Jesus' preaching commands/demands change - Repentance
Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Planning Ideas And Resources For The Entire Church Year
Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration
One pastor did this:
Begin with a contemporary call to repentance, using the method of the Old Testament prophets. You may want to read, The Prophets on Main Street, by J. Elliott Corbett, published by John Knox Press, Richmond, Virginia.
You may want to conclude with the words ascribed to Jesus by Mark in chapter 1 , verse 15. Then, continue with the following, or a similar, litany:
Pastor:
We have heard the call to repentance. Do you know what it means?
Ministers: We're not sure. We deny our humanity often, both its positives and negatives. We know that we are stubborn and live to ourselves often. We often do not live life; we rebel against it. We hurt ourselves. We hurt each other. We are sick from it. And now, we seek repentance and new life.
Pastor:
Giver of love, heal us, and free us to be whole people.
Ministers: Spirit, speak to us, with us, through us. Empower us to listen, hear, respond. Fill us this moment.
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and The Act of Receiving New Life
Consider this:
Define repentance, and focus on repentance as change. Offer a meditational
prayer based on the way people handle change, as follows:
1. Tolerate it/patronize it. For example, "I don't like the present pastor and all the changes she's effecting. I'll keep my name on the roll, send in a few dollars, attend on special days ... I'll just wait her out."
2. Avoid it. Withdraw into your illusions. "I need someplace in my life that never changes; and if the church demands that I change, I'll quit."
3. Condemn it. Use most of our energy staying angry. "I'll pretend that the pastor's wrong, stupid, naive, misinformed, liberal, socialist, communist. He's obviously not a Christian, and we're no longer the church."
Give three to five minutes for silence to consider these things.
Following the silence, offer another way to handle change. Accept it/appreciate it. For we cannot remain alive and not change. We can either accept change, the essence of repentance, as the very nature of existence and take charge of our own life; or else, we cannot accept change and feel miserable, depressed, angry. Conclude with this litany:
Pastor:
Repentance means that we are free from the past or the future to receive the present moment.
Ministers: Thanks, Lord, what a relief! Thanks again! Amen!
Message with the Children of All Ages
Try this:
I want to think about change with you. Tell me some changes in your lives that you appreciate and some that you don't. Share some of your own. Then, ask, Did you know that Jesus asked and asks us to change? When Jesus asks some to change, they say, "But, we've never done it that way before." Yet, we're always changing. Bring a picture of yourself when you were an infant, child, teenager, and adult. Note the changes. Jesus asks us to change, and the biblical word is "repent." It means to think again, to re-think how you behave. If you've been living for yourself, saying "me-first, me-only," he asks us to start living for God and others. How will you do that this coming week?
Proclamation of the Word
Suggestion:
Make clear what Jesus meant by repentance and conversion. It doesn't begin with the belief, "I am a worm and not a person." (Psalm 22:6) It doesn't mean feeling pity or sorrow for, primarily. It means to come to our senses. It's not so much looking at the past and saying, "I'm sorry," an idea developed from the Latin, (not Greek) interpretation of the world. Some of us make a religion out of always being sorry. Rather, it means looking to the future and saying, "Wow!" It means to look at the possibilities for growth, ministry, friendship, unlimited opportunities.
Stewardship Challenge
Consider this:
The stewardship of repentance. Offer these ideas for integration into our daily walk:
1. Begin, continue, end each day with thanksgiving.
2. Thanksgiving includes joy.
3. Joy involves ministry.
4. Ministry, in Christ's name, is peace, shalom, salvation, wholeness, integration.
Charge to the Congregation
Suggestion:
Repentance does not mean unending bliss, whatever that's supposed to mean. It doesn't mean the absence of struggle, pain. It does mean the presence of God, agape-love, energized good will, even toward those we don't like and who, we know, don't like us. You may want to conclude with Paul's fruits of repentance in Galatians 5:22-25.
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 62:5-14
Psalm 25:4-9
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (32-35)
II. Suggested Hymns
Coordinator:
"Fairest Lord Jesus" Silesian folk melody
"God Gives His/Her People Strength" Miriam Therese Winter, 1965
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir director:
Music for Preparation and Dismissal
Medley of Epiphany Hymns
Response to the act of confession
"Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God" Jim Strathee
Response to the Proclamation
"There is a New Wind Blowin' " Words and Music by David Yantis
(both responses can be found in New Wine: Songs for Celebration P.O. Box 1735 Ridgecrest, CA 93555)
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
One pastor did this:
Begin with a contemporary call to repentance, using the method of the Old Testament prophets. You may want to read, The Prophets on Main Street, by J. Elliott Corbett, published by John Knox Press, Richmond, Virginia.
