Date: Sunday 4th June

Location: Bracknell

Special occasion: themed service – “Elected”

Although the picture on the left is from the morning service in Watford (the kids were magnificent – singing and performing the actions to the song, “Great big God” – “thank you”, Danny), I’m going to focus this review on the Bracknell event because it was a special themed service.

The title was “Elected” as a pun on the forthcoming general election and the scriptures about our spiritual election.

Outline

The service outline is below:

Item Details Who Other
Song Thank you Lord – Voices & Guitar Tidu/Roger Band
Song I Will Rise – Band Tidu Band
Song Hallelujah (Lord we sing ….) – Band Tidu/Roger Band
Welcome & Prayer Watkins
Slideshow Children go to classes
Song Transcend – Voices & Guitar Alex Band
HOPE talk It’s not about governments, but us here in this room Tony
Song Take my Life – Voices & Guitar. While HOPE collection taken up Tidu Voices & Guitar
Introduction Malcolm Explain group work
Group work Together with the person sitting next to you, discuss a time you felt chosen and how it felt (not about God). 2’s or 3’s
Sharing Get a few responses.  Introduce testimonies. Malcolm
Testimony 1 Shevvy
Sharing What did we notice about Shevvy’s testimony? Malcolm
Testimony 2 CJ
Sharing What did we notice about CJ’s testimony?
Communion Describe how God chose/elected us because of Jesus. Take the bread to choose Jesus. Malcolm Holding loaf. Break at end & distribute.
Song Amazing Grace – Voices. Bread and wine passed Obi Voices
Song Here Am I Send Me (Brian Craig version) – Band Tidu Band

Handout

We gave a handout to everyone who attended so they could reflect on what they were hearing, and take something away for further quiet time and discussion material. You can see a copy here: Election Service handout.

Reflections

Several people remarked on the helpfulness of having a theme for the entire service. It helped them to concentrate, focus and dial down deep into the topic. The testimonies were terrific. Very different characters and circumstances clearly illustrating that God chooses all kinds of people. The speakers remembered to include points for the teenagers in the room, which I would hope will have made the messages more relevant for them.

Have you run a specially ‘themed’ service recently? If so, what worked, and what did not? Do you have any recommendations for events such as these?

Let me know your ideas. You can leave a message here, or send me an email: mccx@mac.com.

God bless,

Malcolm