So, when life's busy, blogging falls short...Today however was blog-worthy.
While Pastor Mike was at a church planting conference and Julie and Emma visited her parents in Austin, TX, the vision team ran the service. It was cool to see everyone really get into preparing their part. The topic tonight was legalism. Steve and Luke brought us to the heart of worship musically. Josh prayed for us and ushered us into the spirit of the discussion. Wendy read the scripture dramatically and helped organize our brainstorming thoughts on a wipe board. Jason and Karen shared stories from their life experience. Laurie shared "The Apprentice's Prayer" an applied version of the Lord's prayer. The other Karen put together a slide show with text and images that focused us contemplatively on Communion. I thought it went relatively smoothly. But maybe that's just because I was nervous about doing the message. The one hiccup was trying to setup the second laptop. Some nerves got frazzled because of communication issues, but it seemed to smooth out eventually.
It was fun to watch us do it and realize that we could. In my welcome section, I made mention that in Mike's absence, "we are all ministers, one to another, a serving priesthood of believers. Tonight, it is our prayer, that we come together under the incredible vision God has put inside us: to Love Him and love each other well..."
The most incredible thing tonight for me was to see Jason, the two Karens, and Laurie step really far outside their comfort zones and make public contributions. It blessed me, touched me, really deeply.
So, the order of service was:
Welcome (Char)
Worship (Steve and Luke)
Prayer (Josh)
Scripture Reading (Wendy)
Personal Story (Jason)
Message/Context for discussion (Char)
Personal Story (Karen)
Brainstorming (Char & Wendy)
Time for Reflection with God
Lord's Prayer (Laurie)
Communion (Karen)
Announcements (Char)
Blessing (Matt)
I loved how everyone contributed. I think somehow this participation of believers to me at least seems closer to what the early church looked like. Believers being ministers one to another. Everyone bringing what they had to contribute and serving each other in love. It bothers me when church is authoritative or too vertically structured on a human scale.
Okay, so enough for tonight. As I can, I'll get segments of my message posted for y'all to have fun with...
