Each June members of the Worship Committee (who provide guidance for Central’s traditional worship service) and the Celebration Worship Leaders (who provide leadership for Central’s contemporary worship service) and related staff gather for a worship planning retreat. The purpose of this retreat is to come up with ideas for the different sermon series that Jeff Cover and I preach throughout the year. This Saturday, June 27, is the retreat date.
For the 2008-2009 program year, individual sermon series were connected to the overall theme “Called To…”; what and who are God’s people called to do and be?
For the 2009-2010 program year, the overall theme is:
Disciples Are…
For the past year we have explored what it means to be called by God…a natural move is to now explore in great depth the outcome or result of God’s call, which is Discipleship. The call we answer is to a specific form of Discipleship…as we are Disciples of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ charge from God is to transform the world, to actualize God’s Kingdom (though the word ‘Kindom’ is perhaps a more understandable metaphor for Gospel-hearers in 21st Century America), and thus our Discipleship is not an inwardly focused, individualized activity…but is focused on others…we are Disciples on behalf of the world!
Possible Thematic Ideas:
- Disciples Are…World Changers (disciples exist for the good of the world)
-
Disciples Are…Servants (a Lenten series based on the ‘Servant Song’
texts in Isaiah 40-55) - Disciples Are…On The Go (stories of being sent by God)
- Disciples Are…Perplexed But Never Without Hope
- Disciples Are…Agents of Grace
As those who lead worship at Central head into the planning retreat on Saturday, we would appreciate your welcome your ideas. What do you want to know about Disciples and Discipleship? What sermon series ideas pop into your head when you hear this theme? Leave a response on the blog, or send me an email and know how grateful we are for your thoughts.
Worship is our heart as a congregation. Worship is what makes us unique from any other organization or club. Worship is where we come to give thanks to and connect with God, and are energized and sent out in service. Worship is a God-given gift!
I’ll see you in worship this Sunday!!
Disciples are concerned about the world. This has new meaning for the 21st century. People in the United States use and have used the resources of the world at a rate much greater than our share as measured by the percentage of the worlds population. So we as a nation and a church have concerned ourselves about the resources in the world as well as the people of the world. Some of this is good and some is selfish but there has been concern for the world. Now the world is shrinking and the resources are not abundant. Many argue that there are not enough resources in the world to supply the current population. If this is not true today it will be soon. We have to learn more about sharing as Christian Disciples in a 21st century.