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We 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
May 1, 2010 at 5:31 PM
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Be the first to comment on this postXtreme Hope
I've received lots of comments from last Sunday's worship and message, and especially appreciate the one comment in the foyer after the service, "that was so uplifting - it really gives us something to go on for this week!" I felt/feel the same way, as I am still buoyed up by last Sunday's worship time even as I'm preparing for this Sunday. Whatever we face, we have Xtreme Hope!
Another comment was that the sermon could have gone on for another "5-10 minutes" without feeling too long, so I thought I'd list here a few things that I could have included in that time:
- in the New Testament, the robe is a significant piece of clothing - so e.g., when the lost son returns home (which I preached on during Lent), he receives a new robe not just so he would have something nice to wear, but also as a symbol of new life. in the same way, the saints in Revelation wear white robes as a symbol of purity, forgiveness, new life
- at the beginning of Revelation 7, John describes the saints being "sealed" before their great trial; then in our text Revelation 7:9-17 he describes them after their tribulation as "the church triumphant." He does not actually show their martyrdom
- the verb tenses change throughout the text, indicating that this is not meant to be a chronology, but different images that are meant to wash over us
- "I know that trouble don't always last" is a gospel song that expresses the same xtreme hope as our Revelation text - whatever troubles we have in this life, they will not last since the time is coming where there will be no more hunger, no more tears
Please feel free to add a comment of your own here, or send your feedback to Maria Wiens, Worship Committee Chair
MCBC by the Numbers
This month's Connecting... newsletter includes a few reflections on the recent Mennonite Church British Columbia annual meeting. In addition, I was interested in some of the statistics that were provided.
As one Emmanuel member pointed out to me, according to MCBC stats, Emmanuel's average 2009 worship attendance of 230 is the third highest among the 31 churches of MCBC. By total membershp of 265, we are also the third largest church. Only three churches had a net membership gain for 2009, including Emmanuel with a net gain of 11. For a list of Emmanuel members who carry MCBC responsibilities, please see the issue of Connecting...which should be out this Sunday!
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!
I love Jesus better than ice cream
“I love Jesus better than ice cream” the children sang this Easter morning, and that line was in my mind all along as I prepared my sermon.
One of the ice cream stories that I thought of, but didn’t make it into my sermon in the end (and makes a better post script/commentary afterward anyway I think!) is a story I read about a man named John Harrison who tastes ice cream for a living. He’s the chief ice cream taster for Dreyers ice cream, responsible for developing new ice cream flavours (like Dreyers French Silk Slow-Churned Ice Cream that I’ve never had but would like to try some day), he trains ice cream tasters all over America, and his tongue is actually ensured for over $1 million. As an ice cream taster, he always tastes ice cream with a gold-plated spoon because wood, plastic, or other metals leave an after taste. He avoids caffeine, garlic, and spicy foods because they would interfere with his taste buds.
That got me wondering about our spiritual taste buds—whether we lose or damage our taste for spiritual things, whether we allow other things to interfere with our taste even for the good news of Easter. Just like eating too many chocolate bunnies dulls our appetite for dinner, maybe watching too much tv, or spending too much time on the internet, or just generally wanting to go our own way, can dull our longing for God and spiritual connection. That’s a good reason to be deliberate about giving up something for Lent or adding in a deliberate spiritual discipline. Just as John Harrison gives up caffeine so his taste for ice cream is at its best, we can give up something for Lent to sharpen our spiritual taste buds so to speak. And just as he deliberately uses a gold-plated spoon, we can deliberately use a daily quiet time or journaling or some other spiritual discipline.
So during--and now even after Lent--may our spiritual taste buds remain sharp so that we may “taste and see that the LORD is good; happy are those who take refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8). Happy Easter everyone!
Palm Sunday Revisited
As we were planning for last Sunday's worship, I kept thinking of it as the Sunday with a "cast of thousands" - the string quartet had grown to three times that, the children's feature had the children looking for a donkey all over the congregation, there was a palm branch processional with the Sunday school kids and teachers and parents...it was a wonderful celebration of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem!
