Preparation - Getting ready for the world's savior
Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Planning Ideas And Resources For The Entire Church Year
Meditation:
1. Beginning: How do you get ready for the coming of the world's savior into
your life each day?
2. Ending: What will you do this week to ready yourself for the coming of the world's savior into your life, into the life of your neighbor?
Invitation to the Corporate Celebration
Suggestion:
God has prepared for us long before we prepared for God. In that reality, we come today. We're here because God kept inviting us until we said "yes!"
You may want to continue with this litany:
Pastor:
God took a long time preparing for the coming of the Messiah. And now, God invites us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah once again, and always - for our sake, and the world's.
Ministers: We have prepared. We do prepare. We will prepare.
Pastor:
I invite us to do that together, today, now.
Ministers: So be it!
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and the Act of Receiving New Life
Try this:
Invite the people to think silently about the things for which they spend time planning. Ask them to name, out loud, some of those things. Many couples, for example, spend hours and hours planning for their wedding, and almost no time planning for their marriage. Ask them to contrast their earthly preparations with their eternal preparation. Give several minutes of silence for them to consider this idea.
Following the silence, offer a prayer which focuses on God's preparation to send Jesus into the world, and which encourages and energizes us to put our lives in proper perspective.
Message With the Children of All Ages
Consider this:
Find a picture of John Baptizer, talk about who he was and the kind of appearance he must have made. We might have been frightened if we had seen him; he reminds us of some of the "hippy" people a few years ago. Yet, God uses "strange" people to do God's will. Witness God using John to announce the coming of the world's savior. Sometimes, we forget, or ignore, the message because we don't like the messenger, the person who brings us the message. The message says that we are to "be prepared." In what ways are you prepared for Christmas?
In what ways are you not prepared for Christmas?
Proclamation of the Good News
Consider this:
Hit hard the theme of preparation. People spend incredible time preparing for the wrong things. We prepare our children for everything from becoming swimmers, skiers, soccer players, you-name-it, and fail to prepare them for eternity. Show how God kept preparing the world for the coming of the savior, and the hard time the people had in understanding the message.
Stewardship Challenge
Try this:
When Dick Haymes and Rita Hayworth were married, both for about the fifth time, after the wedding, a reporter asked Dick, "Can she cook?" Haymes answered, "Who cares?" Our danger is to plan, scrimp, save, work, sacrifice for a house, boat, trip, pool, vacation. Then, we get it. And the dream evaporates. Consider the stewardship of preparing for the coming of the savior into our lives.
Charge to the Congregation
Suggestion:
Build the charge around T. S. Eliot's poem, "The Rock," in which Eliot pictures the winds sweeping over the ruins of Western civilization, sighing as they pass, leaving thin relics of golf balls and asphalt rock, or, as a more recent contemporary analyzed us Americans by saying that we fornicate and read the newspapers. For what kind of future do we prepare? And, how will we prepare for the one that God has prepared for us?
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 85
Isaiah 40:1-11
II Peter 3:8-15a
II. Suggested Hymns
Assignments:
"Come, O Thou God of Grace"
William E. Evans, 1886
"Comfort, Comfort You My People" See Advent I
(consider using this as Advent hymn of the month.)
"Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round"
John W. Chadwick, 1864
"Heralds of Christ, Who Bear the King's Command"
Laura S. Copenhaver, 1894; alt., 1972
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir Director:
Music for Preparation
Medley of Advent Hymns
Response to the Assurance of Pardon
"Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God"
Jim Strathdee, New Wine (see Advent I)
Response to the Proclamation
"Awake the Trumpet's Lofty Sound" Handel
Response to the Stewardship Challenge
"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
Charles Wesley
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Lighting the Advent Candles
Person or family:
VII. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
1. Beginning: How do you get ready for the coming of the world's savior into
your life each day?
2. Ending: What will you do this week to ready yourself for the coming of the world's savior into your life, into the life of your neighbor?
