Calvary Lutheran Church
63 Lake Concord Road, NE
Concord, NC 28025

April 28, 1999

Dear Catherine,

Enclosed you will find a copy of the Youth Sunday Worship service held at Calvary, Concord on April 25.  I am sending for the files a copy of the bulletin, the script, and a list of needed resources.

The “Bubbles” children’s sermon was really effective with the blowing of bubbles to illustrate how short-lived so much of life is, but the Word lasts forever.  We even had some adults standing in line after the service begging for a bottle of bubbles.

Another innovation that others might find useful is our “PEW PALS.”  We have a wonderful problem that will be resolved with our new building: We have more children and children’s programs than our current building can comfortably house.  We have as many as 25 children coming up for children’s sermon now, so we had to limit children’s church to kindergarten and younger.  For our lower elementary grades, we have created a small tote bag with a Bible story book, several sheets of Bible puzzles and games, a writing pad, crayons, and a pencil: thus the Pew Pal.  These bags are distributed to the children following the children’s sermon.  In each bag there is a card with the instructions for returning the bag at the end of the service and asking for parents’ critique of the program.  So far we have received only positive feedback.  One grandparent offered to buy one of the bags for a gift.

Although I have not used the resource files yet, I have studied them for ideas and thik this is an excellent idea.

In His service,

Joyce, AIM

Used with permission from Heilig Resource Center

Meditation: 	Psalm 95:1-7		Who Needs God?
		Jonathan and Stefanie 

Stefanie:	It is easy to see Christ as Lord in the church, but it’s another thing to see Him as Lord at home, school, work, and play.  How does one bridge the gap between what happens in church and the chancel, and what happens in life and the world.  What does Sunday morning have to do with Monday morning, Wednesday afternoon, or Friday night?  What does liturgy have to do with life?  Liturgy comes from the Latin and means “People’s Work.”  Therefore, Life is Liturgy and Liturgy is Life.  What happens minute by minute in the liturgy, happens hour by hour in the life of a Christian?
Jonathan:	Who needs God today?  In an age where science speaks to our every need, who in the world needs God?  Only the ignorant and superstitious of the Dark Ages.  Only the peasants and the paupers of the Middle Ages.  Only the weak and needy of this age.  The strong, the brilliant, the wise, the resourceful, the healthy.  They have their health, their resources, their wisdom, their brilliance, their strength.  They have their God!
Stefanie:	But there is a God and you need Him!  Jesus Christ is Lord!  Come.  Let us sing unto the Lord.  Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Jonathan:	What are you saying?
Stefanie:	Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.
Jonathan:	Why?
Stefanie:	For the Lord is a great God and a great king above all gods.  In His hands are the deep places in the earth.
Jonathan:	Oh, yeah!
Stefanie:	The strength of the hills are His, also.  The sea is His and He made it.  And His hands formed the dry ground.
Jonathan:	Hey!  Wait a minute!
Stefanie:	O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Jonathan:	Bow down, Huh!?
Stefanie:	For He is our God.  And we are the people of His pastures.  And the sheep on His right hand.
Jonathan:	Sheep!  That’s pretty funny.
Stefanie:	Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Jonathan:	That’s stupid!
Stefanie:	As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Jonathan:	Yeah!  Yeah!  A Man.
Stefanie:	Christ is Lord if you acknowledge it or not.  He’s Lord if you like it or not!  Even if every man denies it, Christ IS Lord!  You Can’t dethrone God?
		Before the worlds were framed, Christ was Lord.  He is Lord of Creation.  All exists because of Him.  For centuries of dark and ominous time, every act, every occurrence, every happening centered in Him.  History moved from Christ to Christ.
		Then He entered the human scene.  Born as a baby in a donkey’s feedbox.  Son of God and Son of Mary.  The years before Him were called “B.C.” and after Him “A.D.”  The world was turned upside down because of Him.  And history moved on, centered in Him.  This year exists for Him.  The earth spins on its axis and in orbit for Him.  Humanity lives and breathes for Him.  Trees bud, birds sing, flowers bloom for Him.  And time and history moves on through Him.  It is speeding to an end, in Him.  He will come again, and every eye will be focused on Him.  The decision of life depends on Him.  Christ truly is Lord.

RESPONSE to the Word:
Jennifer:	We worship God because He alone is worth our worship.  That’s what worship is – “worth ship.”  It’s acknowledging the worth of God in our lives.  It’s living him as Lord because of His great worth.
Stephen:	Liturgy happens on Sunday morning with the invocation.  In the liturgy Man reaches through the false gods he has created for himself.  To the Name which is above all names.  In this NAME he confesses his inhumanness.  It’s hard to say “God, I messed up.”  But it is even harder to say it to the person you have hurt.
Jennifer:	Even though man’s hunt is often up wrong alleys, energy is spent in futile chases, and man does not always want to find God in his pursuits, God does get into the picture.  But it always happens this way:  GOD FINDS MAN.  It is never the other way around.  That’s absolution!
Stephen:	A man dies.  And he rises again.  Not literally, of course.  That will happen only once.  But the old Adam in him dies and the new Adam arises.  How often each day?  With each sin forgiven.  That’s God at work: finding, accepting, forgiving, absolving.

L:	Build yourselves upon your most holy faith;
C:	pray for the Holy Spirit.

Renewal:
Will:		Now something new happens.  God and man who are separated come together and touch.  Sparks begin to fly.  Things happen like they never happened before.  People get excited.  They sing, they pray, they praise, they listen.  The introit begins the commotion “God” gets said all over the place.  These outbursts simply stir excitement in the fact that God and man are on speaking terms again.
Kelly:		When you know God loves you, and you’re glad, you are going to celebrate.  You are going to do things like gathering with others to talk about God, to get to know Him better through the living Word, to gather around His Table for Holy Communion, and to thank Him.  You’ve got to.  You can’t help yourself.  You just have to reply when God speaks in love.

L:	Keep yourselves in the love of God;
C:	look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hymn:	Be Thou My Vision	776 (WOV)

Assurance:	
Graham:	God isn’t satisfied simply to know you and to touch you.  His aim is to penetrate your life and make something new out of you.  He wants to dig in and change you.  The “mountaintop” experiences in the service occur with the reading of the scriptures, especially the Gospel, with the sermon, and with Holy Communion.  This is where God really digs into you.
Stefanie:	God’s penetration of your life not always happens during the worship service/the message has to soak in.  Today’s message may hit you on Monday evening as you poke around in the refrigerator, or Thursday noon as you stand at the lunch counter, or Saturday morning after you’ve slept in.