Alternative Worship

Iconostasis

Fire

Continuing our series, Elemental, our final gathering was Fire.

The theme was "Fan into flame the gift of God." 2Timothy 1:6

Outside, the week prior, we placed a "burning bush" with flame invitations. Unfortunately, we put it out on Halloween and someone stole the whole bush!













Night of, outside, we had a fire going in a portable fire pit and red luminaries lining the steps.










Station One: Exodus 13 (the pillar of fire)

Outside near the fire we placed a basket of votive candles with a Jesus icon on it in a basket for folks to take. Directions read, "Whenever you light this candle remember that God is light and will lead you in the light."

Outside looking in to sanctuary

Station Two Exodus 3:1-14 The Burning Bush

Signs inviting people to enter this holy place and remove their shoes.

We also had the scripture for folks to read.

The sanctuary and narthex were done on red and orange fabric. Lots and lots of candles. We also had a video of fire playing on the wall.

Station Three

Zecheriah 2:1-5 The wall of fire "5 And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,' declares the LORD, 'and I will be its glory within.'"

In our cry room (a lovely space off the narthex) we used fabric and candles to create a circular wall of fire. We invited people to enter the circle and sit (on cushions or the floor) We had directions: God desires to replace our walls of self protection with God's protection Sit and rest, let God’s goodness surround and protect you

Station Four Ezekiel 1:4-14 and Ezekiel 8:1-4. The awesomeness of our God. We had drawings of the beings descriped in the scripture (by local artist Heidi Estey), scripture and poetry. A red light shone on the images. We simply asked folks to meditate on the hugeness of God.


Station Five Jeremiah 9:9...his word is in my heart like a fire. 2 Corinthians 4:6 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.














We made paper mache hearts and let folks design their own "heart for God"

Station Six Revelation 8:4 The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God's people, went up before God from the angel's hand

We had censors with charcoal burning, folks added incense as they prayed.

I don't know why there is so much space after each post. I am still figuring this out.

Alternative Worship Earth

Earth

Theme
The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. Psalm 24:1

Sacred Space
This is what we call the design or decoration of the space where the gathering is held-usually in our sanctuary.

Earth tones (duh!) browns, greens, rust and stone colors, black, gray and white.
Lots of plants, branches, rocks, etc.

Invitations
We try and invitations outside the church the week or so before for passer-bys (passers-by?) to take

We bundled small branches and flowers with twine and attached an invite. We just put them on the grounds outside and lots of them were picked up (I saw a dog take one also)

Narthex

The lobby people enter into

We had two creation areas

One for the earth, with plants, cool rocks, fossils, etc.

The other God of Wonders beyond our galaxy

Station One

A Meditation Station

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made & Psalm 104

We have an artist on our church is who is also a landscape artist. She created an inside garden using real foilage & fauna, pillows coverd in "astroturf-ish" fabric, a bubbling brook (okay, a fountain),etc.

It was so peaceful! We had beautiful music playing. A very popular station.

Station Two

The Rock of Refuge
Psalm 62 “Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

Folks take a rock and write words that convey their trust or distrust of God. They could leave the rock at the altar or take it as a reminder.

We also invited them to feel the weight of rocks compared to sand. And think about the rock as a foundation for faith. Matthew 7:25-27

Station Three

Adamah

Genesis 2:4b-9, 15

The Hebrew word for Adam means earth or soil. We are from the earth.

We invited folks to take sand and run it through their fingers, letting fall at the foot of the cross. We asked them to remember their creator and their mortaility

Station Four

The Sower Mark 4:1-20



There were four shadowboxes, each depicting a different"soil" from the parable.

1. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up

2. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root

3. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain

4. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.

We asked, "What kind of dirt does God encounter in your life? "

We found paper embedded with wildflower seeds from Of The Earth flowerseedpaper.com that is printer friendly. You bury the paper in the ground (take care of it) and wildflowers grow! Awesome! Printed directions on one side and "like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown."

Station directions said:

Don't just hear the word of God. Plant it deep within your heart. Take a card. Plant it in good soil

Pray that the seeds planted tonight will flourish in your garden and your soil.

Station Five

Tragic Error

from a poem by Denis Levertov

based on Psalm 24:1

This station focused on our irresponsibility and destruction of the earth and it's resources.

Three artists made shadowboxes.

Deforestation, genetically enhanced foods (killer tomatoes)and pollution of the oceans (and killing of a whale. A whale had recently been hunted and killed here in the Northwest)

We asked people to pray for our earth and to become better caretakers. We offered a list of things they could do to be better stewards.

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