Sunday the Fourth

Which was actually the 11th. The 4th was the third :). This past Sunday was the 4th of the 5 and as I wrote on Sunday morning, we didn't do too much to this service. In fact, I had a hard time deciding what to include in the questionnaire for this week because there wasn't a whole lot to ask about. We did do the Apostle's Creed in Q/A format, so I asked about that, and the Call to Worship was a rather boisterous affair, but other than that it was a rather calm, and quite beautiful Sunday morning. I was quite pleased with how everything came together and such a nice respite after 3 weeks of a certain level of chaos. Now, the chaos (and I don't mean that in a bad way at all) of the previous 3 weeks had as much to do with the time of year and happenings in the church as with what the team planned for worship services. They would have been somewhat chaotic anyway, with Reformation Sunday, All Saints Sunday, coming back into the Sanctuary after having been out for 4 months, Sanctuary Dedication, baptisms right and left, etc. etc.

Here's a rundown of this past Sunday's service:

Prelude - my mom was in town so she played an improv on Let All Things Now Living (Ash Grove)
Gathering Song - same one we've been doing - with somewhat mixed reaction
Welcome/Announcements
Call to Worship - for this call to worship, Kerry, the DOM led the congregation. Using part of the text from the opening hymn, the congregation stood facing each other (north side faced the south side) and we said (some of us yelled!) Alleluia back and forth to each other and finished with Praise the Everlasting King. It actually worked pretty well
Hymn: Praise My Soul the King of Heaven
Prayer of Confession
Assurance of Forgiveness
Response of Praise - normally we've been singing Give Thanks at this point, but this week we sang one verse of Be Thou My Vision (Riches I head not...)
Apostle's Creed - in Q/A format
Anthem - Jesus Paid It All (The title makes it sound like a bad choice for a Stewardship Sunday, but the next line after that is "All to Him I owe" so it works great)
Prayers of the People/Lord's Prayer - the liturgist at 8:15 and at 11:00 included a veterans remembrance in their prayer)
Offertory - I sang, with my mom at the piano and one of our members on guitar and singing as well - Turn Turn Turn (Pete Seeger).
Doxology
Prayer of Thanksgiving
Baptism - two this morning - the cutest babies you can ever imagine! (I think that clock in my head is getting rather loud)
Children's Message (11:00 only)
Prayer for Illumination
Scripture: Luke 12:15-21
Sermon: It All Goes Back in the Box - it was a good sermon, and one that I needed to hear. Certainly not a 'feel good' sermon.
Closing Hymn: Be Thou My Vision - not the 3 verse version in the Presbyterian Hymnal, but the 4 verse version found in most other hymnals
Benediction
Postlude: Praise My Soul the King of Heaven (can't remember the composer right now)

It was a nice, calm, Spirit filled morning - which I certainly needed because the rest of the day was rather crazy. But, that day is finally past. The concert went really well but way way way too long. I actually made it through everything without falling off the organ bench. Seriously that was a concern :). The Ives didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked, but the Testament of Freedom went great! As did the 12-tone organ duet my mom and I played. I gave a brief theory lesson to the congregation so that they would know why it sounded like we were playing all wrong notes. So, onward and upward