The Pacifist Aggressive

This children's story on praise Psalms using Ps 107 breaks several of my "How To" rules for children's stories because I used the long children's story itself as the sermon and the rest of the worship service was use for reading and creative interaction with various Psalms of praise. _______ What’s a Psalm? Poem or song  Talking to God or about God Collection of them in the Bible A couple weeks ago Hank talked about Vengeance Psalms where people told God how angry they were, and Joe lifted weights, and then we wrote or drew on pieces of paper.  What other types of emotions do you think people might write or sing to God in the Psalms? Highest joy Lowest sadness Begging God for help Praise Telling God Thanks We have room to share our whole self with God no matter what our emotions are if we are angry or sad or happy. The people who wrote the Bible did! Whether it was one person, or a whole church. I was thinking about Thanksgiving this we...

Children’s Stories Goals: Incorporate children in the life and the worship of the church. Faith formation: primarily for the kids, secondarily for the adults. Support and reinforce the overall (theme of) the worship service. Help children to form horizontal relationships with peers and the congregation as well as a vertical relationship with the Divine--as is appropriate in all worship. Practices: > The pastor or sermon giver will contact the children’s story leader with specific direction early in the week. > The children’s story should be 3-7 minutes. 5 minutes is a sweet spot for attention. Pro-tips: > Keep a clear focus--it’s good to stay on one point; We don’t have to cover the entire scripture. > Engage multiple senses. Ideas here. > Be interactive. > Something you’re interested in or excited about will be interesting and exciting to others. Resources: Skits https://sermons4kids.com/ http://worshipingwithchildren.blogspot.com/ ...

A sermon on 1 Samuel 3. I can't blame Samuel for initially failing to recognize God's call. Afterall, his duties included caring for an elderly blind man. Samuel made the obvious assumption that Eli was calling him. Secondly, it was the middle of the night. I don't know how y'all are when you get woken up in the dead of the night, but I am not at my best. I shouldn't drive a car. Unless you are a first responder or something you are probably pretty confused when woken the night. As I tried to imagine this scripture I thought of a sleep addled Samuel waking up a now very confused Eli. No wonder it took them three times before it occurred to Eli that it might be God calling. What do you think God's voice sounds like? Would you recognize it if you heard it? On the first try? On the fourth? I told the kids earlier that one way I like to understand scripture is by imagining myself inside that scripture. Developmentally, that sort of imaginative interaction is p...

I wrote this sermon during my final semester of seminary (Fall 2017) while taking my final course (my third Hebrew)-- Hebrew exegesis: Genesis. It's an attempt at a narrative style sermon (at least the first part) that incorporates exegetical insights while retelling the story. ____________________ Once, there was nothing. Once, there was nothing. The earth was formless and void; welter and waste. Dark. Until God spoke, bringing order from chaos, light into darkness, and where once there was nothing God made everything. Through the Word all things came into being and apart from the Word nothing was. God spoke into being the skies and the seas, the flora and the fauna, the wild animals and the work animals. God breathed God’s very breath into the dust. Into the adamah God ruached … then, breathed the human, adam. From the fertility of humus, a human emerged. God created the humans in God’s own image; male and female God created them. From the side of a sleeping...

For the last several days, maybe two weeks, I have responded to all questions with, "Not until I survive the Christmas Eve Service." There is some liturgy yet to write, but otherwise I think I have it figured out. This year, our service is based around the visual of the nativity. During the hymn of each of the sections children will bring the non-breakable nativity figures forward to the table. Alternating hymns and readings while setting out the nativity is super simple, so I am posting this now in case anyone out there is frantically googling. _______________ Prelude Gathering Welcome O come, all ye faithful  212 Opening Prayer Hearing the Story Light Call to Worship John 1: 1-5  Leader: In the beginning was the Word,  Men: and the Word was with God,  Women: and the Word was God.  Leader: He was with God in the beginning.  Men: Through him all things were made;  Women: without him nothing was made that ...