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Bulletin Bloopers
Every so often someone sends me some funny bulletin bloopers that have actually appeared in church bulletins over the years. e.g., The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.
Or, Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get. Or, Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
This week when I returned to the church office, I realized that there had been a bulletin blooper of our own. The bulletin looked fine, but if you actually read it, you may have noticed that all of the prayer requests were the same as the previous week! And there were a number of announcements about our Volleyball group, Childsafe, etc. that simply didn't make it in.
I hasten to add that none of this was the fault of our very competent church secretary who was unfortunately off sick on Thursday and Friday--and since I was already on my way to Victoria on the Friday as well, I wasn't able to look over the bulletin as usual before it was printed, so our temporary office help went ahead on her own as best she could and somehow skipped over all of my new announcements.
Fortunately though, Roberta is back in the office now and so am I, so stay tuned, and you'll see those announcements this coming Sunday!
May 11, 2010 at 4:09 PM
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Be the first to comment on this postWe have a dream
Last Sunday morning as part of our "Church Life"/Ask Your Council Member series in the banquet room, we heard some of the dreams of our Education Committee:
- that children would become so engaged in Sunday School that they would beg their parents to bring them
- that people might get so excited about teaching Sunday school that they would eagerly volunteer to contribute and use their gifts
- that youth who don't normally attend Sunday school might get connected - possibly with a youth band or by being involved with SonForce where the younger kids would benefit from their example and look up to them
- that the banquet room might be filled with adults wanting to learn
These are wonderful dreams--and yet they're much more as we also seek to put foundations under them:
- for the On The Way adult class: we've already started providing sound in the banquet room so all will be able to hear easily; this Sunday we will follow up on the suggestion to re-arrange the chairs to make the room more inviting so people can enter behind everyone already seated instead of at the front; between now and September, Allen has volunteered to convene a subgroup to plan a new On The Way schedule with a view to promoting and distributing it in advance; new ideas are being considered, like providing coffee and a place for fellowship or perhaps an informal praise and prayer time during Sunday school
- for the younger classes: we've already started SonForce and plan to continue that as a fun time of active learning; plans are underway to paint the upstairs hallway with colourful, inviting murals; curriculum is being reviewed as we explore a new pod format that will allow teachers to focus on areas of ministry that they especially love, allow other teachers to take a much needed break, and engage the kids with memorable songs, activities, and Bible stories
- for the library: we have dreams to make the library catalogue available online; to continue to provide resources from Mennonite Publishing that may be difficult to find locally elsewhere.
We are also still in need of a Chairperson for our Education ministry, so please join us in our dreaming and praying! If you sense that God might be calling you to this ministry, I'd love to hear from you at pastor@emmanuelmennonite.com
Planting Change - in worship
At Emmanuel’s annual meeting in January, we received a report from our Middle Age/Young Adult Task Force suggesting some kind of new church plant. Since then, others have been thinking more about what it might mean to plant change within the congregation.
There have been many changes since Emmanuel began as a congregation in 1981 – from rented premises, to building their own, to adding the sanctuary, and then adding a gym. From a single song-leader and pianist to the music teams we have today with piano, guitar, drums, and other instruments. From the occasional use of the screen to project a song to projecting all of our songs as well as an opening slide, sermon points, and illustrations. There have been many many changes over the years!
For this coming Sunday (April 25), some of us have been thinking about planting some change in our morning worship. The intention is not to try something new just because we've never done it that way before, or just because some other church is doing it that way. Instead, it's because we realize that many people come to worship distracted--for many, it's a challenge simply to get to church, and even when physically present, their thoughts may still be going in a million directions. So the intention with these changes is to minimize distractions as much as possible, to help draw all of us into worship and to be prepared to hear God speak to us.
To this end, we're working with an overall worship flow that might be described as a crescendo, where everything builds toward the message. Part of this flow includes:
- instead of verbally highlighting announcements during the service, there will be highlights projected on screen beforehand
- instead of listing all of the songs in the worship order, we will list some questions that relate to the sermon and leave some space in the bulletin so people can write their own notes
- the music team will begin our time of worship and stay at the front until the sermon to minimize movement to and from the stage - they'll call the children to the front to sing a song with them, and then have the children's feature take place in the Noah's Ark room
- instead of having the team come forward to lead us in a closing song, I will end my sermon with a prayer and words of challenge/sending/benediction to end our worship time
- there will be more music during transitions and also played softly underneath the prayers and Scripture to help provide continuity and keep people engaged
At this point, the plan is simply to try this for one Sunday, and then to reflect on our experience—how will these changes impact us? will they help to (re-)engage middle- and younger-aged adults? will they help us to be more focused, or will the changes themselves be a distraction? I’m excited to try something new, and look forward to what God is doing/will do among us!
How to Grow a Pastor
Recently I was asked to be part of the Mennonite Church Canada Strategic Plan Task Force for Pastoral Leadership Development - or more informally as I've begun to think of it, the How to Grow a Pastor Task Force.
What kind of training do pastors need? Is there a difference between training and education? What is currently being provided by our schools, and what else do we need from them? What is the role of the denomination, area conferences, and congregations? How do we train pastors for multicultural congregations? For congregations with different church structures?
