God has gifted humankind with the amazing, exciting, enjoyable, exploring gift of imagination.
Do other creatures have Imagination? I don’t know. But I do know you and I have it.The ability to see things in one’s mind, even though they have not yet happened. God’s Gift of Imagination comes in very handy when planning the Sunday church service.
Without it the service easily becomes a boring routine.
A boring routine.
Every Sunday is the same.
A boring routine.
Without Imagination — the same ingredients every Sunday.
Such routine is boring.
Worship songs, a prayer, the sermon, a worship song, benediction.
Every Sunday is the same.
A boring routine.
Without imagination the service becomes a boring routine.
But NO! We will use our imagination!
We will imagine a service with many ingredients.
We will prayerfully trust the Holy Spirit to fire our imagination as we “preprayer” the order of service.
The heart of the Church Service is preaching the Word of God (2 Timothy 4:1-5).
The Scripture text and sermon topic will likely provide the theme for the whole service
Then, with God inspiring our imaginations around this theme, we will combine various ingredients in a variety of sequences to lead the congregation through the worship service.
Some ingredients could be … prayer of confession … Scripture reading(s) … giving … the church’s creed/statement of faith … testimony(ies) … motivating the church’s programme for the week (aka announcements) … children’s chat … communion of the Lord’s Supper … reports (outreach/missions/mercy ministries) …
Intercession prayer(s) … performance song … Baptism … drama production … prayer for the sick, with laying of hands … altar call … time for silent prayer … suitable songs sung throughout the service … and (of course) the sermon. And we will add even more ingredients, as God fertilises our imaginations.
Each Sunday will be different, for the Holy Spirit-inspired Imagination has infinite permutations. Sometimes the sermon may be preached in sections throughout the service, interspersed with other ingredients, always ensuring it is carried as a clear cohesive message throughout.
Such a church will never be stuck in a boring rut of routine services. And God will be pleased (1 Corinthians 12; Colossians 3:16; 1 Timothy 1:13.14; 1 Timothy 2:1-7; 2 Timothy 4:1-5; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Matthew 28:16-20; 1 Corinthians 14:3-5, 26).
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