Sunday marked the first week of Advent.
Our sermon series for these four weeks is ‘Light’. We are tracing God’s story using Light as the thread weaving throughout.
This week, Light of Creation
Order of worship
welcome
kids’ songs: 3-4-5 year olds
ministry highlight: Thailand trip (in Feb we’re sending a group to Thailand where we support a few missionaries)
intro to theme
“Light of Creation” narration / advent candle
Creation video: gorgeous artistic representation of creation
‘God of Wonders’ (Mac Powell/Caedmon’s Call)
‘O Come Let Us Adore Him’
‘Your Name‘ (Baloche/Packiam)
Message: Light of Creation
(offering) Since the World Began (from Glory Revealed II): a truly beautiful song.
Notes
Our current auditorium is a multi-purpose room with large halogen lights in the house, and a few theatrical lights hitting the stage. House lighting is either ON or OFF (no dimming), goes OFF immediately, and comes ON gradually. There are also windows on 2 sides of the room. So it’s a bit of an action to have a dark room and arrange lighting changes effectively. Nevertheless, we are going to play with light throughout this series, so we have to be able to control it.
We covered the windows, and prior to the narration, went completely black. We lit the narrators, but mostly had very minimal lighting until the message. To accomplish this, my brilliant husband wired our musicians’ stand lights and our giant Christmas tree to dimmers, so even those elements are now controllable.
The narration and video come from a Christmas production by Willow Creek church. We will be using their narration pieces every week as our customary Advent readings. We have asked a few high school students to present these narrations memorized; Ryan & Brittany were the actors this week and they did a truly great job.
In the coming weeks, our story continues:
- Light Foretold: Darkness, and the message of light to come
- Light Arrives: Emmanuel…. Light with us.
- Light Bearers: we are to carry the light into the world