You may want to conclude with the words ascribed to Jesus by Mark in chapter 1 , verse 15. Then, continue with the following, or a similar, litany:
Pastor:
We have heard the call to repentance. Do you know what it means?
Ministers: We're not sure. We deny our humanity often, both its positives and negatives. We know that we are stubborn and live to ourselves often. We often do not live life; we rebel against it. We hurt ourselves. We hurt each other. We are sick from it. And now, we seek repentance and new life.
Pastor:
Giver of love, heal us, and free us to be whole people.
Ministers: Spirit, speak to us, with us, through us. Empower us to listen, hear, respond. Fill us this moment.
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and The Act of Receiving New Life
Consider this:
Define repentance, and focus on repentance as change. Offer a meditational
prayer based on the way people handle change, as follows:
1. Tolerate it/patronize it. For example, "I don't like the present pastor and all the changes she's effecting. I'll keep my name on the roll, send in a few dollars, attend on special days ... I'll just wait her out."
2. Avoid it. Withdraw into your illusions. "I need someplace in my life that never changes; and if the church demands that I change, I'll quit."
3. Condemn it. Use most of our energy staying angry. "I'll pretend that the pastor's wrong, stupid, naive, misinformed, liberal, socialist, communist. He's obviously not a Christian, and we're no longer the church."
Give three to five minutes for silence to consider these things.
Following the silence, offer another way to handle change. Accept it/appreciate it. For we cannot remain alive and not change. We can either accept change, the essence of repentance, as the very nature of existence and take charge of our own life; or else, we cannot accept change and feel miserable, depressed, angry. Conclude with this litany:
Pastor:
Repentance means that we are free from the past or the future to receive the present moment.
Ministers: Thanks, Lord, what a relief! Thanks again! Amen!
Message with the Children of All Ages
Try this:
I want to think about change with you. Tell me some changes in your lives that you appreciate and some that you don't. Share some of your own. Then, ask, Did you know that Jesus asked and asks us to change? When Jesus asks some to change, they say, "But, we've never done it that way before." Yet, we're always changing. Bring a picture of yourself when you were an infant, child, teenager, and adult. Note the changes. Jesus asks us to change, and the biblical word is "repent." It means to think again, to re-think how you behave. If you've been living for yourself, saying "me-first, me-only," he asks us to start living for God and others. How will you do that this coming week?
Proclamation of the Word
Suggestion:
Make clear what Jesus meant by repentance and conversion. It doesn't begin with the belief, "I am a worm and not a person." (Psalm 22:6) It doesn't mean feeling pity or sorrow for, primarily. It means to come to our senses. It's not so much looking at the past and saying, "I'm sorry," an idea developed from the Latin, (not Greek) interpretation of the world. Some of us make a religion out of always being sorry. Rather, it means looking to the future and saying, "Wow!" It means to look at the possibilities for growth, ministry, friendship, unlimited opportunities.
Stewardship Challenge
Consider this:
The stewardship of repentance. Offer these ideas for integration into our daily walk:
1. Begin, continue, end each day with thanksgiving.
2. Thanksgiving includes joy.
3. Joy involves ministry.
4. Ministry, in Christ's name, is peace, shalom, salvation, wholeness, integration.
Charge to the Congregation
Suggestion:
Repentance does not mean unending bliss, whatever that's supposed to mean. It doesn't mean the absence of struggle, pain. It does mean the presence of God, agape-love, energized good will, even toward those we don't like and who, we know, don't like us. You may want to conclude with Paul's fruits of repentance in Galatians 5:22-25.
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 62:5-14
Psalm 25:4-9
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
1 Corinthians 7:29-31 (32-35)
II. Suggested Hymns
Coordinator:
"Fairest Lord Jesus" Silesian folk melody
"God Gives His/Her People Strength" Miriam Therese Winter, 1965
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir director:
Music for Preparation and Dismissal
Medley of Epiphany Hymns
Response to the act of confession
"Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God" Jim Strathee
Response to the Proclamation
"There is a New Wind Blowin' " Words and Music by David Yantis
(both responses can be found in New Wine: Songs for Celebration P.O. Box 1735 Ridgecrest, CA 93555)
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
