Prayer Stations: Listening to God

When Samuel hears the call of God, his response is "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening." (1 Samuel 3)

Rather than preach an entire sermon about listening to God, I wanted people to try it. To experience and/or practice listening. 

So we worshipped with a series of prayer stations:

Scripture-Speaking. What might God be saying to you? ...choose a scripture and use a stone to mark where you are.

What keeps you from hearing/recognizing God's voice? Put your distractions on the cross--visibly blocking it--then pray for space and remove them  

Open station for creative reflection...

...and several others that I didn't photograph (breath prayer, silent meditation, imaginitive narrative where God calls YOUR name--and you give a written response, communal reflection: "how do YOU listen to God?")

Overall, I think the experience (and response) was good from the congregation. 

In the sanctuary services, most people remained in their seats and focused in the meditation in the bulletin, so my own response from God came when I complained about all the work for the unused stations. "Do you want people to hear you? Or Me?" 

The contemporary service had mason jars and small stones for the scripture-speaking station, so when people chose a scripture, there was an audible 'plink' throughout the room. The sound of filling jars, for me, affirmed that Gods word never comes back empty. (Isaiah 55:11). One worshipped loved the sound because she said it meant that people had found their verse. :) 

It was a lot of work to set up, so if I did this again, I would HAVE to enlist help (meaning more delegating and less procrastination). But that's a resounding theme for almost everything I do...

All Saints Day 2015

Each year, we read the names of church members who've passed away the previous year. It's a beautiful and meaningful tradition, but it still leaves of lots of names (I know several folks in my church grieving family who aren't members of our church and I still think we should remember others who died several years--even centuries--ago. 

So we allowed each person to remember. After recieving communion, the congregation was invited to choose a cross or a dove shape--both symbols of resurrection hope--and write a name or names of those who we hope live in Christ. 

Then we hung them up! 

Gold cord hung around the sanctuary to visibly express that we are surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses:

And in the family life center, we nailed string to room dividers:

I honestly just wanted a quick and simple way to hang the names, but the finished design was really powerful to see:

Which is exactly how it should be. The communion of saints brings the cross into further clarity for us.