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4 in 1: Creating Transformative Worship Experiences
The Worship Committee and the Center for Leadership Excellence will present four workshops in one day, 4 in 1, to equip you in your worship practices…
August 14, 2025 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm
*Doors open at 9:30 am
About the Day
Join us for a day that will equip you with insights about four worship-related topics. You will not only hear best practices, but we will invite you to share your experiences and expertise in table conversations, as you feel led. Clergy and laity are invited to attend!
Praying the Great Thanksgiving Like You Mean It with Lester Ruth, 10 am
The UMC’s worship resources provide theologically sound and aesthetically rich prayers for Communion. But even the most thoughtful prayers are only as good as the presider’s skill in getting their meaning across. In this session you will learn the main features and structure of the Great Thanksgiving. This will give you the freedom to preside in ways that go beyond reading the text, including the option to compose your own prayer.
Words of Hope: Preaching God’s Grace in Times of Grief with Lisa Yebuah, 11 am
The sacred task of writing and delivering a funeral homily is an opportunity to share God’s grace and the power of resurrection. This workshop will explore how to weave scripture and stories in ways that can both comfort those who grieve and honor their loved one.
The Liturgical Laboratory: AI as Co-Intelligence in Worship Creation with Cameron Merrill, 1 pm
This interactive workshop invites worship leaders to experiment with artificial intelligence as a meaningful aid in liturgical planning and creation. Grounded in a theology that embraces thoughtful innovation within sacred traditions, participants will explore how AI functions as a form of co-intelligence—enhancing human creativity and discernment rather than replacing it. Through live demonstrations, hands-on practice, and theological reflection, you’ll gain practical skills for crafting effective prompts, evaluating AI-generated content, and integrating these tools appropriately within your specific ministry context. Join us in this liturgical laboratory to discover how emerging technology can be faithfully stewarded to enrich worship while maintaining authenticity and theological integrity
Creative Worship Spaces with Rani Woodrow, 2 pm
We are all used to focusing on verbal proclamation of the Gospel. By using visuals, in addition to words, we can create a more in-depth worship experience and can make the Gospel even more accessible. In this hands-on session, we will begin by looking at prompts and will have you designing your own worship “altarscapes” in no time. We will also cover practical topics for worship design, such as how using visuals can be a tool in problem-solving for creating worship space, and how you can use worship visuals to encourage participation of lay members of your congregations. We also talk about some handy items to have in your inventory, and were to purchase them.
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About the Presenters
Lester Ruth
Lester Ruth has been a worship professor since 1998, teaching at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music and Divinity School, Asbury Theological Seminary, the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies, and, currently, Duke Divinity School. Prior to teaching, he was a pastor of four congregations in the Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. An author or editor of fourteen books, he most recently co-authored (with Lim Swee Hong) A History of Contemporary Praise and Worship. Lester describes himself as someone who went from being a pastor with an interest in worship history to a liturgical historian who maintains his pastoral sensibilities.
Lisa Yebuah
The Rev. Lisa Yebuah is Lead Pastor of the Southeast Raleigh Table, a United Methodist worshipping community in Raleigh. She’s a 1999 graduate of Wofford College and a 2004 graduate of Duke Divinity School. What fuels her life in ministry is seeing people become their best selves and, in turn, seeing the world become more just and collectively marked by liberation.
The Rev. Yebuah is deeply invested in the Raleigh community and works alongside organizations engaged in advocacy for affordable housing, a living wage, and equity in public education. She also currently serves on the Board of Advisors for the Southeast Raleigh YMCA and is a Lululemon ambassador for the Raleigh North Hills store.
Most would describe Lisa as a glutton for joy and a lover of people. She’s a self-professed party-starter, people-watcher, and admits to having a slight obsession with the enneagram and 90s R&B.
Cameron Merrill
Cameron is an ordained elder in the North Carolina Annual Conference, serving a congregation in historic Hillsborough, a colonial-era town occupying land that is first home to the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. He lives there with his spouse, four children, and an elderly dog. He is nearly done working on a PhD in systematic theology at the University of Aberdeen, under Prof Tom Gregg’s direction, and he teaches Methodist polity, spiritual formation, and mission at Duke Divinity School. Cameron is also the Editor for MinistryMatters & Leadership Resources with the United Methodist Publishing House.
Rani Woodrow
Rev. Rani Woodrow is a former attorney, turned pastor, who likes to say she went from law to grace. A native of Florida, she resided in North Carolina for 24 years before relocating to Frederick, Maryland. She received her undergraduate degree from Berry College, her Juris Doctor from Stetson University College of Law, a Masters of Laws in Taxation from Emory University School of Law, and a Masters of Divinity from Duke Divinity School.
Rani is an Elder in the North Carolina Conference, where she served in a variety of settings during her 20 years in appointive ministry, including as an associate pastor in a large urban church, as pastor of two small-town churches on a 2-point charge, as pastor of a mid-sized congregation in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, and as pastor of a small rural church. While in seminary, she also had field education experiences in urban ministry and in a new church start. She is currently serving on loan with the Baltimore-Washington Conference, and is pastor of the Hagerstown Charge.
Rani has been a longtime member of the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts and currently serves as co-chair of the NC Conference Worship Team. She has a passion for both worship planning and visual worship design, and has been responsible for creating the worship visuals for the NC Annual Conference sessions for several years. In addition to her work with the NC Conference Worship Team, Rani has previously served on several district and Conference committees and boards in North Carolina, including the Corridor District Committee on Ordained Ministry, the Capital District Committee on Building and Church Location, the Rocky Mount District Connectional Table, the Conference Board of Institutions, the Conference Sexual Ethics Response Team, and the Conference Committee on Investigations.