Rainey Prays on Some Days

I'm reading the Daily Office Lectionary readings, a series of daily Bible readings in The Book of Common Prayer , this Advent, and am thinking I'll use it along with the Lectionary next year for my devotional readings. But I felt that I just received a warning in Isaiah 29:13, “their worship of me is a human commandment learned by rote.” It seems that churches that use the Lectionary for the Scripture readings in their worship services and use a catechism to teach their confirmees are particularly prone to this rote kind of worship where the heart is detached. This was what Isaiah warns against. I have often thought that Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism , with all of their emphases on the Word, would benefit from using the Lectionary since I have observed that the amount of Scripture read in our worship services is quite paltry compared to Roman Catholic masses, for example. Since they use the lectionary, each mass will have a psalm, Old Testament reading, New Testament ep...

The General Idea For a special Thanksgiving service, set up flipchart stations around the sanctuary. Have a slide projected that instructs parishioners as they enter the sanctuary to think of something or someone they are thankful for and why they are thankful. They should then go write it on a flipchart.   During the service, these will be read. Materials Needed ·   Flipchart stands ·   Flipchart pages ·   Flipchart markers Set Up Set up several “Thanksgiving” stations around the sanctuary with a flipchart stands where people can write on a blank flipchart page. You might want to write something like “I am thankful for . . .” at the top of the page. Also, prior to the service, assign one person per station to monitor the station, make sure the flipchart pages are collected, and that person can then share the responses for their station later during the service. Instructions Either in the five minutes leading up to the service or during a ...