How was church today?

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We had a funny message today about terrorism and dark clouds over Gae Lillies pool ... included with statistics on there being 366 biblical expressions on "having no fear" ... terrorism is normal to many powerful leaders preferring tyranny as a leader!

Defined corruption ...
 
Mrs.Anteater said:
why is it that people who wear hearing aids often seat themselves in the pew at the very back of a church?
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That was never my experience at the UU fellowship. The one elder gentleman who used to put his own mike up on the front table before we got the sound system with hearing aid support always sat up front. But I know that in conventional churches I have been in, it has tended to be the young families at the front. We sit near the front usually, but that's for lighting rather than sound.
 
Church on Sunday was delightfully different. Three United church congregations got together to hear our new moderator, Richard Bott. Then during the afternoon we got together again for an interactive time.
I introduced myself to him, having never met him before in person, and I told him that I felt like I really knew him from Wonder Café in the early days. He asked me my user name and when I told him, his face lit up and he shouted, Seeler! Seeler it's good to meet you in real life. We shook hands and answered a few minutes. I told him how much I appreciate his poetry and received permission to use a remembrance poem of his when leading worship this Sunday.
So glad to have met him.
 
Rev Dr. Malcolm Sinclair was a great speaker for our anniversary service last Sunday. Nice provocative sermon (about "signs"), dynamic, funny, a presence. He writes a poem every morning. At the potluck lunch afterwards, I was sitting with the man he'd stayed with on Saturday night, a lovely relatively new member, an 80-ish retired doctor from Toronto. Malcolm had written a poem for them on Sunday morning, and he shared it; it was really cool.
 
BetteTheRed said:
Rev Dr. Malcolm Sinclair was a great speaker for our anniversary service last Sunday. Nice provocative sermon (about "signs"), dynamic, funny, a presence. He writes a poem every morning. At the potluck lunch afterwards, I was sitting with the man he'd stayed with on Saturday night, a lovely relatively new member, an 80-ish retired doctor from Toronto. Malcolm had written a poem for them on Sunday morning, and he shared it; it was really cool.
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What was his text for his sermon?
 
Lectionary. Referred to both the Habakkuk passage (noting the rather violent omitted passages in the lectionary choice of passages) and the Zaccheus story in Luke.
 
Seeler said:
Church on Sunday was delightfully different. Three United church congregations got together to hear our new moderator, Richard Bott. Then during the afternoon we got together again for an interactive time.
I introduced myself to him, having never met him before in person, and I told him that I felt like I really knew him from Wonder Café in the early days. He asked me my user name and when I told him, his face lit up and he shouted, Seeler! Seeler it's good to meet you in real life. We shook hands and answered a few minutes. I told him how much I appreciate his poetry and received permission to use a remembrance poem of his when leading worship this Sunday.
So glad to have met him.
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I think I saw you - at least from the back! - in a photo on Richad's fb page :-) Glad you got to have a chat with him.
 
We had a good church service today, after which our pastor announced his stepping down. He's next to plan a miracle crusade. Our new pastor is younger and more conservative. He preached today. It must have been a challenging day for each of the pastors. At snack time, I led the congregation in prayer for our new pastor and his wife.
 
Jae...that was a very thoughtful thing to do. It is wonderful when ministers know they are supported, and prayed for. I've been feeling the weight of expectations lately, when leading church services. First, so many people seem to complain about their ministers. (If I am the one they are complaining to, I quickly change the subject without making any comment). Second, as a LLWL, I enter a community trying my best to deliver a meaningful and teaching message, but sometimes it is misinterpreted. Twice, in the last two months, people have walked out during the message I delivered. Today, I delivered a Remembrance Day message. Most people said that they found it touching and meaningful. But one person commented on the length of the service (reading of the roll, bugle playing, placing poppies, singing O Canada, reading In Flanders Field...all extras that added to the time). And one person walked out during the sermon, walked back in for the reading of the roll, kept standing when others were seated, and tried waving to get someone's attention...not sure who. Then she refused to shake my hand as she exited. Sigh. I'm sure ordained ministers have figured out a way to deal with the negative, and not let it get to them. Prayers definitely help!
 
