2008 Blessing of the Animals November 25, 2008

Sunday was a great night!  Traditionally celebrated on the feast day of Saint Francis (first weekend in Oct), lots of churches have a special service to celebrate the love between people and their pets.  We have done this a few times at our church.  And this year decided to have The Water’s Edge host it.   

The weather was a little too chilly for our outside plans, so we met in our normal worship space.  We set up a couple “clean up” stations just in case of accidents – we’ve got stained concrete in there, so no problem! 

We started the night with some live bluegrass – Randall Franks brought a group together to play – THEY WERE AWESOME!  It was the perfect back drop for the fellowship we had.  I put random “get to know each other and share your pet story” questions up on the screen, so people just mingled around and did that.  We had all dogs and one cat.  There were a few barking moments, but overall everyone was very calm! 

After 15 or so minutes of that we opened with some liturgy from the Book of Worship for such an occasion.  Then sang a song with a scaled down band - Your Love is Amazing (the blue grass guys played along – very fun!).  Then John brought a short message about the love of our pets and how God’s love can be powerfully displayed through that medium.  We sang one more song – You’re Worthy of My Praise (vintage 1986 stuff!  We were going for simple and easy to sing!).  Then the blessings began.  Families came forward with their animals one at a time, John said a prayer of blessing over the animal and them, while David Crowder sang ”All Creatures of our God and King” in the background.

We gave out dog treats at the doors as people left.  There were folks present without animals, who just came to enjoy the experience – except that one couple who were expecting a normal night at the Water’s Edge – but they still stayed!  Here are some of my favorite photos:

Us singing - the most calm the animals were all night.

Receiving the blessing

So that was fun!  Next week we start our Advent Series – Let it Be Christmas: A story told by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul, George & Ringo.

Here are our prayer requests this week:
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:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - in treatment for breast cancer.  Her surgery on Tuesday went well!  She still has LOTS of treatment ahead though – keep praying!

:: Pray for Lynn Kelly – she is having more surgery – Dec 3rd.

:: Holly & Betsy’s mom – Barbara – is home from rehab and doing well.

:: Jackie Anderson has an injurred foot.

ONE LIFE :: The Invitation November 17, 2008

Tonight we concluded the One Life series.  We focussed in on our call to be stewards of our own witness.  Those of us who are on the journey following Jesus at some point had an experience with someone or in some space where we responded to an invitation – an invitation to “come and see” Jesus, an invitation to encounter a living God that led to our salvation and joy.  And now it’s up to us to give similar invitations to those people God puts in our paths.

So we started with a couple songs: Trading my Sorrows & When I think About the Lord (Shane & Shane).  From there we watched a great video – “Matthew 10″ from www.worshiphousemedia.com – great introduction to Jesus’ instructions for his disciples (including us) to reach out with his love to those around us.  Brandon and I did “Come and Listen” by Crowder as an intro to the time of testimony sharing that came next.  I invited three different people to share a short testimony of how the invitation came in their lives.  (Thanks Randy, Denise & Randall!)  Each was beautiful and well said – and they helped us have concrete examples of what an invitation can sound like.

John then shared the Word – John 1:35-50 – the story of Andrew when he first began to follow Jesus.  When Andrew asked where Jesus was staying he said, “Come and see.”  He did.  He found himself convinced that Jesus was the One, and he immediately ran and got his brother – Peter.  He repeated, Come and see!  And the rest is history, right?!  Can you imagine the church as we know it without Peter?  Jesus’ invitation to “come and see” was ours - AND our challenge is to be like Andrew, to share this invitation with as many as we can – especially those we are close to!  And just imagine how God will use them, too – to keep the invitation going. 

So the challenge John put before us was to consider who in our sphere of influence is waiting for an invitation.  The “Andrew Challenge” as he called it, is to spend the next year working toward connecting one person to Jesus.  To invest in them with your life, with your energy, with your love, with your witness.  We had a rough wooden cross set out in the middle of the room.  We asked people to write the name of that person on the cross – as a committment to God and so that they will have a reminder of the call.  We’ll put it up in the worship space for the next year. 

We wrapped up with “Make a Joyful Noise/I will not be silent” – kind of Crowder like.  The chorus ringing as our anthem in closing: “I will not be silent, NO!  I will not be quiet anymore.” 

Next week = Blessing of the Animals!
We’ll meet outside, weather permitting, with our extended families.  There will be coffee, hot chocolate and live blue grass as we fellowship together.  We’ll do just a couple simple songs and then John will ask a blessing for each pet and owner.  Should be fun!    

