Rainey Prays on Some Days

Below is a family liturgy to use for Thanksgiving Day. It assumes five readers and allows opportunity for all present to offer a single sentence prayer of thanks. Start just before the meal, then continue after the meal. Thanksgiving Day Reader 1: Today is a special day in the life of our nation and in the life of our home. We gather together to give thanks to the Almighty God for the blessings he has granted us and those whom we love. Reader 2: (Prayer). Father, we acknowledge your goodness to us and to all humankind on this Thanksgiving Day. Receive our words of praise to your glory, and bless this food. May it strengthen our bodies and nourish our spirits. Keep us mindful, Lord, of the needs of others, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Meal Reader 3: Read White House Thanksgiving Proclamation 2020 Reader 4: Psalm 118 1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever. 2 Let all Israel repeat:“His faithful love endures forever.” 3 Let Aaron’s descendants,...

Screen Recording: Using Twitter to Find Great Kindle Deals I've been doing this for the past several years and have built a great Kindle library of Christian books and theological resources. Enjoy!

Scripture Reading or Story/Illustration When one is preaching and then following the sermon by leading communion, I think it is a good idea to attempt to bridge from the theme of the message to the Lord’s Supper. Otherwise, I like to introduce the Lord’s Supper a couple of different ways. First, one can use a scripture theme such as the Cup of Judgment ( Psalm 75 ) or the Wedding Supper of the Lamb ( Rev. 19:6-9 ). Both of these tie nicely into the Lord’s Supper and introduce some aspect of communion. For example, Psalm 75 identifies God’s judgment as drinking from a cup of wine, which is exactly the picture we get of what Jesus did for us, praying in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Let this cup (of judgment) pass, but not my will but yours be done." In Revelation 19, the Wedding Supper of the Lamb is the ultimate heavenly meal of which the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste. These passages can draw people into the communion experience. A story or illustration can also draw p...

A Quick and Easy Way to Write a Good Church Christmas Musical So it's getting into the fall, maybe even late November, and you know Christmas is coming. Your church has nothing special planned for Advent. What can you do? Why not write a Christmas musical combined with Readers Theater ? I have found this works well and requires minimal rehearsing. Here's how I do it. Pick Five to Eight Songs The first thing I do is search for good Christmas music and select enough songs based on the length of time I have for the musical. I watch You Tube videos of Christmas songs, find out if my favorite artists have made a holiday album, look for movie soundtracks such as The Nativity Story , and check our church's CCLI SongSelect account for Christmas favorites and/or contemporary versions of Christmas songs. After I select the song list, I give them to the worship leader so he can determine if they work for the music team. I have a pretty good ear for music, but don't read mu...

The new year brings with it a renewed opportunity to set goals and do things we’ve always wanted to do but have failed to accomplish in the past. For many people, this also means renewed attempts to practice spiritual disciplines such as Bible reading and prayer. I will leave prayer for another discussion,  but I have found a particular way to read the Bible far more helpful than any other. In this post, I’d like to recommend this method: reading the Bible in chronological order. If you’ve sat down and attempted to read a Bible from beginning to end, you can certainly get a lot of it. But you are likely to also be confused and frustrated because it does not always flow in a chronological or historical sequence. The Bible, if read straight through, actually skips around quite a bit historically. The problem is that it doesn’t really tell you it’s skipping around. You just have to know, or read the introductory article if you’re using a study Bible, to get the historical background...

Idea Tenebrae, a Latin word for “darkness” or “shadows,” is a service that moves from full light in a sanctuary and ends in total darkness, signifying the death of the Light of the World—Jesus—on Good Friday. In this variation incorporating the Seven Sayings of the Cross, the platform becomes more stark and dark as participants depart and extinguish a candle. Preparation Set up seven candles on a Communion table at the center of the sanctuary. Six purple candles should encircle a single white candle in the center. A six-person worship team should serve, one being the lead vocalist, who will sing acapella alone for one stanza at the end. Seven readers should be selected to read one of the seven sayings and pray as indicated below. At opening of the service, a designated person walks down the center aisle and lights the candles. The service can be exclusively focused on tenebrae or added at the end of a more traditional service. Communion is not done in this service. ...