Nancy said:
Jae...that was a very thoughtful thing to do. It is wonderful when ministers know they are supported, and prayed for. I've been feeling the weight of expectations lately, when leading church services. First, so many people seem to complain about their ministers. (If I am the one they are complaining to, I quickly change the subject without making any comment). Second, as a LLWL, I enter a community trying my best to deliver a meaningful and teaching message, but sometimes it is misinterpreted. Twice, in the last two months, people have walked out during the message I delivered. Today, I delivered a Remembrance Day message. Most people said that they found it touching and meaningful. But one person commented on the length of the service (reading of the roll, bugle playing, placing poppies, singing O Canada, reading In Flanders Field...all extras that added to the time). And one person walked out during the sermon, walked back in for the reading of the roll, kept standing when others were seated, and tried waving to get someone's attention...not sure who. Then she refused to shake my hand as she exited. Sigh. I'm sure ordained ministers have figured out a way to deal with the negative, and not let it get to them. Prayers definitely help!
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Thank you Nancy. What I did when I preached was to be thankful for the appreciative people and to pray for any who didn't seem content. Many times those in the latter group (and possibly some in the former) are dealing with their own issues and so aren't happy with the message delivered unto them. God bless you Nancy as you continue in ministry.
 
Well, we had the Lt. Gov of NL in attendence. She is a member of George Street United but has a fairly busy schedule.

We also had the top brass in NL of the RCMP which was the biggest police presence in a while.

We also had top brass from the Coast Guard in attendence.

It was a busy service with dignitaries present and the act of Remembrance as well as the reading of the war dead from both Wesley United and George Street United.

The sermon basically the rough draft above was fleshed out with a personal anecdote about my Uncle who served in RAF 619 squadron and was 1 of 2 in the 8 man crew to survive the entire tour. The other was the tail gunner which is mighty impressive.

I hear that VOWR recorded and broadcast the service so I'm looking for a link to the service.
 
Had a great time of worship today. The pastor gave a rock-solid message. and we sang one of my favorite praise songs, "Wonderful Merciful Savior."

After service, a small group of us went to another church to celebrate with them. They're a multicultural church but with most people there from the Philippines. How cool it was, I was a Canadian, in South Korea, with a group of people from around the world, gathered to celebrate American Thanksgiving. God is so great at bringing people together. We had a short worship time with singing, and then people took turns giving testimonies. Those of us who gave the testimonies were entered into a draw to win prizes. Dinner was great - roast turkey with all the trimmings. It was such a fun night, I'm very thankful.
 
Wesley-Knox today. They are now "between ministers" so a lay member who is fairly well-known in the London community (director of the food bank, a brief flirtation with federal politics) is doing the preaching and their former minister is back providing assistance, leading communion, etc. Not sure what went down. I liked the minister they've had the last few years but obviously someone decided it was time to move on. Not sure if it was her or them.

Anyhow, the minister led the service, doing the prayers, children's story, etc. Felt a bit weird seeing him up there again given that we were at his farewell service when he retired from W-K not that many years ago but he's good, solid minister who does a good job. The lay member preached a long, rambling, but damn fine sermon. Basic theme was that it's not the physical, public form that matters, but the relationship to God and each other (riffing off Jesus' teaching about prayer in Matthew 6:5-6, “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."). He went all kinds of places with it, though. The music, as always at W-K, was excellent.

They had a hymn sing before the actual service, too, with the minister "moderating" and inviting members to just call out numbers from VU, then the choir would lead the congregation in singing the first two verse of whatever hymn was called. Sang several old favorites that way.
 
Oh, and one interesting thing I've noted at W-K. They don't do announcements in the bulletin anymore. Instead. they have made their newsletter weekly (currently bearing the original name "Our Weekly Newsletter" but they are inviting people to suggest better ones) and available by email or online. There are paper copies in the church, too, but they are really encouraging anyone who can to read it online saving money and paper.
 
Mendalla said:
Oh, and one interesting thing I've noted at W-K. They don't do announcements in the bulletin anymore. Instead. they have made their newsletter weekly (currently bearing the original name "Our Weekly Newsletter" but they are inviting people to suggest better ones) and available by email or online. There are paper copies in the church, too, but they are really encouraging anyone who can to read it online saving money and paper.
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I think a lot of churches have abandoned printed-out announcements. Ours are just shared from the front near the end of the worship service and/or in a group chat we have on a messaging system.
 
Jae said:
I think a lot of churches have abandoned printed-out announcements. Ours are just shared from the front near the end of the worship service and/or in a group chat we have on a messaging system.
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I wish that were true around here but announcements pages are only just starting to out of vogue, at least in the UCCan congregations. I get the idea of trying to promote church activities and events in service, but they are generally already getting announced (there were probably six or seven announcements from the front this morning) so I think having them available at the back or online is enough. Keeps the bulletin small, too. Just a folding legal size sheet.
 
Funnily, the minister at W-K mentioned preaching at a covenanting service or something like that this aft. Same one, I wonder?
 
We went to Brechin United today. The service was excellent. The music was great and the congregation friendly. I liked one thing the minister said in particular. It's function not fashion. Love that.
 
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