sermon Brainwave is a conversational podcast with Rolf Jacobson, Karoline Lewis, Joy J. Moore, and Matt Skinner. Each week the four educators present the scripture readings and share how they would approach the week’s readings.

Sermon Brainwave has been going for many years, long enough for you to go back through the years and listen to previous episodes the same readings. It also is a part of the Working Preacher website which has written articles on readings and themes for preachers to use as inspiration.

Pulpit Fiction

Pulpit Fiction is hosted by Robb and Eric who curate a podcast with guest presenters who reflect on the readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, including the Psalms while they discuss how they connect with the Gospel and Epistle readings for the week.

The podcast has been gong since 2013, so has a few years under its belt with multiple episodes and show notes available to help you with exploring the bible.

Websites:

Working Preacher is a website that hosts podcasts, commentaries and reflections on the bible for preachers and teachers. One of the most invaluable resources online.

Textweek.com has been operating for many years now and is one of the most helpful resources around. Textweek collates sermons, liturgies, prayers, articles, children reflections, images, videos… The website is in a state of flux at the moment due to the curator’s personal life but it is still one of the most helpful resources out there.

Bill Loader’s Lectionary & Preaching website, “first thoughts on passages from the Gospels and the Epistles in the lectionary.” This is one of the best online collections of reflections on scripture and it’s from an intelligent Australian voice, a resource that is a “must visit” for people planning for worship each week.

Howard Wallace’s Old Testament Weekly Lectionary Readings is a great & growing collection of reflections on the Old Testament readings in the RCL. The comments are the result of an engagement with the text by the writer, bearing in mind the historical and literary context of the readings, the other readings set for the week, the season in the Christian year, and events that are taking place around us.

Anna Grant Henderson’s Old Testament Readings Website is no longer being updated by Anna, but it’s still full of great and useful reflections on the Old Testament readings within the Lectionary by a really intelligent and insightful Australian OT scholar.

Bruce Prewer’s collection of Lectionary Liturgy and Sermon resourcesis a fantastic and very useful site full of resources ready for adaption and use.  Bruce is a retired minister within the UCA.

Howard Wallace’s Old Testament Lectionary Resources.  Howard is a Minister in the Uniting Church in Australia and formerly Professor of Old Testament in the Centre for Theology and Ministry, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania. These reflections are a great resource for people exploring the Old Testament readings from the RCL.