Active worship
Activities based on Acts 2.1-21
A simple worship activity for all ages
Set up an indoor water feature and switch it on. Play some background music (preferable on a ‘Spirit’ theme – e.g. ‘Spirit Fall’ by Phil Wickham, or the Taizé chant ‘Veni, Sancte Spiritus’). Invite people to sit in a comfortable receptive posture, with their hands in their laps, palms facing up – then pray, simply, ‘Come, Holy Spirit’. Be still and quiet for several minutes, perhaps repeating the phrase every now and then. You could end by singing together a more active song/hymn invoking the Holy Spirit.
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Knowing Jesus
Invite people to reflect for a few moments on how they picture or imagine Jesus. What does he look like for them? Display or project different images of Jesus from around the world – perhaps on a loop. Ask people to reflect on these images, and their own, praying that they might experience his presence in a new way on this day of Pentecost. You could play some quiet background music or do this activity in silence.
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Witness statements
What is a witness required to do? Invite people, in pairs, to discuss this question as if they were preparing to give a witness statement in a court case that was to assess if Jesus was real and alive. Remind them that they can only speak of things they know to be true for themselves – a court witness cannot report hearsay, or share someone else’s experience! Give enough time to this activity so that people have the opportunity to think it through in some depth.
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Spirit streamers
Make streamers to represent the Holy Spirit as fire, that can be taken home and placed on the handlebars of bikes, car dashboards, tied to straps on bags, and so on. You will need red, yellow and orange ribbon and rainbow string cut into approx. 20cm lengths. Give each person at least one ribbon of each colour and a piece of string. Bind the ribbons tightly together at one end using the string, leaving enough string to make a tie or a loop to fasten the streamer onto something suitable – it could be a wrist!
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Spiritual styles abbreviations
W Word E Emotion S Symbol A Action
Read our Spiritual Styles articles