How was church today?

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Some quick aches can leave a take towards quaking in your soles ... them 'd be the payees causing the sole to awake ... when you find self shorted for the work done and thus on your way to fading out ... tis the duty of secessionists! They have a passion to succeed and little humility ... leaves some giggling like the waters of Babylon flowing away ... then the arid season ... heated stuff on the lam ... thus varied sheep evolve ... it is said everything (God) like diversity ... and the powerful hate it stresses their abstract parts!
 
Waterfall said:
I did forget to mention that the service also included praying with those who have been affected negatively by acknowledging mothers day....they were literally embraced and prayed for.
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I'm glad to read this. I worry on Mother's Day that often those who are grieving, or grew up with abusive or ill parents, or lost/are separated from their children or mothers for whatever reasons are not considered in terms of how the overall message is delivered. Sometimes I think we lack that sensitivity in favour of the 'hallmark' versions of mothers & mothering.
 
Carolla said:

I'm glad to read this. I worry on Mother's Day that often those who are grieving, or grew up with abusive or ill parents, or lost/are separated from their children or mothers for whatever reasons are not considered in terms of how the overall message is delivered. Sometimes I think we lack that sensitivity in favour of the 'hallmark' versions of mothers & mothering.
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Thus the cultivator of wisdom is lost for the sake of powers .. a corrupt directive? Lord Alton on polity! Let the dance begin, or the dense, as you prefer ... if not wishing to know ... a gnosis? Thus mists in the far parts ... nebulous even ...
 
Big surprise today: the congregation clapped after we sang our anthem! They don't do that very often, so somehow the music was particularly moving. We sang "You Raise Me Up" -- a really nice version for a choir that doesn't have super high sopranos.
 
Great church service today at a local pentecostal-type church. Lots of great music, and exciting, excellent music. Lots of hand raising, swaying, some speaking in tongues, and two altar calls.
 
Nancy said:
Big surprise today: the congregation clapped after we sang our anthem! They don't do that very often, so somehow the music was particularly moving. We sang "You Raise Me Up" -- a really nice version for a choir that doesn't have super high sopranos.
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Strange coincidence. We had one of our couple of resident "pretty reliable high" sopranos do that as a solo, today, instead of a choir anthem. There was just one little screech; it wasn't too bad. She definitely got applause!

I was projecting today. We have a problem in our sanctuary that I got to watch from a different perspective. We've got a new guy doing collection on the right hand side. He happens to be an elderly, pretty limited intellectually, retired farm hand that we 'inherited' from the closing of the closest rural UCC. He is so proud to be doing what he's doing and we want to fit him in most successfully. We have a wyrd sanctuary that is identical on right and left in that it has two "half aisles" further splitting the right and left of the sanctuary from the back. So, what's going on is that, somehow, the left hand side behaves more naturally co-operatively than the right hand side. Don't even think that there's an 'older/newer' member bias here. But the grand piano is on the co-operative side, the pulpit on the less co-operative side.
 
crazyheart said:
@Jae, what is an altar call?
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"An altar call is a tradition in some evangelical Christian churches in which those who wish to make a new spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ are invited to come forward publicly. It is so named because the supplicants gather at the altar located at the front of the church building." - source: Altar call - Wikipedia

One of the altar calls today was for anyone who wanted to gather before God at the altar. The other was for anyone especially feeling the need to be in any way strengthened by God.
 
Sermon was about Paul being grumpy with the folks in Athens for worshiping the way they did. Had the idea from the sermon that Rev. John was in agreement with Paul. I kind of see it from the Athenian side myself as place matters to me. I like the sanctuary and the various architectural features of the sanctuary and I like the pipes in the pipe organ. Anyway the choir did Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" which made attending worship worthwhile. And after worship I went out for a 64 km bike ride and that was freeing and spiritual. Then went home and spent a few hours in the lawn chair reading an inspiring novel by Kaya McLaren.
 
The stone from which Paul berated the Athenians is an interesting word ...

Our minister also alluded to Both Sides Now as stereo vision allowing depth and some of the choir members hummed the toonei ... in things of essence ... Adept perception is critical ... to know the spark is still there to set things aflame ... 'Ellenistic mode ... includes the strange on things of wonder to the flat out stuck by Asclepius Rod ... if the dogs didn't heel they would be beat down into a healthy position by the Top Dogs ... Alphas?

Rod of Asclepius - Wikipedia

Thus thoughts remain underhanded ... hypo ... or subtle to the emotionally preserved ...

They're in dire some where's ...
 