Here are our prayer requests this week:
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:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - in treatment for breast cancer.  SHE’S HAVING SURGERY THIS TUESDAY – PLEASE PRAY FOR HER!! 

:: Pray for Lynn Kelly – she is gaining strength for some more surgery.

:: Holly & Betsy’s mom – Barbara – turned out she did have a small stroke – she’s in rehab at Siskin for a couple weeks.

:: Britta’s grandmother as she continues to recover from her hip surgery.

Advent Conspiracy November 16, 2008

The Advent Conspiracy
This Christmas season, we’re inviting you to just say NO.

Say no to spending lots of money on stuff that just doesn’t matter.

And here’s your alternative:
For $20 you can buy a water filter that will be given to a family in Nicaragua this summer when RUMC sends a team down to share the love of God and his Living Water. 

When you make your $20 donation, you will get a beautiful Christmas card that will explain the gift that you have purchased – you can send that card to a friend or family member as their Christmas gift.

There is a station set up in the new lobby at RUMC where you can deposit your money (please make checks payable to RUMC with “Advent Conspiracy” in the for section). pick up your Christmas Card & where you can see one of the filter buckets we will distribute.

To find out more about our Advent Conspiracy initiative:
email Kevin & Marjorie Whiteside - RUMCcleanwaterministry@gmail.com

To find out more about the filters themselves and the scope of their affect on this world go to the Potters for Peace website – www.pottersforpeace.org

To find out more about The Advent Conspiracy go to their website – www.adventconspiracy.org

Your Stories :: Jackie November 16, 2008

Today is a glorious day, I have been so far from God and there seemed to be a wall between us. I knew that I was the one that put it there, but couldn’t find what it took to take it away. I have hated God and cursed him for taking away my husband, best friend, and the one that I leaned on. Thanks to a dear friend that God sent to me after not seeing her for a long time, gave me a song to listen to and print off the words and put them on my desk to read every day and PRAISE GOD he knew I was ready to knock down the wall. Three of my coworkers and I had prayer and right now I am so full of his grace and I know that he is here holding me in his arms. I know I will still struggle and will have to work hard to remain close to him. I still have issues with being with people, but God will take care of that in due time. I want to thank everyone for your continued prayers and PLEASE continue to pray for me as I work at becoming what God wants me to be. God is so awesome. Thank you God for carrying me these last 2 years. To Tina and Joe I want to say Thank you for being there for me through all of this.

ONE LIFE :: Creating a Legacy November 10, 2008

Yesterday was Consecration Sunday – the day once a year when our church family is invited to make a statement about what and how they will invest in the church in the coming year – what their commitments will be in four areas: prayer, presence, gifts and service.  It was the culmination of our One Life series – how all those other things we’ve covered come together – what you do with your One Life can create a Legacy that will or will not testify to the love of our God.  The question of the day is then, what will your life say? 

People entered our worship space to see chairs around tables with all sorts of stuff in the center of the tables – I’ll come back to that.  We opened the night with “Because of Your Love” by Paul Baloche.  Our speaker for the night was introduced by a short video I got off www.sermonspice.com “The Most Important Thing”.  Phil Schroeder, one of my favorite people, works in the North Georgia Conference of The United Methodist Church, was our guest preacher for the day – he rocked!  He spoke beautifully from the heart about how the world is counting on us to make bad decisions about our money and resources, they want to suck us in and help us to be driven by our impulses.  But God is counting on us, too – and his invitation is completely different.  Phil kept repeating – THIS IS NOT A TRAP - committing to give back to God from all that he has blessed you with is not a trap.  We’re not creating a bait-and-switch scheme here, we’re inviting people to do what should come naturally when they love someone – to give, and to give their best, and to give it first.  God deserves way more than our left-overs, and following through with that takes courage, especially in today’s climate.  But that’s what we’re called to, and that’s what Phil challenged us with.

In response to his message we invited people to do two things.  The first, we had traditional commitment cards for them to fill out.  A place to say how much money they would give, sure – that’s the “Gift” category, but it’s much more than that.  Their presence was indicated by how many Sundays they would attend in the coming year.  Their commitment to praying was to be listed in a concrete way, and we had an additional card full of options about how they could get involved in serving in some area of our church body. 

