The EPA&GNJ 2024 Breakthrough Worship Series outlines are now available online and ready for you to explore at www.breakthroughseries.org/2024. This free, creative and comprehensive resource will help you plan six faith-inspiring worship series throughout the year. The series relate to the various calendar and Christian seasons of our year.
Each thematic series includes sermon starters, liturgies, song and hymn suggestions, graphics and videos, small-group study curricula and mission ideas. And for the first time, we recruited and worked with writers and contributors from both the EPA and GNJ conferences. Also, a new Stewardship-focus series will again be added by the summer.
Breakthrough is an indispensable, adaptable resource. It is designed to provide easy-to-use best practices so that congregations can retune their worship, spend less time preparing details, and focus on what really matters: sharing the gospel in many ways to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world.
Browse our Breakthrough series library
Just browse our series library. Or check out the suggested worship calendar. Click on a series to download and use the materials. Contents for the first and current New Year’s series, Roots, are all downloadable now. Contents for the ensuing series are being completed and will be available before each new season begins.
Take and use what works. Rewrite or skip what doesn’t. The goal is to save pastors and worship planners 10 hours of work each week. The goal is to help leaders in churches to learn, grow and serve well.
Don’t miss this opportunity to bring fresh, timely, uplifting energy and perspectives into your services with Breakthrough!
Take a tour of what Breakthrough has to offer you!
New Year: Roots
Nourished by the spiritual legacy of our faith
Roots give us the stability and nourishment we need to grow and break new ground. As we seek to grow in our faith as individuals and as the church, looking back at the deep roots of the Methodist movement can help us look forward to our future. More than mere traditions or rituals, our Methodist roots are evidence of God’s Spirit moving through our history, the same Spirit who is breathing life into us today.
Lent: Through the Valley
Wandering through our wilderness with God
Just as Jesus wandered in the wilderness for forty days, so too can we feel like we are wandering in the wilderness, as we face hardships, grief, temptations, and injustices. This Lent, we will discover what it means to wander these parts of life in honesty with God through the practice of lament. We will learn how crying out to God in our need can help us to fully embrace what it means to be human beings held and loved by a God we can trust. We will learn that even through the darkest valleys, Jesus both goes ahead of us and walks with us.
Spring, Easter, Eastertide: A New Creation
New life for all of creation
This spring, as we embrace the new life given to us in Jesus, let us expand our vision to realize that this new life is not only spiritual and not only human, but a new life for all of creation. We will explore our place in God’s wide creation and our special responsibility to care for the earth. As the environment suffers, we are called to take courageous action that reflects God’s plan for the flourishing of all creation.
Summer: On Purpose
What is God’s purpose for me?
Trying to discover the purpose of our lives can lead to a lot of questions. Who am I? Why am I here? What does living with purpose look like? Often, the world is all too ready to give us answers, promising that finding the perfect job or achieving the next milestone will make us happy. But in this series, we will embrace the questions as an invitation to discover what it is that God wants to do with the story of our lives.
Fall: Created for Connection
Connecting with God and one another
Observing the widespread and severe effects of social disconnection on Americans’ health, Dr Vivek Murthy (Surgeon General of the United States) says that “loneliness and isolation represent profound threats to our health and well-being.” This reality reflects what our faith already teaches us: God created us for connection and community. Drawing on the experiences of the early church in our Scriptures, let us relearn how God leads us into lives of meaningful relationship with Godself and one another.
Advent, Christmas, Winter: Gift Exchange
The greatest gifts from the greatest giver
Life hands us difficult experiences that weigh us down: despair, anxiety, regret, darkness, and feelings of meaninglessness. In the midst of all this, God holds out precious and life-giving gifts: hope, peace, joy, love, light, and purpose. During this Advent season, as we prepare for gift exchanges with friends and family, we will reflect on the gifts given to us by the greatest giver of all and how we can receive and embrace those gifts even in the most difficult of times.