We had our first "meeting" on Thursday morning--a conference call that brought together Task Force members across the country and both sides of the border. As with most other denominational meetings, we began with greeting one another, with Scripture, with prayer, but it feels very different doing that over the phone than in person! And since we couldn't see one another, as we began the discussion, we needed to say each time who was talking. So it was a different kind of meeting, but a good start to our work, and I'm looking forward to working together . . . .
SonForce
"Son" meaning Jesus and "Force" for the unique energy that children have--put them together and what does that mean? A fun-filled Sunday school time in our church gym!
Last Sunday (March 7) was our first SonForce, which is one of the many new initiatives of this year's Education Committee (Glenda, Allen, Lenora, and yours truly since we're still in need of an Education Committee chair - so please consider volunteering and/or put that on your prayer list if you haven't already!). For this first time, SonForce was mainly a fun, high energy time with lots of different games. Next time we hope to plan it around the Exodus from Egypt. So watch for SonForce - coming soon on May 30!
If you're interested, here are a few more details:
- this is a great opportunity to bring kids of different ages together - they learn to cooperate and help one another in a different way than remaining in their own separate age groupings
- this adds variety for all the children and is especially helpful for those who find it difficult to be in a classroom setting
- character formation and Christian nurture can happen not only in the classroom but also through active learning in the gym
- this relieves some of the pressure on individual Sunday school teachers, most of whom are parents with many demands on their time and energy
- we hope SonForce would encourage our kids to love coming to Sunday school and invite their friends
- so far, we're planning SonForce whenever there's a 5th Sunday in a Sunday school month, so for the rest of 2010, that means May 30 and Oct. 31
Questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you!
Following Jesus Changes People's Priorities
I loved this title for Shigali's sermon last week, because it was really a sermon in a title--following Jesus changes people's priorities!
Sometimes we're like the child who wanted to take too many toys and clothes and other things on the trip into outer space--we want to take many things with us as we follow Jesus. But just like that child, we need to consider our priorities.
I guess that's why I blog, and why I don't blog every day--I make it a priority to communicate and to have an on-line presence, and to be present and communicate off-line too. hope to see you soon!
What does suffering for Christ look like today?
Last night I was glad to meet with our K2 fellowship group to lead a discussion on "Jesus Calls: Believe in Me and Follow," which is the chapter I had written for the book, Jesus Matters.
It's been a long time since I wrote my first draft, but it was good to think through the subject once again, and to see it through new eyes--with a different perspective than me and my co-writer, Peter; a different perspective from the two editors, a different perspective from our young adult readers, a different perspective from the other groups and people I've talked to.
Our group discussion included the Matthew 4:18-25 account of Jesus calling his first disciples; the latest issue of the Canadian Mennonite; evangelism and peace and justice concerns in the Mennonite church; dealing with difficult people and other practical issues of daily life--all very much related to the central concern of God's call in our lives and following Jesus.
In response to the discussion question "what does suffering for Christ look like for us today?", there were a number of comments and stories--some comment on the reality of persecution and violence faced by some Christians; other comments on the cost of forgiveness and the challenge to follow Jesus in spite of criticism from others. One commented, is suffering for Christ not so much physical for us, but more psychological and spiritual? I'm still mulling that one over--what do you think?
A Full Plate
One of our church members made an important observation in response to my sermon last Sunday. "What you said applies to our personal lives too," she said. "There are so many opportunities, we need to have focus and make decisions, or our plate gets too full."
How do you make those decisions? I asked, and I was glad for the chance to talk about this on a very practical level. I also told her that I'm looking forward to Shigali's sermon this coming Sunday, because I think he may touch on some of this too--as we seek to follow Jesus, what do we need to drop? what do we need to pick up? what do we bypass? What does Jesus give us to carry?
I love having a full plate of ministry with people to see and things to do and places to go--but it needs to be the plateful that Jesus gives me to carry. I pray for good discernment for myself and for all of us.
Scrapbooking Our Prayers?
As I was praying at the Prayer Wall this morning, I thought again of how we might gather up all of the prayers/requests/praise items that have been posted.
I wonder if there might be someone(s) who enjoy scrapbooking that might be interested in making them into a prayer album? That could be another way to pray over the requests that have been made, another way to encourage our continued prayers--especially if we continue with the prayer wall in some form throughout this year. For now, we'll leave the Prayer Wall as is, with more items being added over the next few Sundays. But if anyone might want to volunteer to scrapbook our prayers, I'd love to hear from you!
Who's Who at Seminary
In the January AMBS eNews (a newsletter e-mailed by Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary), I was pleased to find a link that profiles two of our church members--Joon Park and Tim Froese, who are both studying at seminary this year, and both supported by our congregation through our Seminary and Continuing Education Fund.
Check out their profiles (listed on the left side of the window along with other student stories) at http://www.ambs.edu/admissions/why-choose-ambs/student-stories
Maybe someone else will be inspired by their stories--and consider whether God might be calling you or someone else from our congregation to seminary.
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