Invitation to the Corporate Celebration
Suggestion:
God has prepared for us long before we prepared for God. In that reality, we come today. We're here because God kept inviting us until we said "yes!"
You may want to continue with this litany:
Pastor:
God took a long time preparing for the coming of the Messiah. And now, God invites us to prepare for the coming of the Messiah once again, and always - for our sake, and the world's.
Ministers: We have prepared. We do prepare. We will prepare.
Pastor:
I invite us to do that together, today, now.
Ministers: So be it!
The Act of Recognizing our Humanness and the Act of Receiving New Life
Try this:
Invite the people to think silently about the things for which they spend time planning. Ask them to name, out loud, some of those things. Many couples, for example, spend hours and hours planning for their wedding, and almost no time planning for their marriage. Ask them to contrast their earthly preparations with their eternal preparation. Give several minutes of silence for them to consider this idea.
Following the silence, offer a prayer which focuses on God's preparation to send Jesus into the world, and which encourages and energizes us to put our lives in proper perspective.
Message With the Children of All Ages
Consider this:
Find a picture of John Baptizer, talk about who he was and the kind of appearance he must have made. We might have been frightened if we had seen him; he reminds us of some of the "hippy" people a few years ago. Yet, God uses "strange" people to do God's will. Witness God using John to announce the coming of the world's savior. Sometimes, we forget, or ignore, the message because we don't like the messenger, the person who brings us the message. The message says that we are to "be prepared." In what ways are you prepared for Christmas?
In what ways are you not prepared for Christmas?
Proclamation of the Good News
Consider this:
Hit hard the theme of preparation. People spend incredible time preparing for the wrong things. We prepare our children for everything from becoming swimmers, skiers, soccer players, you-name-it, and fail to prepare them for eternity. Show how God kept preparing the world for the coming of the savior, and the hard time the people had in understanding the message.
Stewardship Challenge
Try this:
When Dick Haymes and Rita Hayworth were married, both for about the fifth time, after the wedding, a reporter asked Dick, "Can she cook?" Haymes answered, "Who cares?" Our danger is to plan, scrimp, save, work, sacrifice for a house, boat, trip, pool, vacation. Then, we get it. And the dream evaporates. Consider the stewardship of preparing for the coming of the savior into our lives.
Charge to the Congregation
Suggestion:
Build the charge around T. S. Eliot's poem, "The Rock," in which Eliot pictures the winds sweeping over the ruins of Western civilization, sighing as they pass, leaving thin relics of golf balls and asphalt rock, or, as a more recent contemporary analyzed us Americans by saying that we fornicate and read the newspapers. For what kind of future do we prepare? And, how will we prepare for the one that God has prepared for us?
Planning for Your Congregation
Suggestions
Your Situation
I. Other Scriptures
Liturgist:
Psalm 85
Isaiah 40:1-11
II Peter 3:8-15a
II. Suggested Hymns
Assignments:
"Come, O Thou God of Grace"
William E. Evans, 1886
"Comfort, Comfort You My People" See Advent I
(consider using this as Advent hymn of the month.)
"Eternal Ruler of the Ceaseless Round"
John W. Chadwick, 1864
"Heralds of Christ, Who Bear the King's Command"
Laura S. Copenhaver, 1894; alt., 1972
III. Other Music Possibilities
Organist/Choir Director:
Music for Preparation
Medley of Advent Hymns
Response to the Assurance of Pardon
"Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God"
Jim Strathdee, New Wine (see Advent I)
Response to the Proclamation
"Awake the Trumpet's Lofty Sound" Handel
Response to the Stewardship Challenge
"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus"
Charles Wesley
IV. Bulletin Cover
Church secretary:
V. Bulletin Symbols
VI. Lighting the Advent Candles
Person or family:
VII. Miscellaneous Details (Assignments:)
Ushers
Candlelighters
Hosts/Hostesses
Banners
Flowers
Greeters
Posters
Name-tags
Others
