The series continued this week that is taking us through the book of 1 Peter. Many Christians live today as if the world were our final destination. We pour our life resources and energy into things that will barely last 50 years, let alone eternity. We frequently cave in to the old sinful desires. We struggle to remain faithful in the midst of great suffering. We’ve lost sight of the glorious inheritance waiting for us.
God calls us to live as “strangers” in this world, spiritual sojourners that are just passing through. As children of the living God, our focus should be on eternity as we point people to the living Christ who paid it all for us. Our priorities and lifestyle should undergo a radical transformation.
In 1 Peter, Peter unpacks what this transformed life looks like and how it should interact with this world. In 1 Peter 3:1-7, Peter reminds us that there are few areas of life more difficult to consistently imitate Jesus than in the marriage relationship. Once again, Peter advocates following in the example of Jesus in order to build a marriage made in heaven.
We had some interesting development in this service. More details after the flow.
Service flow: (Links go to AmazonMp3 where you can purchase the songs for $0.99 and DRM free)
Welcome/Announcements/Greeting
Call to Worship from Ephesians 6:10, Zechariah 4:6, and Psalm 46:7
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (Luther, arr. Walker)
Prayer with Psalm 43:5
Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (Tomlin, Giglio, Excell, Rees, Newton)
In Christ Alone (Townend, Getty)
We Fall Down (Tomlin) – ended with just the voices singing without music. Very cool.
Prayer focused on those lost in war
Offering (w/ emphasis and video on work in Mongolia. View video here.)
Message
Time for couples to pray together
I’m Putting on the Love of the Lord (Ode 3/Schreiner)
Dismissal
Despite all the happened, it was a great time together. We started our summer service format this week. We will be having only one service (instead of two) during the summer until Labor Day. It went well, and we had a great attendance for it being a holiday weekend.
Here’s where things got interesting. As we were greeting, there was a loud pop and the lights flicker. We had experienced a electrical power event, which is actually common for us at this time of the year due to some issues with the power lines around us. However, it’s never happened on a Sunday or during a service.
The lights and sound system reset itself immediately, but I knew it would take time to recycle the projector and reboot the computers. We had planned a video about Memorial Day right away, but that was no longer possible. If you would like to see the video we didn’t get to use from Beamer Films, watch it here.
So, I improvised. I saw the projector was back up, so I thought we were golden. I directed people to the screen, and walked off the stage…and waited. It seems the computer wasn’t being as cooperative. So we moved right into singing, and I thought the slides would be up soon. Suffice to say, there were also some server issues we identified, and no words were projected for any of our first song set. I was calling as well as I could, and for the most part people either knew the songs or got enough through what I was saying to stay engaged. It’s fair to say I was a little stressed.
As soon as I could I got off the platform and made it to the booth. The computer wasn’t talking to the server. So we grabbed a jump drive and transfered the files from my computer to the tech computer, and get it up and projecting in time for the offering video and the message. It’s all good, right?
Not quite, during the prayer time at the end, the power spiked again, and everything reset. Again, the computer chose not to be cooperative, so we did the last song without projection also. It was an echo song from the Odes Project collection.
Other than that, it went great. The message was great, and people engaged and participated. Just goes to show that it all still can happen even without the technology that we “just have to have.” (Not that I’m saying get rid of it, but life goes on and the church is still the church even if it doesn’t always work quite right.) We’re going to address some things and be better prepared for the next time that I hope doesn’t come.
Thanks for coming by. For more service orders from churches all over, check out Sunday Setlists at fredmckinnon.com.
Thanks!
