questionable frolicking at Grandma & Grandpa’s Apartment
Posts tagged ‘Christmas’
Dec 27
Dec 20
Worship Reflections, 12.20.09
It was big music Sunday.
We have one every once in a while, but mostly around Christmas and Easter.
These are Sundays where we combine our music and musicians and offer identical services, rather than our customary classic style and contemporary style services.
Today, we walked back through our entire ‘Light’ series and landed on a strong message about being ‘light bearers’… carrying the light of God’s truth everywhere we go.
Joy to the World (Unspeakable Joy) (Tomlin) - congregational song led by band, vocals
welcome
O Come All Ye Faithful – congregational song led by orchestra & choir
recap: the light of creation and the light foretold
Let There Be Light (recorded by Point of Grace) – orchestra, band, choir, kids’ ensemble
recap: the light arrives (Jesus’ birth)
Hallelujah (Light Has Come) (by Barlow Girl) - women’s trio, choir, orchestra
scripture: excerpts from John 1 and Luke 2
Tonight – choir, soloists, orchestra
prayer
Hark the Herald Angels Sing – congregational song led by orchestra & choir
Advent narration: Light Bearers
message, including a first hand story of a light bearer
Carrier (Jared Anderson) – congregational song led by band, vocals
wrap-up
Go Light Your World soloists, orchestra, choir
Big music Sundays bring with them a different set of logistics, rehearsals, and technical needs of every stripe. Our team rose to the challenge and we had three very smooth worship experiences because of people who prepared well and allowed their gifts to shine.
If servants can make the day shine, they are heroes, right? The servant-heroes of today:
Bethany, who did ‘candle surgery’ on an obstinate Advent candle between services in order to keep it burning.
David, who created a powerpoint presentation containing all the words of every song, along with guides and prompts, projected to a rear screen so that all vocalists could be ‘off book’ with confidence.
Dave, who ran the aforementioned powerpoint flawlessly… a bit of a tedious job.
Jerry, who spent hours Saturday working through visuals for the entire service.
Adam, who was up until ? moving our projection screen, bringing in extra audio gear, and performing miracles on our PA system.
Nick, who agreed to run lights despite his stated lack of experience, but did a beautiful job and helped craft an atmosphere
Ryan, Brittany, and Kaitlyn, who have done a great job with narration pieces over the past four weeks.
Susan and Lyndon, who read beautifully.
Greg, Melanie, Kayla, Danni, Tanya, David, Kim & Wendell, who sang beautifully.
ushers who threw down lots and lots of extra chairs in little time to accommodate a packed 9:45 service
and an entire orchestra, choir, and band who did their part well three times over.
A live orchestra brings magic to almost any song. But our goal wasn’t magic. Our goal was to celebrate this great story, this great rescue, this thing of God becoming human to save us. And our goal was to remind ourselves that the story doesn’t stop there, at this tiny barn with a tiny baby, but continues with us. We are charged with carrying the light forward.
I come away from this morning grateful for all those people who participated, inspired to join the historical stream of light-bearers, and, through tears, adding a new song to my ‘favorite songs from Mary’ list, ‘Hallelujah (Light Has Come)” by Barlow Girl. Check it out.
And Merry Christmas!
Dec 18
Christmas Stockings: the quandary
So, last January our family got a dog. We had not had a dog ever before… I have never in my life had an indoor dog. But this one? Since the moment we met him at the Humane Society, when he walked over to me and laid his head on my knee, he has been a solid part of our family. He lives inside and outside our house. He sleeps on our couch. He eats our socks. I can barely remember life without him.
So naturally, in this Christmas season, our kids have asked if Sparky gets a stocking.
When Neil and I got married, we were given a set of Christmas stockings as a wedding present. I thought it was a brilliant gift, because who thinks of Christmas decorations in July? And now forever and ever when I hang these stockings on the chimney with care, I will remember who gave them to us and that we’ve had them for our entire married life.
