The faith practice of remembering centers our attention on what God has done in our lives, deepening our assurance that God is with us here and now, and expanding our hope and anticipation for what God will yet do.

Pick and choose from the ideas below to shape a worship service or plan a series. Also see our Worship Service on the Practice of Remembering and this list of Intergenerational Activities on the Faith Practice of Remembering.

Sermon Supports

• Foundational Essay: Remembering: Assurance, Hope, and Anticipation
• Bible passages 

  • Joshua 4:1-7—Remembering God’s acts 

  • Psalm 103—Remembering God’s goodness

  • Luke 22:14-20—Remembering Jesus’ sacrifice

  • Hebrews 11:1-12:2—Remembering those who have gone before us

• Recommended Resources from the Faith Practices Project

Music Suggestions

(We’ve indicated the songs from our hymnal Lift Up Your Hearts with “LUYH.”)

• “Behold the Lamb” by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, and Stuart Townend (LUYH)
• “Do It Again” by Elevation Worship
• “Don’t Forget to Remember” by Ellie Holcomb
• “Everlasting” by Brian Doerksen
• “God Sees the Little Sparrow Fall” by Maria Straub
• “Goodness of God” by Isaac Watts
• “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas O. Chisholm (LUYH)
• “How Great Thou Art” by Stuart K. Hine (LUYH)
• “I Will Remember You” by Brenton Brown
• “One Generation Will Call to the Next” by Greg Scheer (LUYH)
• “Parents, Tell Your Children” by Grace Hawthorne (LUYH)
• Psalm 103 songs — “Forget not all God’s benefits”
• “Remember” by Bryan and Katie Torwalt
• “Remembrance” by Hillsongs
• “The Blessing” by Elevation Worship
• “We Remember You” by Justin Unger
• “We Will Remember” by Tommy Walker
• “Your Grace is Enough” by Matt Maher (LUYH)
• “Your Mercy Flows” by Wes Sutton (LUYH)

Worship Ideas

Below you’ll find ideas that can be modified and woven into a worship service as a way for people to experience this practice. 

• Divide by three. Structure your worship service around these three parts:
  • Remember God’s faithfulness in the past.
  • God remembers us in the present.
  • In the future we can remember that God will continue to be faithful.

• Rewrite a psalm. Provide time for all ages to reflect on all their “blessings” (Psalm 103:1-2, The Message) and share them—verbally; printed on sticky notes and added to a “Remembering Wall”; written on a fabric banner; printed fill-in-the-blank style on an outline of the psalm, or some other way. Let children know that drawn reflections are also welcome! Responses could be shared during the same service or kept and used as a testimony for services to come.

• Connect to the sacraments. Lead a short service of baptismal remembrance and invite people to come forward to touch the water or to take a small “gemstone” from the basin. Use the question and answer format of a Lord’s Supper Liturgy from the Calvin Institute for Christian Worship. 

• Read a picture book. Use Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox to start a conversation about remembering. Connect the story to the present by bringing a basket containing a few reminders of God’s faithfulness in your life. After showing and telling about them, ask all ages, “What objects would go in your basket?”​​​​​​ 
  
  Don’t Forget to Remember by singer/songwriter Ellie Holcomb is another book that would work especially well with young children. 
• Use your feet. Provide paper foot shapes and writing tools. Invite all ages to remember places where their feet have been and how God was with them in those places. These could be shared in pairs or trios or hung on an “Oh, the Places We’ve Been (with God!)” wall. Connect this practice with a journey story from Scripture.
• Create a clothesline. Invite each person to contribute a cloth item that represents for them a memory of God’s faithfulness in their life. Clip the items to a clothesline strung along a wall, along with written descriptions of the memories represented. Share the stories during a worship service. Or ask for fabric scrap “memories” and piece them together to create a banner. (For inspiration, see Rev. Kari A. Olson’s TikTok 2020-7-16.) 

• Mark milestones. In addition to helping your church identify milestones, the book Celebrating Milestones of Faith: A Guide for Churches includes helpful ideas for worship. For additional inspiration on interactive ways to mark milestones, see Karen DeBoer’s Network post 5 Intergenerational Ideas for Marking a Return to Worship after a Pandemic. 

• For even more worship ideas, check the back issues of Reformed Worship—just enter “remembering” into the search function at ReformedWorship.org.

Take-it-Home Resources

Encourage and equip people to continue exploring this faith practice by providing them with a resource to take home. Some ideas: 

• Faith 5 bookmarks prompt daily remembering and reflection.
• Footprint-shaped notepads provide a reminder to notice and remember that God is with you every step you take.
• 5 Ways to Practice Remembering as a Family for households with children.
• The booklet Faith Practices: Holy Habits That Help Us Love God and Our Neighbor, Listen to the Spirit, and Become More Like Jesus. 

Digital Images You Can Use

Use these memes for PowerPoint presentations, social media shares, print pieces, and so on.