Special Sundays/Services
Stewardship Sunday: Serving, Sharing, Giving
Like many churches in our partner denominations (United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church), our church engages in an annual fall STEWARDSHIP CAMPAIGN. Over the years we have used many different methods: circuit rider, cottage meetings, every household visits, and Consecration Sunday. It is this last one, the Consecration Sunday model that we have used a number of times and the standard set-up is simple: our Stewardship Team: 1) picks a scripture verse, 2) develops a theme, 3) does some advertising around the church, 4) plans a...
read moreWorld Communion Sunday: Bread-Gift
In 2011, our church began a tradition on World Communion Sunday (1st Sunday in October) of giving BREAD-GIFTS to every family at the end of worship. The week before the service, we fill gallon size ziptop bags with the following: all of the dry ingredients for a basic french bread dough. We include enough for 2 standard sized boules (round loafs); the recipe with ingredient list (5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, 2¼ tsp instant yeast, 2 tsp salt, 2 cups warm water) and instructions. Here it is: a. Pour bread mix from the plastic bag into a...
read moreEverything on the Table: A Script for the Transformation of Gun Violence
This script was used a part of a closing devotional to end a three week ecumenical study about violence in general and gun violence in particular during Lent 2016. (NOTES: 1) The scripture reference below is Micah 4:1-4; 2) For this study we used a resource created by the United Methodist Church, titled “Kingdom Dreams, Violent Realities,” which accounts for some of the language you will see below. For this resource, click here.) The text below can be adapted for use in small groups, at a vigil, for a Sunday morning worship...
read more“Word-Play” Family Service
In our church, we hold “Family Services” about four times a year. These services are held during our normal Sunday morning worship time on the first Sunday of the month when we celebrate Holy Communion. On these days, we do not convene Sunday School but all ages worship together the whole time (nursery is still available). This pattern has given us permission every quarter to worship in different ways and to try new things. Some elements don’t work well. Some do though, and these often move into rotation within our more...
read moreExploring God’s Glory with Scouts & Communion
For Transfiguration Sunday In 2016, Scout Sunday and Transfiguration Sunday fall on the same day. Each year on Scout Sunday at our church a young scout is tasked with reading the Scriptures for the morning service. Likely because it comes every year, the transfiguration story feels like smooth vanilla – a good story but nothing out of the ordinary. Except that it is very out of the ordinary! Here is a fresh paraphrase of the transfiguration and following healing story that could breath new life into this wonderful Scripture and make it more...
read moreGratitude & Grief: Mother’s Day Litany
For this piece, I was struck by the complexity of our relationships with our mother’s and the mixture of gratitude and grief we sometimes experience on Mother’s Day. Users should feel free to update the references to current events as appropriate. Hymns cited are from the Chalice Hymnal. A LITANY FOR MOTHER’S DAY (based on Psalm 98) Leader: O sing to the Lord a new song, but sing the old songs too. Sing a song of remembrance: People: We remember the God who named and claimed us, and the mothers who read us Bible stories, and made us...
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