Joyce Borger

So appreciate you sharing this video and showing us the beauty of generations coming together.  What a great idea! 

Stanley, thanks for the suggestion.  I hope the addition of BOLD titles and spacing helps. 

Given the widespread use of cellphones an easy way to do "live translation" would be to set up a "conference call" by providing everyone requiring the translation a number to call.  They should mute their own phone and wear earphones.  If the service is being piped into another room or can be heard outside the atrium the person providing the translation can sit there and simply speak into his/her phone and everyone else on the conference call can hear the translation. We did this for a funeral and it worked well. We had simple instructions and the phone number on slips of paper which we handed out.  (Ideally those would be translated as well.)

I posted your question on the CRC Worship Ministries facebook page and this is the advice given there. Big thanks to all those who responded.  

Carmen Huttenga We used to use EasyWorship and switched to MediaShout. If you have a PC MediaShout is what a recommend if you have a Mac I recommend ProPresenter. 

My experience with MediaShout is that it has so many more multi media options. We can integrate videos much more smoothly. I can incorporate songs from Digital Songs and Hymns one time into the database and use them over and over. The multiple Bibles are a great tool, I could go on. 

Alicia Boekee We use EasyWorship and it works very well for us! Easy to input songs or search for them on the fly. I updated a few of the options to personalize it a bit (live view, etc). It works very well for our volunteers as well.

Sarah 'Sikma' Cupery We use Easy Worship and like it. Even my 9 and 7 year old sons can do it!

Elly Boersma We are currently looking into other options besides Easy Worship - mostly because of issues we've had with the program freezing or crashing, and most recently in upgrading to Windows 10, Easy Worship had some major glitches that made for a VERY stressful Sunday morning that is still etched in my memory. (They may have fixed those bugs, but I still haven't done the most recent upgrade since I don't trust it to be right yet.) It also struggles when switching from song slides to powerpoint slides, which is what we use for litanies and sermons - I'd love something with smoother transition. That said, it is very user-friendly and easy to run - One of my projection guys always says "a monkey could do this."

Carmen Huttenga There is a compatibility issue with PowerPoint and MediaShout. It is best to save files as jpeg interchange files and import them into MediaShout that way. That is what has worked best for us. Microsoft did an update that wasn't compatible with MediaShout. Last I knew MediaShout was working on a patch. I don't know the status of that. I do know the jpeg works great for us.

Richard Bodini As well, if you run a PPT file outside of EasyWorship while the program is still running, when you return to EW, it has a tendency to crash. So you have to restart the program. That was happening every week after my sermon PPT. So I had them put it into the program... and they now switch the slides when I Q them instead of my doing it throuhg my phone. Problem has been solved.... for now.

Carmen Huttenga EasyWorship was constantly crashing for us which led to our change.

John Medendorp We use ProPresenter...but you really need a mac to use it...and you really need a pro to run it...building slides for Sunday worship is a 2-5 hour job per week on its own.

Historically the funeral has not been a "church/ecclesiastical" event.  The Church Order was changed in 2010 to soften that approach but as a result to my knowledge the CRC has never had an official liturgy for funerals which is why you don't find any on the Liturgical Forms page.  Of course, synod could change that by requesting that some be provided.  Currently one of the best resources out there is the book "In Life and in Death" which is available through Faith Alive https://www.faithaliveresources.org/Products/400150/in-life-and-in-death.aspx
Don't forget to check out the "Death and Dying" section of Lift Up Your Hearts, which includes "A Litany for the Sick and Dying" #461

For some additional reflections and a sample liturgy see: 

https://www.reformedworship.org/article/june-1992/rethinking-reformed-reluctance-call-church-reclaim-funeral-worship-service

This one isn't printable but I've used it in the past and appreciated it: http://christiancalendar.squarespace.com/

Gathering twice on Sunday with a preaching service in the morning and a teaching service (on the catechism) in the afternoon or evening was the practice in the Netherlands well before folks immigrated to the United States and Canada.  That practice of two services was maintained with the formation of the CRC in 1857. 

You might be interested in knowing that in 1920 three orders of worship were presented to Synod from a study committee to reflect the fact that many churches had 2 services in Dutch and 1 in English every Sunday. 1928 Synod adopted an order for the "first service of the Lord's Day" and though the same study committee was asked to prepare another order for the second service (and potentially other services as well) that was never accomplished and the committee was disbanded in 1932. 

Wilma, 

Have you taken a look at Reformed Worship's website? (www.ReformedWorship.org)  There are about 30 years of worship resources available for free! If you put "Christmas" in the search box you will come up with quite the list. 

If you are looking for something particular email [email protected] and we will see what we can do to help. 

Two other suggestions: 

http://worship.calvin.edu/resources/resource-library/listing.html?search=christmas&type=tag

https://re-worship.blogspot.ca/search?q=+Christmas

There is a liturgy that is found in both Sing! A New Creation (#240), and Lift Up Your Hearts (#848) that you can use as is or adapt for your context.  I cannot find it online but if you don't have a copy of either hymnal send an email to [email protected] and we will see how we can help get you a copy of the litany. 

Kory, what a wonderful conversation your church is having and your concern for inclusiveness is wonderful.

It may be possible to do small group conversations that include both the hearing and a wide range of cognitive abilities with just a few modifications.  

What room are you having the small group conversations in?  If it is exceptionally "live" acoustically a change in venue may be all that a hearing challenged person needs.  Also sitting in a circle may help so that the reading of lips is possible and the sound of the voice isn't muffled by people's backs.  

As for reaching the full range of cognitive abilities.  I'd encourage presenting the material using as many media as possible.  Can every topic be presented in two different ways?  Could a discussion on a scripture passage be set up by both reading from scripture and a storybook Bible or a thematically related picture book? Or use scripture and video?  Then in setting up the questions keep at least some of them very open ended.  "I wonder..." questions work well for adults as well as children or "What would you do if..." If there are no right/wrong answers then it is possible for everyone to feel comfortable participating.  

I don't know, maybe you've already tried these things and they didn't work in your context.  If you haven't tried them, it may be a place to start.

If you do decide to move forward with this let us know how it goes and what you learned because I think you are right that many churches are struggling with answering that same question. 

I spent a fair amount of time looking at it and was blown away by what it can do and how user friendly it was.  I am curious if other similar programs exist that people are using.