Behind the scenes, there were some last minute glitches - like my coming into the sanctuary to find that the group of strings had become so large that they had sidelined the pulpit, but fortunately there was still time to move their chairs over to make room - and like my leading a Sunday school class and preaching that same morning which would have been fine, except that for some strange reason I wasn't able to print my sermon from my laptop so I had to do it from Roberta's computer at the last minute instead. But none of that took anything away from a very worshipful time - last Sunday was a real highlight which mirrored the very first Palm Sunday with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Journaling through Lent
This year, instead of giving up something for Lent, I decided to add teaching a 4-week course at Columbia Bible College on Journaling for Personal and Spiritual Growth. Like any other spiritual discipline, teaching this course took commitment and a regular investment of time, it put me in a place where God could work in a new way in my life, encouraged me to relate to God in a deeper way.
These four weeks have been a wonderful blessing:
- I've had the opportunity to reflect in a more disciplined way about spiritual discipline in general and journaling in particular
- I've experienced renewal in my own journaling practice - I've journaled more than usual in the last four weeks
- I've been prompted to explore new journaling techniques and resources, especially on-line resources that I was vaguely familiar with but never looked at closely before
- I've broadened my reading in the area of spiritual discipline and journaling
- in teaching, I found I also learned a lot and was encouraged by the small group of six participants. God is growing them and me!
Yet for all these blessings, I also feel a sense of relief that these four weeks are over--like savouring that first piece of chocolate after giving it up for Lent, or finally listening to music in the car after observing a Lenten discipline of silence. I'll miss teaching next week, but I'm also thankful that I'm not in the midst of preparing for another class! Instead, I look forward to gathering together as a church for a time of communion and remembering again the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus in the Lord's Supper.
Chocolate Carrot Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Ok, this is not really the most appropriate thing to be making during Lent, so for those of you who gave up chocolate or sugar or desserts during these weeks, my apologies and you'll just have to wait until Easter!
But I was scheduled to bring dessert for our deacon lunch meeting last Sunday, and I had this great recipe I've been wanting to try--a pretty easy recipe and quick to put together, and Gary says he thinks it's even better than my heavenly chocolate cheesecake :-)
Chocolate Carrot Cake with Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing
Stir together in a bowl: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut
In a large bowl: beat 3 eggs, and gradually blend in 3/4 cup sugar and 3/4 cup packed Demerara sugar. Add 3/4 cup vegetable oil and 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted. Stir in 3 cups grated carrots. Add flour mixture from the other bowl and mix.
Pour batter into a greased 13 x 9 inch pan. Bake at 325 deg F (160 deg C) for 35-40 minutes or until done. Let cool
Icing: mix 1/4 lb cream cheese with 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips melted and 1 cup icing sugar. Spread over cooled cake.
- adapted from a Canadian Living recipe - the original had raisins and a pinch of allspice (which I didn't want to buy just for this recipe) and regular brown sugar (which I usually substitute Demerara) and twice as much icing (which I cut down in part since I only had 1 cup of icing sugar and in part because I don't care for a lot of icing - but in the end I thought it would be easier to ice and look nicer with the larger amount!)
Sibling Rivalry?
Last Sunday's sermon on sibling rivalry got some interesting responses: I could see some nudging the person next to them on certain points; others told me stories about their own brothers and/or sisters after the service; some parents had questions about what it means to treat their kids equally since siblings have their own individual personalities and preferences, and treating them all the same isn't always fair either because the impact on each may be very different.
There are always more questions and more material than there is time for in a single sermon! That's why no sermon is ever really over when the sermon is over--instead, we need to mull things over, and talk about them, and do our own reading and research, and pray, and live things out, and allow God to continue to speak to us and guide us.
A few things that I had in my notes but that didn't quite fit in my sermon on Sunday:
- siblings impact one another and help to shape the kind of people we will be in adulthood
- gender, birth order, and the ages and number of children affect sibling relationships
- a healthy parent-child relationship can help to foster healthy relationships among siblings
- sibling rivalry needs good conflict resolution skills - respect; listening; sharing; positive communication instead of insults, yelling or hitting. Start early to teach children how to settle disputes.
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 . . . .
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