Also at their table were sharpies and different shapes and colors of lighting gels – red hearts, orange squares, yellow circles, etc.  They’re the stuff used to  change the color of theatrical lighting – colored and see through.  We invited them to write on the shapes the things they were going to commit to – as specifically as they could.  Then these items were to be brought forward as an offering.  In the middle of the room there was a big “1″ cut out of Lexan (that’s like plexi-glass, you can buy it at a home store – DON’T buy plexiglass, it shatters when you try to cut it - trust me!.)  We had it resting on a mirror so that the light from the room was reflecting through the colors onto the ceiling.  As people added their shapes, we created a piece of art that looked a bit like stained glass.  We did some singing while all this was happening – “One Pure and Holy Passion” the way the Passion Band covered it, “The Heart of Worship” oldie, but goody, and “I Will Not Forget You” which I’ve heard best covered on a cd called ”The Worship Room” - not sure who those guys are. 

FYI – I will be attaching the word “Life” to the bottom of this big number one – remember our series title – One Life – we’ll hang this reminder of our committements out in a window in our Guest Services area to keep us focused through the coming year on what our part is in creating a legacy that will last.  I’ll post a picture when I get it finished and hanging.

Following this response time, John spoke just a bit about the beauty of the piece – about the beauty of our body when it is functional and God is shining through.  We celebrated the work of the last year in regards to our service by watching a slide show of pictures of all our different missions and outreach events from the last year.  The soundtrack to the show was “Seasons of Love” from the musical Rent.  Great way to tie into looking back over a year’s worth of loving each other.  Following a closing prayer we ended with the song “Yesterday, Today & Forever” by Vicki Beeching. 

So it was a good night!  And by the way, if you are reading this and you’re a regular attender who wants to fill out those cards, but you missed last night – just talk to me!  It’s never too late to get you plugged in!        

Here are our prayer requests this week:
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:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney - in treatment for breast cancer.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for Lynn Kelly – she is gaining strength for some more surgery.

:: Holly & Betsy’s mom – Barbara – turned out she did have a small stroke – she’s in rehab at Siskin for a couple weeks.

:: Britta’s grandmother as she continues to recover from her hip surgery.

ONE LIFE :: Investing in the Future November 5, 2008

Sunday night we jumped into the sticky stuff: MONEY!  We each have One Life – how are we investing in the future with ours?  How are we using our money and stuff to honor God?  Who’s is all this anyway?  It was All Saints Day, so we decided to tie into the concept of going out the way we come in.  Ownership is an illusion that can cripple us.

We opened with our theme video (uses the song Legacy by Nichole Nordeman) – I’ve got it on YouTube now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQV9eQBl_6I  Before we got through the annoucements all the way we had an impromptu skit break out.  Sam was going around the room taking decorations off the worship space walls.  I stopped the announcements and asked him what he was doing – becoming a collector of worship space decor is what he said.  It would make him very important and respected in this world.  I was quick to let him know that those things were not his and I couldn’t let him leave with them – he’d have to go out the way he came in.  He said, no problem, I’ll just stay here forever and hold onto these things as tightly as I can, full of pride and illusion.  Well, this illustrated our point and we segued into the night’s theme.  We did a couple intro songs: Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord & Better Is One Day – both tying in great to the topic at hand.

We invited a man in to share his testimoney with us - a hospice worker, he knows a lot about what’s important in life and what’s not.  He got into hospice because of his experience with them when his wife was dying.  He shared his story and then gave us some good ol’ southern preaching – turns out he was a preacher along with several other things in his life.

After his story, John got up and walked us through Matthew 6:25-34 (part of the Sermon on the Mount – Jesus speaking about God’s ability to take care of us and encouraging us to not worry.)  From there he brought us around to All Saints Day and Communion – these were to be our response to the message.

We played Hungry (Falling on my knees) & How Great is Our God as people received communion and then had the chance to light a candle in honor of a saint they’ve known who had passed away in the last year.  They were invited to whisper the name of the saint and then light one of many votive candles that sat on tables on either side of the room. 

John said a closing prayer when this reverent time of worship finished and we closed out the night be singing From the Inside Out by Hillsong United.  It was a good night.  God was there along with a room FULL of people – 25 or so guests from Elizabeth Lee UMC (Chickamauga, GA) joined us for worship.  Their youth group was on a field trip and we were the first of two stops – 2nd stop – pizza!

Next week will be our committment Sunday – people will have the chance to committ to lifting up an offering in the areas of their prayers, presence, gifts and service.  The 16th we’ll focus on the 5th component of being a member of a UM Church: your witness.

Here are our prayer requests this week:
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:

:: Louise & Keith Kenney’s daughter in law – Michelle Kenney – has breast cancer.

:: Pray for Tina’s friend, Jackie – she’s going through a rough patch.

:: Pray for Lynn Kelly – she is gaining strength for some more surgery.

:: Holly & Betsy’s mom – Barbara – going through some medical difficulties.

:: Britta’s grandmother as she continues to recover from her hip surgery.