It occurred to me that I would very much want to continue the Christmas stocking hanging tradition when we added kids to our family, but I knew I would not be able to find the exact same ones we had been given. This bothered my ‘all things in order’ head a bit, but I figured I could find stockings for kids that at least coordinate with ours.
Our daughter’s first Christmas brought the chance to start this all-important search. Not long after arriving at an attractive display of Christmas stockings, I realized the real question wasn’t ‘which ones’ but… ‘how many’?
Which is how I found myself in the Eddie Bauer Home store in December 1998, with our 8-month-old daughter in a stroller, debating how many kids we were going to bring into our family.
I was not having a conversation with my husband about this; I was in the store making this huge decision based solely on the need for a set of uniform Christmas stockings to be used in our family for all time. Because you have to buy them all at once if they’re going to look the same, right? Because you can’t count on the same stockings being sold every year, or even the same store being there, right? (Eddie Bauer Home?)
So I deliberated and frowned and eventually bought three matching stockings and stocking hangers, thus arbitrarily declaring that we, Neil and Kim Bontrager, would have three kids.
Fast forward a few years and we find ourselves with two great kids and circumstances that have declared it to be so. We love our kids, we are not at all discontent with our family. But we DO have an extra stocking.
And now we have a dog.
So, while the original question might have been ‘does the dog get a stocking?’, now we have moved on to ‘does the dog get the ‘third kid’ stocking?’. Because…wow. I don’t know how I feel about that. What are the social implications, both for the kids AND the dog?
It’s possible I’m overthinking this.
But I don’t think so.
So, taking votes. What should I do?
Advent week 3 Light Arrives
Advent sermon series: Light
week 3: Light Arrives
Order of worship
O Come O Come Emmanuel (traditional hymn)
recap of series, story of the birth of Jesus
O Little Town of Bethlehem (traditional carol)
‘Light of Creation’ narration
message part one: Mary & Joseph… trust & obedience
No Sweeter Name (Jobe)
message part two: Shepherds… message for everyone
The First Noel (hymncharts arr)
message part three: Wise Men… faith
Center (Hall) / Silent Night (traditional carol)
prayer
Glorious (Tomlin, Reeves) (offering)
church news
Notes
week 1 of this series
week 2 of this series
This week, our pastor pulled observations out of the story of Jesus’ birth, looking specifically at a few people we hear about every time the story is re-told. The overall takeaway was one of having faith… of trusting… of accepting God’s truth.
Best moment of the day: singing ‘No Sweeter Name’. This is a simple song of worship sung to Jesus and seemed like a sweet choice following a focus on Mary and Joseph. While I was listening to our pastor speak, it occurred to me that the words of the song could be sung from the perspective of Jesus’ parents. I mentioned something about this as we began the song… and then that idea completely broke me down as we sang it. Can you imagine THESE parents singing to their newborn baby ‘no sweeter name than the name of Jesus, no sweeter name have I ever known… you are the life to my heart and my soul, you are the light to the darkness around me’? Good grief. I’ve been thinking ever since that someone should write this into a drama… Mary sitting alone with the baby Jesus singing this song acapella, like a lullaby.
Have mercy.
‘Glorious’ by Chris Tomlin was a new song for us today. I first heard this song at a Passion conference in 2006; this song was featured during one of the most powerful moments of that experience. Neil suggested I think about using it during Christmas. It isn’t specifically a Christmas song, but it seems like anything that declares Jesus to be reigning, ‘glorious over us’, should be used to celebrate his birth. I was proud of how our band worked it up and how my friend Wendell sang it. It has the potential to be powerful once our church becomes familiar with it. Thinking about bringing it back on Christmas Eve…. hmmm…
Next week, our story continues: Light Bearers: we carry the light into the world
Family Advent week 3
Tonight our family took a moment … sitting, reading, lighting candles….
generally breathing a bit.
I highly recommend.
read this week’s thoughts with us
read week 1 & 2
the history of our family advent readings
