The Contributing Church
So here’s what I want you to do. When you gather for worship, each one of you be prepared with something that will be useful for all: Sing a hymn, teach a lesson, tell a story, lead a prayer, provide an insight.
1 Corinthians 14:26a (The Message)
For our Sunday Services in October (5th and 19th) we’re going to do something a little different, trying out a practice that seems to be common in the churches of the Bible.
Instead of a few people preparing for the service, we’re asking all of us to be open-to and up-for doing something that might encourage everyone else.
As such, we’re not having a pre-written sermon - instead we’re going to open up the service to God’s leading coming through all and any of us.
What’s Going To Happen
After a time of sung worship we’ll open up the service to people who feel they might have had a nudge from God about something.
This might be an idea or sense about something we should focus on. It might be a Bible verse. It could be direction towards praying for a particular issue or persons or healing… who knows!?!
Dave will act as conductor and try to shepherd and direct what is happening. Our hope is that what one person shares will leads to a response, or what they share prompts another person to share something, sort of passing the baton on.
Whatever happens we’re hoping we end up in a place where God is at work with us; encouraging, supporting and challenging us.
In practice we suspect this is going to feel a little less formal and perhaps a bit more messy than usual. We may return to singing at times or invite people to receive prayer - rather than our usual singing, then listening to a talk, then singing slots.
Practical What To Do
You can be asking for God to guide you both before the service and when we’re in the service - God can speak ahead of time or in the moment, neither are more spiritual than the other.
In our experience God often speaks collectively, so be encouraged when you discover other people have a similar sense to you.
God speaks in a variety of ways - in fact, sometimes using the word ‘speak’ can be unhelpful and we often talk about ‘prompts’ or ‘nudges’. Here are some ways God often speaks:
You come across a Bible verse and it grabs your attention
You randomly start thinking about some aspect of God’s character
You have an idea or sense about what God wants to do or remind us about and this sense sticks with you
You randomly think about a particular illness or condition, or suddenly feel a pain in a particular part of your body
You find yourself remembering something God has done in your life in the past and feel maybe he wants to do this for others
In all these things, we’re never certain it’s God prompting us, so it is a step of faith to bring it. This is why we say things should be positive and encouraging.
Dave will be there to help you and he will be the first stop for all contributions, just as a means of ensuring the service is a safe place for the person contributing and everyone else.
How To Contribute
We understand that people are different and not everyone finds it easy to stand up and share something. The last thing we want is this limited just to people who are confident in public speaking.
So we will have lots of ways to contribute. Of course it’s lovely to have people share directly, but also you can bring something written down in advance or we will have paper there to write things down.
You can tell Dave and he will share it. If you have his number you can even message him.
Overall we are interested and excited to see what happens, but are aware this will depend on people being prepared to be active and engaged, not only to contribute but also to respond.
So come to our October Sunday Services ready to be involved!