Coming Up: Easter Sunday, March 23

Just a few brief words about worship this upcoming Sunday.

I hope that you will join us for breakfast at 9:00. As a dear pastor I know likes to say, "We Disciples are people of the table." So one of the ways that we fellowship together is to eat together. On this holy day, I hope you will share a bit of your morning with your church family.

Following the Easter breakfast will be the Easter Drama, "The Second Day." Please come out and support 15 of our members as they share a retelling of the Easter story in the style of a 1930s radio program. So far, the cast seems to be enjoying the play, and I think you will too.

Following the play, we will celebrate the risen Christ together in our Easter worship. I won't go into too much detail on my sermon, which will be based on Matthew 28:1-10. Partially, this is because I don't know yet exactly what the sermon will be -- like I suggested last Sunday, I need to journey alongside Jesus this Holy Week, and I don't yet know what lessons I will learn these days. But the title of the sermon, "ASAP," should give you some idea of which verse I'm focusing my reflections on.

Lastly, I should note that there will a few small changes in the order of service that I would like to try out for a while. I don't think that they it will take long to get used to them. Most of the changes are small. The opening of the service has a few more components, including a responsive Call to Worship and an Invocation (opening prayer), along with the recently missing Gloria Patri. At the end of the service, the Benediction will now follow the Recessional Hymn, instead of preceding it.

Perhaps a little more noticeable are a couple of changes around The Lord's Supper. One of these changes is theological; the other is simply my preference. The theological change is an addition to the service -- before we share our joys and concerns we will share with each other a sign of God's peace, called the Passing of the Peace. Aside from being a ritualized example of our fellowship, this simple act reminds us of our need to reconcile ourselves with each other in preparation to share together in the Lord's Supper. The second change is simply for my benefit -- I've been finding it difficult to do the Meditation and Invitation to Communion at the same time, and I think both of these things are very important. So I've separated them to ensure that I never forget the invitation to the table (which I worry about).

Hmm, this was more than a few brief words....