Bible readings: Haggai 1:15b-2:9, Psalm 145 :1-5, 17-21 or Psalm 98, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 13-17, Luke 20,27-38.
About the Image:
Upper: This image comes from http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa276/crb6498/myspace%20graphics/christian/worshipslide28_659.jpg. I put a line from Josh Groban's song on it.
Lower:This image is made with two microsoft free clipart images,
Listening Song: Don't Give Up
By Josh Groban on his album, Awake (2006) (pictured at right). You can use this song as a response activity the same way as you can use the Susan Aston song - see the response activity below.
Listening Song: You Move Me
By Susan Ashton from her album, A Distant Call (see below for a way to use this song as a response)
Kid's Story: The Day It Rained ColoursBy Roy Etherton and Leon Baxter, Lion Publishing, ISBN 0856481734 (pictured at left). I used this story with the Haggai reading.
Poem: Be Like the Bird
By Victor Hugo in Imaging the Word Volume 2 by Susan A. Blain, Sharon Iverson Glouwens, Catherine O'Callaghan, Grant Spradling (Eds.), United Church Press, 1995, ISBN 0829810331, page 66. This poem fits in well with the Thessalonians reading.
Video Clip: The Trueman Show
One of the last scenes, where Trueman discovers the door in the wall at then end of the lake, relates well to the basic question that the Sadducees ask Jesus in the Luke reading - Is there more to life than just what we see? (pictured at right)
Video Clip: Snow Dogs
Show the scene about an hour in, where Ted meets the grizzly bear and things go from bad to worse. In desperation, he eventually rings the emergency number, but gets a recorded message. You can follow this with a discussion on what sort of measures we take when everything seems to be going wrong , and about what causes discouragement in our lives. This is a good lead in to the Haggai reading or the last verses of the Thessalonians reading.
Discussion Questions: For the Haggai Reading
1. Why are the people in this reading discouraged?
2. How are they encouraged?
3. What is the immediate promise that they are given?
4. What is the long term promise that they are given?
5. What is there in this reading for us?
Response Activity: For You Move Me by Susan Ashton or Don't Give Up by Josh Groban
The Josdh Groban is a more modern song but the Susan Ashton song has more than a minute of instrumental music at the end - they both work well so you choose :). Ask people to read 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 during this time and pinpoint the words or phrases they think God wants them to concentrate on. Alternatively, instead of asking them to read these verses, give each person a business cards with verse 17 printed on it.
Response Activity: The Church of the Future
Through Haggai, God told the people to keep building their temple. Through Paul, God promised the Thessalonians a fresh heart to keep working at their faith and their new Christian community. Have lots of model making materials available eg; pipe cleaners, paper, cardboard, balloons, glue, string, pencils, ribbon, modelling clay, boxes etc etc. Have people get in groups and ask each group to make a model of their church which portrays they way they think God wants their church to be in the future. N.B. I have done this with numerous groups and I have never yet seen a group make a model of their church building and I have never yet seen a model even remotely similar to another. The combined creativity of a bunch of ordinary people is truly inspiring.
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