This was the final week of our summer series “Blockbuster Messages”. Over the past many weeks, we’ve been looking at the various messages presented in our society primarily through movies and how those messages contrast with the truth of God. We’ve asked the question, “Is Truth impacting culture, or is culture impacting Truth?”
Our final Sunday dealt with the movie “Up” and the ideas of making the most of life while also not being afraid of beginning new adventures. This was a timely message for our church as we are entering into a season of transition with the departure of our senior pastor. It is a new season that God is leading us in, and we don’t want to be afraid or miss out on what He is going to do. Our Bible passages included Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, and Matthew 4:18-20; 14:25-36; 28:16-20.We began with another live prelude with Song of Hope (Robbie Seay Band) as we are working on learning that song.
Welcome and announcements, along with a greeting time were next.
We had our senior pastor recap his resignation announcement again as some people may have missed it. We have a lot of people traveling and camping during the summer months, so sometimes we have to do things more than once. That was followed by one of our elders leading in prayer for them as they begin to transition.
Our call to worship and primary singing time was focused on themes of trust, dependence, and declaration on the Lord in times of uncertainty and sadness. I began by reminding people of the faithfulness of the Lord and that as we come near to Him, He will come near to us (James 4:8a).
Our songs included Holy Is the Lord (Tomlin/Giglio), Unashamed Love (Hiebert), and Jesus, I Am Resting, Resting (Pigott/Hampton). We then had an extended time of prayer and Scripture focused on allowing people to process with the Lord the news that has been shared and encouraging them to express their doubt, uncertainty, sadness or other emotion toward what is coming. I also shared some Scriptures that again drew our attention back to the faithfulness of God and the necessity of our trust in Him. We were trying to capture a little bit of the idea of a lament, but I don’t know if we quite got there. We concluded that time by singing in response to God It Is Well with My Soul (Spafford/Bliss).
Offering was next with the final Blockbuster Messages video piece. Each week had a little piece with our senior pastor talking about the impact and messages of movies we had filmed in a local theater. The ending of each piece had kind of a movie trailer feel to it.
Following the message, we had people form small clusters in the sanctuary to pray together about the transition and what God has next for us as a church.
At first, I wasn’t sure if we would be able to have a drummer this past week because of scheduling, so our ending was a little up in the air. But one of our guys graciously rearranged his schedule so he could be there. As a result we ended with Song of Hope as a declaration and expression of our hope and trust in God in this new adventure. I also had Blessed Be Your Name (Redman) in our pocket, and we ended up doing that as well since the congregation seemed to want to continue singing.
We closed with Scripture from Zeph 3:17: The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
It was a good day together. It was good to be able to lead the church in processing and remembering (and reaffirming) our trust and dependence on God. It is a new adventure and season in the life of the church, and we are trusting in God to lead in all these days. It was also great ministering with the team today as we worked well together. And, it was the last Sunday for one of our young guitarists who is getting married and moving to California. He will be missed, but it is great seeing what God has next for him.
If you were there, feel free to comment with your thoughts or how God spoke to you.
Thanks for stopping by. To see what other churches did on this day, check out Sunday Setlists at The Worship Community.
Chris
Thanks for your comments. Sorry to hear that you are going through a pastor transition. We just spent the last year going through that. It was my 8th time in ministry to do that.
If you need anything..let me know. There is also a great blog called http://vacantoversight.blogspot.com where the guy talks about walking through a season without senior leadership. I encourage you to read his posts. They are excellent.
Jim