A weekly blog of Creative Ideas for Leading Worship
Worship as Weaving: Threads of Word, Music and Movement
How the act of weaving can reshape how we plan and lead worship
Why read this post
This reflection invites worship leaders to view services not as linear scripts but as beautiful woven works – where word, music, and movement are interlaced with care.
• • •
Good worship doesn’t always follow a straight line. It weaves.
It gathers words, music, movement, silence, image, prayer, and story – and interlaces them into something that holds together. Something with strength, texture, flow, and surprise. When we stop seeing services as a checklist and start treating them as tapestries, we create space for the Spirit to be more than just a guest – the Spirit becomes the weaver.
The image of weaving speaks directly to how worship comes together. It’s not just about sequencing. It’s about interlacing – letting one thread strengthen and echo another, letting the colours sit next to each other in intentional contrast or harmony.
Bill Wallace’s hymn We Are Moving expresses this beautifully. (Download the PDF sheet music of our arrangement of this hymn here: https://tinyurl.com/54b7wjcr)
Verse 3 opens:
We are weaving, we are weaving, weaving many sacred patterns...
In a whole that’s now emerging, to embrace creative crafting...
This “creative crafting” reminds us that worship is an act of communal artistry. We gather fragments – a Psalm, a story, a silence, a song – and ask, How might these threads belong together? The result is not a factory-produced programme, but a handwoven cloth of meaning and movement.
Here’s a creative way to embody this idea in worship:
Try a flax weaving activity
Bring strips of harakeke (NZ native flax) into your service. Lay them on a low table, or distribute small sets to individuals or groups. As the service progresses – during prayers, song, or reflection – invite people to begin weaving the strips together.
Give this activity purpose with a question like:
What threads are you bringing to our worship today?
What part do you play in the whole?
You don’t need to be an expert weaver – even simple overlapping patterns will create something visual and tactile. You could use the resulting mat as a visual centrepiece on your communion table, prayer station, or winter altar (See our post 32 — Winter Garden, Compost and Resurrection) Let it speak of the interconnection of the Body of Christ.
Weave the hymn itself
After weaving, sing the hymn We Are Moving as a response, paying particular attention to verse 3. It reinforces the metaphor and allows people to voice what they’ve just experienced with their hands and hearts.
• • •
Summary
Worship as weaving helps us rethink our role as leaders. We’re not performers or producers – we’re weavers of meaning. We listen, select, and combine with care. And we trust that the final fabric, held in God’s hands, will be stronger and more beautiful than we imagined.
Like the best weaving, meaningful worship is strong, textured, and full of grace – created when many threads come together in sacred rhythm.
Ngā mihi
Philip