Understanding God’s Will in a Text Message World :: Part 4 August 29, 2008

This past Sunday night we unpacked more of God’s will for us: He wants us to be filled with JOY!  We looked at 1 Thessalonians 5:17-19.  We’re called to be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances.  We went with a more standard “contemporary” feel for the night.  

 SO, we brought in a guest speaker – my dad!  He shared his story with us.  A long one, full of ups and downs as God got a hold of his heart.  He gave us an Anxiety Questionaire to help us think about where we let stress, worry and fear get in the way of God’s joy.  Through the chapters of his story we worked through the Great Good News for all of us – that a new life of contentment, of communication with the Maker of the Universe, of thanksgiving in the midst of every situation is possible!  We sang some joy-filled songs to our God of all joy – Undignified, Trading my Sorrows, Fields of Grace & Happy Day.  We went a little long, so we cut out a thanksgiving exercise and a video of our kids (shot during Sunday School) telling us what they’re thankful for.  It was a good night!   

Here are our current prayer requests.  Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space drop boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Patrick Dodd is being medically discharged from the army – he’s ok, but will need prayer moving forward as he moves on to plan C.

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work, so pray also that they can figure out the logistics of how this will work. 

Understanding God’s Will in a Text Message World – part 3 August 18, 2008

Tonight we explored another facet of God’s will for us: He longs for us to do good; to use the gifts, energy and time we have to love those around us while creating a lifestyle of good work in our world.  SO, we invited a few folks who have chosen to ”do good” for a living to be on our “panel of experts”.  Then we had a casual Q&A with the congregation.  The panel: Sue Mason, a Catoosa county social worker; Bobby Hanson, director at Christ Chapel – our local foodbank and clothes closet; and Mike Feely, director of the St. Andrew’s Center in Chattanooga that does all sorts of great things for people in need.  They were wonderful and shared from the heart about how God is using them to reach out in love to some of God’s most cherrished children. 

A couple months ago we were doing a series about how the world is broken.  We said that John Mayer might be waiting on the world to change, but we’re not waiting.  Each week we talked about different aspects of the brokenness and thought about what we could do to make a difference.  We wrote on diecuts (paper shapes of different colors) our hopes and prayers about doing those things, about making a difference now that would change things for the better, and we offered them to God (it was an ongoing art project of sorts.)  I say all that because tonight we passed out those diecuts (which I had saved knowing tonight was coming).  I reminded everyone of the series – talked about how tonight was giving me flashbacks to much of what we had talked about in those weeks.  So then we encouraged everyone to take one of the diecuts - each representing someone’s prayer for doing good in the world – and asked them to pray for that person and their ambitions for good work. 

Then we lifted our voices to God in song.  Unashamed by Starfield, Here I am to Worship by Tim Hughes and Oh Praise Him by David Crowder.  John Wesley’s words were our closing benediction:  And now, may the God of all good inspire you to do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, to all the souls you can, in every place you can, at all the times you can, with all the zeal you can, as long as ever you can.  AMEN!

Here are our current prayer requests.  Anyone can ask for prayer, just let me know!  You can talk to me or drop one of our prayer request cards in the worship space drop boxes.  Please keep these things lifted up:

:: Patrick Dodd is at bootcamp – he has lots of life stuff happening in addition to that – pray for him!  He actually had to come home for some health issues he’s struggling with.  He’s going back this week.

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  Her treatments continue.  She travels about an hour away for them and has to spend the night – she also has 2 small children and her husband has to work, so pray also that they can figure out the logistics of how this will work. 

Revelation August 16, 2008

Every week I feel guilty about not blogging, and every week I seem to have no original thought worth typing, so the job moves farther down my to do list until I quit writing it down altogether.  But I realized today what would be worth my time each week…

A Water’s Edge Report.

So the new plan is I’ll tell you what we do each week at The Water’s Edge.  Maybe the ideas will be helpful for those working on designing worship experiences.  Maybe not.  But I’ll be optomistic for now and hopefully more motivated.

So to get started, I’ll tell you what happened last week.  We are in the middle of series called “Understanding God’s Will in a Text Message World”  The big idea last week was that God’s will is for us to journey with him, one step at a time, and that as we faithfully move with him, we will also become more aware of the big picture that we long for…eventually. 

I used my favorite quote:  Roy Rogers once said, “even if you’re on the right track, you’re going to get run over if you just stand there.”

So we had shoes all around the room.  We had three different saints from very different stages in their lives come up and share a short testimony of the steps they are taking with God.  One shared about beating cancer, one about looking for a new job and one who is trusting God through some health issues.  They each held up a shoe that metaphorically represented their steps.  My favorite was the barbie shoe representing Toni’s ”baby steps” - great job!  Then 5 other saints came up and held up a shoe that represented their steps: and we invited the congregation to divide into discussion groups by going to the shoe that they most related to.  In their discussion groups people shared their steps and struggles and understanding (or not) of God’s will.  They really got into it.  As a response piece, we handed out card stock post-its and sharpies.  I figure when I have something to do, I have to give myself a reminder and usually leave myself a note.  We asked that everyone write down a note to themselves about what their next step is with God.  We asked that they put it somewhere so they will be reminded to “keep moving” with or without an understanding of the big picture.  We came back with some singing and people partnered up and prayed for each other’s steps in closing.

It was a great night!  God was there, and 4 new guests that all had a powerful experience of His love.  What an awesome job I have!  Peace <>< Tina.