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Really enjoyed church today. Attended the worship service of a small evangelical community church down on the Lakeshore here in Toronto. Good music led by a soloist on guitar. Really friendly, warm people - a great time. Fun fellowship and pizza lunch afterwards. I preached from Romans 8:18-23 on the responsibility to take good care of everything that has been made in the world. I really love this church, and would happily go there regularly if not for the fact that it's a 50-minute trip each way via transit.

Next week, I'm checking out the local Evangelical Lutheran church service as I continue my "church-shopping."
 
Well . . .

I've had tidier.

Information I copied for certain members went missing sometime between when I set it out Friday night and when we arrived this morning. I suspect it was just zealous volunteer custodians. But it means that I didn't have ready what I promised would be ready so I wear that.

This morning service went off the rails as soon as the announcements started. Some of that I will own and some of it was last minute information offered in a rush which needed some correction. I thought we could get back on track once we had dispensed with the announcements so I cheerfully announced a hymn number from one of our hymn resources. At this point I'm taking the information straight out of the bulletin. Turns out the Hymn we wanted to sing is not at that number, nor is it in that hymn resource. But by then we are singing because it is an old chestnut we know but I know if we don't correct hat by the time we get to the third verse it is going to sound like somebody died.

Things settled down very quickly after that.

Offeratory Hymn was seven verses with choruses. I think the Ushers would have loved a heads up on that. They stood there waiting for me forever and the verses just kept coming and coming and coming.

No glitches or hiccups after that.

And nobody apparently was upset or offended as much as I was mortified. Fortunately I handle this kind of thing with some grace.

Second service in the afternoon begins without a musician being present. We have a volunteer who decides she is going to play the antiquated pump organ with foot bellows. It probably hasn't been played once in the 14 years since I first left this pastoral charge and I know nobody played it at all during the five years I was here. It worked slightly better than we all expected but not well enough that we found it helpful.

Member agrees to go and get his electronic keyboard for the volunteer to play. Says this will take a few minutes.

Wanting to honour time commitments we proceed with the order of service skipping musical pieces until our music arrives, which we think will be shortly. We run the whole order of service and I deliver my sermon before the member who went to get his electric organ returns. We fly through the musical pieces and I offer the benediction. Then they remind me that I forgot to take up the offering.. So we do that and there is nothing left in the order of service to do.

They have not had a service since the minister suddenly departed in early February so they are just happy to have me there and that services will happen regularly at least until the end of my appointment in August.

We laughed about the very "rough" feel of the service and I have promised them that the next will feel less hap-hazard.
 
I wish I'd been there revjohn! I love services that offer little surprises, mixed with a good deal of grace (and forgiveness). My glitch today was after the children's story, when I said, "So, do you want to say a prayer before you go to Sunday School?" The answer was: No. So we didn't pray. Interestingly enough, my message for the adults was about prayer.
 
Jae said:
Next week, I'm checking out the local Evangelical Lutheran church service as I continue my "church-shopping."
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I'm interested to hear what you say. Dad was ELCIC for last couple decades of his life so I had some peripheral contact with them (his last wedding, his funeral, him talking about work he did in his church). Probably too conservative for me.
 
Didn't actually attend a service today; but on driving home from Conference meeting in the morning sunlight, Birthstone & I encountered some Water Walkers - First Nations people walking water - often around the perimeter of the Great Lakes - in a sacred act of respect for the water and the earth. So we slowed the car to a slow pace, passed with respect and gratitude for the remarkable efforts of the First Nations people to help us attend to environmental and water issues. It was made more poignant by having participated in the Kairos Blanket Exercise last evening, with about 200 people joining in - powerful & moving time. So these encounters were my sacred moments.

And of course, add to this Youth Forum leading worship yesterday morning; and going to the ordination & commissioning service yesterday afternoon for 6 ministers entering or joining our United Church.
 
Mendalla said:
I'm interested to hear what you say. Dad was ELCIC for last couple decades of his life so I had some peripheral contact with them (his last wedding, his funeral, him talking about work he did in his church).
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Interesting stuff Mendalla. Yet, you weren't attracted to becoming part of the denomination? What led your Dad to join and to eventually leave?

Mendalla said:
Probably too conservative for me.
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I'm thinking probably too liberal for me. :D
 
Jae said:
Interesting stuff Mendalla. Yet, you weren't attracted to becoming part of the denomination? What led your Dad to join and to eventually leave?
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He didn't. He was ELCIC when he died (you didn't notice that I mentioned one of my encounters was his funeral?) though with his dementia, he hadn't done more than attend services for a while before. I was already UU (or en route, at least) when he joined so it was never an option I considered. Dad, like me, grew up in the UCCan and remained there until he remarried, long after I was an adult and married myself.
 
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