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How to begin? Depending on the size of your group, you can break into subgroups of from one to three people with each group taking on one of these elements of worship:

The Setting: If your small group is planning a special worship time, one group can select a place to meet and prepare it for worship. This could include arranging a room and the seating in it, making a worship center or designing and making a banner.

Scripture: One group can prepare creative ways to present the Scriptures that will be read during worship. The presentation could include art, drama or successive readings to engage the group members in the Bible.

Prayer and Praise: This group can find unique ways to approach worship. Plan different ways of praying (in unison or responsively). How about writing a group Psalm or writing praises on balloons and then tossing them into the air all at once? One small group split into two subgroups, one on each side of a lake, and then shouted a responsive reading back and forth across the water.

The Benediction: Another group can look for ways to help the group members take something away from the worship time with them. They might pronounce a formal benediction (which means a blessing) with a specific charge to the members for the next week. Or they might pass out a card to each member containing words of a prayer they've written. This group could also sing the rest of the group a song of blessing as the worship time draws to an end.

Other Elements: Many other elements can go into planning a good worship service. More elaborate plans (special forms of multi-ethnic music, mime, drama, dance and more) are appropriate when the small group is large or else joins with another small group for worship.

Any small group which worships regularly together has plenty of opportunity to be creative. Use your group's natural inventiveness to brainstorm ways to include every member in preparing to worship God.