Love God, Others, and One Another

(A service to promote a Church Away Day)

As people arrive:

- Adults are given an envelope with "Please Do Not Open - until you are asked" written on it.

- Children are given a word-search with "Please do not open" written on the outside.

- Give a pencil to children only.

GP - Welcome and Introduction

Welcome Baptism families.

Notices:

SC - Opening prayer

Lord, direct our thoughts,

teach us to pray,

lift our hearts to worship you in Spirit and an truth,

through Jesus Christ. Amen.

SC - Song:

SC - Let us return to the Lord our God and say to him:

Father, we have sinned against heaven and against you.

We are not worthy to be called your children.

We turn to you again.

Have mercy on us, bring us back to yourself

as those who once were dead,

but now have life through Christ our Lord. Amen

GP - Absolution

SC - Collect

GP - What's going on then?

Ask Steve, Karen and Jan to come out to the front.

What's going on in our church?

Some things happen on a Sunday; for example this Family Service.

(Write it on a blue card and give to a child

- don't explain the significance of the colours).

Some things happen on other days; for example, we often have weddings on a Saturday.

(Write it on a red card and give to a child).

Some things only happen once or twice a year; for example, many of us went camping together last summer.

(Write it on a yellow card and give to a child).

What also goes on in our church?

(This needs to be done fairly fast - remember to ask adults, but explain that they I'll ask a child to come and hold the card).

Ask people to put their hand up if there is something here that they didn't know was going on.

Make the point that there's a lot going on.

Ask the children to sit down, but to keep their cards safe for later in the service.

SC - Song:

GP - Introduce Reading

There's a lot going on in the church, but why do we do all these things? Karen is going to read our Bible reading, ...see if this gives you a clue.

KS - Bible Readings:

Matthew 22.34-40 and John 13.34-35

Talk: Who should we love?

The Christian Faith is not first and foremost about doing things.

I need to stress that, because we've just mentioned dozens of things that we do. ...So let me say it again...

The Christian Faith is not first and foremost about doing things, ...it's primarily about relationships.

The phrase "All you need is love", might have been made popular by the Beatles, ...but it's a principle that goes back to Jesus.

When he was asked what were the greatest commandments, he said "Love".

But exactly who should we love?

Who did Jesus say in those two readings?

Obtain the following answers, (OHP):

- love God, ...first and foremost;

- love others, ...remember Jesus went on to tell the Parable of the Good Samaritan, where he said our neighbour is anyone who is in need.

- love one another, ...Jesus said, "Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another."

I put it to you, that for everything we do as a church, we need to ask the question, "Does this thing help us to love God, to love others, or to love one another", ...because that's what we should be about.

So in what do we do as a church to help us to love God?

Ask those with BLUE cards to come out. Read them, and summarize as follows, (OHP):

- Our WORSHIP here in Church should be an expression of our love for God.

And because God is both the awesome creator of the whole universe, ...and yet he can also be closer than our closest friend, ...so too our different styles of services should help us to worship him in different ways.

- And PRAYER is also at the heart of our relationship with God. Prayer is two way communication, ...listening to what God is saying to us, ...and talking to him, (both at church, and everywhere else).

Ask those with RED cards to come out. Read them, and summarize as follows, (OHP):

- As a church we are called to be HELPING OTHERS IN NEED. Our love for others must be expressed in very practical ways, ...assisting them through the important transitions of life, (like getting married, or having a baby, or losing a loved one).

Helping those in our community, ...and those in poorer countries.

- But we're not just social workers, or an aid agency. As Christians we believe that the Gospel of Jesus is the answer to the world's problems, ...and we have the privilege of SHARING THE GOSPEL with others.

Helping others in need, and sharing with them the Christian message are two things that often go hand in hand.

Ask those with YELLOW cards to come out. Read them, and summarize as follows, (OHP):

- FELLOWSHIP and SOCIAL EVENTS are very important for the life of the church. Such things help is to express the fact that we each belong to one another, ...we are all members of God's family.

- LEARNING TO BE A DISCIPLE OF JESUS, is another way in which we can grow together, (whether through Alpha, or Christians for Life Groups, or Housegroups). Such groups can be challenging at times, but most people would say that they're also great fun.

SC - Let us affirm our faith in God:

We believe in God the Father,

from whom every family in heaven and earth is named.

We believe in God the Son,

who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit

who strengthens us with power from on high.

We believe in one God;

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

SC - Song: 1 A new commandment I give unto you

GP - What do you find exciting?

What do you make of these words?

Put up OHP containing words like 'enthusiastic', 'exciting'.

I often hear people use words like this when talking about the hobbies of their friends:

- he's a passionate fisherman, or

- she's an enthusiastic City fan.

What do you really care about?

Children, I'm going to ask you to wait just a couple of more minutes, ...but first can I ask the adults to open the envelopes that they were given at the beginning of the service.

There you find the six areas of church life which we've been thinking about.

Do you feel [excited, passionate, ... etc.] about any of them.

If you don't, just leave your card blank.

If you do, I'd like you to circle just one or two things that you really care about.

Does anyone need a pencil?

I'll give you just one minute to think about it.

(pause)

If you have circled something, I'd like you to consider coming on our Away Day in three weeks time.

It's for anyone, (age 16 or over), who cares about the future of our church.

It's on Saturday 24 January, from 10.00 am until 4.00 pm., at Budbrooke Church Centre, (near Warwick), ...and will be lead by Tony Bradley, (who has a great deal of experience in leading such days).

I promise you that the day will be great fun, and it will give us an opportunity to think, listen, and dream about the future of our church.

If this is something that you would be interested in coming to, please write your name and phone number on the back of the card.

Now, you might say:

I'd like to come,

- but I don't have transport, or

- I don't know if I'm working, or

- I don't know if I can get a baby sitter, or

- some other practical difficulty.

Well don't worry about that at the minute. Writing your name on the back of the card does not commit you to coming, ...but we will ring you during the week to see if we can help sort out your practical difficulty.

So still write your name and phone number down.

Similarly, we've got limited places, so we can't guarantee everyone a place.

But if you would be interested in coming, (even though you might not be able to), please write your name and phone number on the back of the card.

If you're not interested, just leave it blank.

Now put it back in envelope and seal it.

Our sidesmen are now going to collect your envelopes, while Steve talks to the children.

SC - Word-Search

Jan - The Prayers

followed by the Lord's Prayer

GP - Song:

GP - Blessing