Powerpoint call to worship
- I used pictures for all the elements of All Things Bright and Beautiful and had roughly a slide per line. I kept it simple - white background - so that the graphic was, well, bright and beautiful, and evocative.
START OF SERVICE - 8.30
Welcome
ANNOUNCEMENTS
- am I the only worship leader that thinks that these just take TOO long?!
Reading 1 - Sunday School child - Psalm 19: 1-4
All things bright and beautiful (Cecil Frances Alexander) standard tune
- I chose this because of the fact that she began writing as a child and because I wanted to draw the 70% old folk congregation into the - possibly roudy - family worship. I was hoping that most of them would have sung it when they were in Sunday School and that it would remind them of what it is like to worship God with the simple trust and abandon of a child.
Unfortunately, I got flutterbys for some insane reason and launched into the song before the welcome or announcements and completely forgot to mention CFA. Sigh. Our congregation, as with most, can't cope with not being told exactly what we're doing and what they need to do next...I stubbed my toe on one of the worship cardinal rules - in some way, always tell them what you are doing and where you are going.
Cecil Frances Alexander was born in Ireland. She began writing poetry as a child
and wrote nearly 400 hymns. She wrote All things Bright and Beautiful, one of
her most popular, to help explain to children the opening words of the Apostles'
Creed, a Christian statement of belief.
Cecil Frances Alexander's timeless
ode to nature calls everyone to celebrate the wonders of life, great and small,
seen and unseen.
Thanksgiving time - popcorn prayers
- these are short prayers that we always do with our Sunday School kids
We stand and lift up our hands / I could sing of Your love forever
- would have preferred more of a medley with a couple of other songs but we haven't worked together sufficiently as a worship team and we had a very small window for practice.
Prayer
Rooftops
- the kids love this song and often request it. We used a CD for it which was a little loud but still worked. It was l
CHILDREN'S TALK
-absolutely brilliant, concise, make-sense piece by our associate pastor who has a new baby. Used baby kit and kaboodle to put across the truths from a couple of verses from Proverbs to kids.
Why I love Sunday School.
- we asked kids and a Sunday School teacher to talk about their experiences
PRIZEGIVING
Reading 2 - Sunday School child - Psalm 119:9-11
Trust and Obey
- I love hymns, and I love the people in my church, young and old. I put this one in because it's a great chorus - very catchy - for littlies to learn (how I pray that the children will grow and learn more & more that God can use to remind them should they falter or head off down the wrong track) and because it's a wonderful old hymn that the oldies can sing with gusto.
BENEDICTION
12 comments:
No you are not the only one that thinks Sunday announcements are too long!
Annoucements-ugh!
We are actively moving toward announcement-free celebrations. We're an informal group, and once announcements get rolling, it's not been uncommon for 45 minutes to tick off the clock. Having said that, going commercial-free will be a drastic discipline for many.
Trust and Obey. Classic.
I am with you on announcements taking too long!!!
Announcements are the bane of my worship leader existence! LOL! j/k! But I'm not a fan at all!
Very nice set! Blessings!
Wayne Thomas
Can YOU do the announcements? That might give you a little more freedom, despite being one more thing on your plate on a busy Sunday morning. Just a thought.
announcements...painful, but necessary. we've found that the announcer is the key to keeping it quick.
We have a variety of people who do the various speaking parts in our service like announcements, scripture, children's moment etc. So the announcements time gives us one more way to get one more person involved.. however I agree they usually take too long. I have thought about scripting them out, so I know what will be said and how long it should last. Maybe a thought.
As a worship leader, I have always hated the way the traditional announcement time interrupts the flow between P&W and the teaching of the Word. I have always wanted to try doing announcements before worship or at the end of the service. Or better yet, to put them on PowerPoint or do video announcements. You can convey a lot of information in a short amount of time this way, and you can have it running in a loop in the foyer of the church, or at an "information center" of some sort. It does take a little more planning, but the benefits would be worth it. Of course there’s always the old standby….the church bulletin.
I think a lot of people tend to "zone out" during announcements anyway (running to the rest room or water fountain, looking for something in their purse, talking to their neighbor, etc…), and the ones who are "plugged in" will seek out that information if they know where to go get it (info center, website, email, church blog, etc....).
@ everyone - hey! I'm not the only one. WhoooHooo!
@zimman - I could do the announcements, but I'm also thinking it's good to get others involved. I love it when my hubs does it, because it's always 60 seconds or less. And he ends with 'Now let's WORSHIP God, like we came here to do'!
@ russell - I love using different people for the various elements, but I tend to save it for those rare occassions where we have a family service and I'm leading in the morning service. I even rope some of the Sunday School kids to sing with me and the team. I should really consider doing it some more at Java, too. Scripting is a brilliant idea, but most of those that give announcements here wouldn't stick to it. ;)
@ kit - I feel exactly the same. About the info centre, too. We actually have a paper bulletin! We do the powerpoint stuff just before the start of the service. I do my utmost to keep the announcements to the very start of the service - before we start the set.
@ matt - I managed to lose your comment! Sorry. Finger trouble. User error...You mentioned the Trust and Obey that I'd gotten into your head. Tee hee. I'm SO glad because that's exactly what I was hoping for that Sunday.
Is your service always this 'kid-friendly" or was this something special?
"I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" is a great tune we don't do nearly enough. Looks like a lot going on there, but a good flow with the music.
(BTW.. I was wondering who was visiting from South Africa!)
@ Michael - thanks for commenting. Sunday School in SA tends to be for children only. Adults usually do small groups in the week. So this was a special service for the Sunday School children. There was LOADS going on, but that made it such a great picture of what Sunday School is at our church.
It was all incredibly well received and we 'won' ourselves a family service every six weeks! Unheard of in our retired folk congregation.
God answers prayer.
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