life’s little stories

Two days ago, our church went through one of the most powerful worship experiences I can remember us having.  Today, I might be able to think about it without being in tears. We’ll see.

We invited several people to share their stories with the church through cardboard testimonies.  (You can watch an example of cardboard testimonies here from Hillside Christian Church in Texas.)  We knew the experience was going to be moving.  We knew it was going to be powerful. It was not possible to foresee just how intense and profound it would be.  Here are the ingredients as they came together:

The lineup.
scripture:  Psalm 105:1-5 
Unashamed Love
How Great is Our God/How Great Thou Art
Message:  Stories…from people like you 
Cardboard Testimonies. Song: ‘How He Loves‘
Invitation to write your own story
Song: ‘Fire Fall Down‘
Prayer
Offering. song: ‘You Never Let Go‘ 

Details.
Opening Set: These songs were selected because they are very familiar to our church and carry very strong, simple themes of worship. 

Message: Our pastor told four stories out of scripture, each a story of a different kind of need fulfilled through God’s love and intervention.  A body healed… a hard heart made soft… a broken heart mended… a relationship restored.  We believe God not only worked this way in the past, but that he still changes people… he’s still healing and mending and restoring…

Cardboard Testimonies: As our pastor walked off the platform, our youth pastor walked up with the first piece of cardboard carrying his own story of transformation. Over the next few minutes, the stage was filled as one by one, 33 people walked up and shared their testimony this way. To make the signs readable to those in the back, we had two cameras shooting them, with the feed projected on screen. The song ‘How He Loves’ was played and sung during this time.  It’s perfect for this…. wordy in the right places, simple in the right places.  Over and over, as the church read the signs of confession and transformation, they heard the words ‘He loves us… how he loves us!’ 

Invitation to write your own story: Our pastor invited the congregation to take their own ‘cardboard’ (brown squares of paper) and write … ‘the story God has written, is writing, or you’re asking Him to write in your life’.  He invited them to take the time to pray, write, think, etc…. and then if they had the courage, to stand up during our song and hold up their own testimony.  

Song ‘Fire Fall Down’: This is a new song for us, but it fit this moment perfectly. (If you’re familiar with the song… we did a short version; we didn’t do the ‘fire fall down’ or ’show me your heart’ sections.)  By this point in the morning, many people were emotionally shredded.  They did take time to pray, they did take time to write, and many did choose to stand and hold up their own story.  Some sang along with the chorus:  I know that You’re alive; You came to fix my broken life.  Now I sing to glorify Your holy name, Jesus Christ.  We then went into a few repetitions of the ‘Unashamed Love’ chorus ‘Worthy…. you are worthy…’.

Offering.  For the past few years, we’ve designated the offering taken on the Sunday before Thanksgiving to be sent to ministries outside of our church. The entire offering from this weekend will be divided between ministries for those in need in Wichita, an AIDS orphanage in Thailand, and an in-home health care program for AIDS patients in South Africa.  This was an excellent way to express our thanks to God on this specific Sunday.

Song ‘You Never Let Go’:  This is a very familiar song, which people grabbed hold of and sang with great energy.  By this point, there were a few people praying together at the front of the room, and many of the cardboard testimony people were lining the back of the room, hands held high, singing their hearts out. 

My reflections
Three things that nearly ended me on Sunday….
1. There’s something incredibly powerful about seeing people stand in front of you, clear-eyed, displaying a few words that describe the lowest part of their lives, and then the change God has brought about.  I cried when I saw it on youtube.  I cried when I was thinking about who in our congregation to ask to participate. I cried when I saw the first list of participants.  I cried when I saw them come together on Saturday morning to make their signs. On Sunday, yes, even though I was the one singing during and after their testimonies, I struggled to hold it together. 

2. Seeing people in the congregation stand and hold up their own stories.  And knowing some of the stories. 

3. Seeing our cardboard testimony people leave the platform and then choose to stand in the back of the room so they could pray and worship as the congregation was writing their own stories.

And what has been affecting me ever since… the emails and comments, the face-to-face conversations about how this morning affected all who were there.  People who took the leap to invite friends for the first time, and now are having conversations with these friends because it became evident that Christians really aren’t perfect.  The long time church member who said that this was the best worship service she had attended in 40 years!  We have not been good at telling each other our stories…at being vulnerable in that way.  Now I have questions: what do we do next? How do we continue to grow in this way? How do we keep this level of ‘real-ness’ alive?

But mostly, I am thankful and I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed by what God has done and is doing in the lives of people. I am overwhelmed by those who jumped in to the production side of this weekend with great enthusiasm and generosity. And I am overwhelmed by those who were willing to stand up and share their stories, side-by-side, shouting silently of God’s love and goodness.

This post is a part of Sunday Set Lists at Fred’s blog.  Check it out.