A Great Sunday, part 1
Yesterday, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville held “Levi Sunday”.
The name is a reference to the Levites, and also a sign that we were encouraged to wear jeans (brand not important). The keyword for the day was service.
We started in the sanctuary for worship. It started normally, and this week had the choir out of the loft and in front of us along with the children’s choir. The readings were from Numbers 8 (we left out the bit about the bull) and James on good works. The sermon was a quick tag-team conversation by both pastors.
When we reached the offering, the service relocated. All of us were asked to put our paper offerings in the plate as we exited the sanctuary to head for multiple parts of the church to do service projects. When we came in before the worship service we were each given a name tag with a color on it. The colors separated us into our tasks. One group assembled hygiene kits for Crisis Ministry of Trenton and Princeton. Another group made Baby Kits for Church World Service and yet another group made School Kits for them – these are to be used in disaster areas. Yet another group (mine) assembled bag lunches for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. We were given worksheets to complete if we had time after the tasks.
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Chaos and order were clearly in tension as the tasks were completed. In the lunch assembly room we had more people than we could possibly use, and ended up with each person building a lunch piece by piece or making sandwiches while another group formed an assembly line. In about 20 minutes we assembled over 100 lunches using something like 30-40 people.
I also think everybody got the messages. We are saved through faith but good works are also important. Good works are the offering that we make in thanks for grace.
Our congregation is really good at mission. We send lots of money out into the world to do good things. We send lots of people out to do good things – disaster relief, service in the community and beyond. This day linked that service to our beliefs. I believe that I said something about our youth in a meeting recently – they know (and do) the right thing to do, but they’re a little fuzzy on the reason why. I think the whole congregation is sometimes a little fuzzy too. This helped.
The Church and Stewardship II
Yesterday, the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville held it’s Ark Sunday.
The sermon touched on stewardship and giving of your time and money. Unfortunately, the pastor used actual numbers in his sermon, referencing the “person making $100,000 who gives only $50 per week”. Any time the pastor starts talking about hard numbers in a sermon he’s certain to annoy people. I’m a bit irked by that remark myself. My wife and I have decided that our goal is to tithe to charity as a whole, and that donations to the church are a part of that. So are donations to the church camp, American Diabetes Association, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, etc. And let’s not forget that we are giving to TWO churches since she is Catholic and a regular attender at her parish. But enough about tithing.
After the service, we were all invited to cross over to the Ark. Fellowship Hall was decorated like an ark, with “stalls” for each of the 5-6 church mission area (Youth, Adult Education, Mission, Music and Worship, and two others I can’t remember) to present their information. The stalls also had snack food at each. Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, and lots of salads and fixings were served. There was a Bounce House (inflatable bounce thing) for the kids and a balloon artist. The whole room was decorated with animals from beanie babies up to big inflatable alligators.
Penegra will slovak-republic.org cialis generika be however one of the superb capsule that you can exercise to battle against erection failure dilemma efficiently. It contains the active ingredient Vardenafil that works at a physiological level in treating erection problems. pfizer viagra without prescription check for info To treat this problem in men, the major one is the inability to maintain a prolonged erection that leads to an unsatisfied sexual life. generic viagra cheapest Look over for online driver ed to urge all levitra 20mg canada the knowledge you need! You may pass at your very first attempt if you’re taking the time to go. Do you remember the doves and fish from last week? These were posted all around the room. Each of us was told to take a sheet of 6 stickers and to put stickers on 6 different ideas that we thought the church should spend money on. From what I could see, the leading ideas were installing air conditioning in the sanctuary/Fellowship Hall to ensure more participation in the summer (this congregation virtually shuts down in the summer), participating in mission activities in Trenton (which the church already does abundantly), sending more money to a church in Haiti that this church works with, and making environmentally-friendly moves with the church. My idea wasn’t in the top 10 but was doing better than I expected – but I think it was helped by the fact that it was posted near the basket of stickers.
I came into this Sunday looking to talk to people about where I could volunteer my time. Unfortunately, the folks in the “stalls” were working harder pushing their snacks than looking for volunteers. I hope I’ll get more information through the New Member process.
Carolyn and I also talked to a few folks that we’d already met. Carolyn kept asking whether or not the painted monkeys were designed to look like her. They really did! I don’t think these folks quite know how to take Carolyn, but they haven’t really seen me full force either.
The Church and Stewardship
The Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville is doing something fun for stewardship.
Next week after the service, they are holding the Ark of Giving celebration after the service. In Fellowship Hall (turned into the ARK) they will have tables for each of the mission activities of the church. They are also apparently serving typical picnic food (burgers, hot dogs, etc.) and having a Bounce House for the kids (though one guy old enough to be my father was complaining about not having that for adults). We are encouraged to wear casual and comfortable clothes.
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I like a church that can handle a little chaos during the service, and yet keep it orderly.
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