Favorite Sermons?

This weekend as I mentioned I did the Children’s Sermon again, due to the illness of the regular lady. I felt very badly about the situation since the regular woman is still not feeling well. I asked her sons how she was doing. The boys, who are adults, both have special needs. They related how badly their mother felt about not being present at church to give her “favorite” sermon. This favorite sermon has become a bit of insider joke in the church. I cannot tell you how many years she has given the same sermon. The sermon has no scriptural basis, but is related to the children of the church listening to their parents as we all set you for our local fair. Most people were thrilled not to hear this same sermon again. It made me realize that I better be wary of creating a “favorite” sermon. Being able to refer to the sermon as “favorite” may imply that I have told the sermon one too many times.

Pentecostalism - Feeling the Holy Spirit

Today, our minister spoke of the Holy Spirit. He equated the Holy Spirit with the third rail that can be found on a subway. He spoke of the Father and the Son being the two main rails, but the Holy Spirit being the energizer. As he spoke a different visualization came to my mind. I thought of a canister of helium getting blown into a balloon. God being the canister, the balloon being Jesus, and the helium being the Holy Spirit. Thinking on it a little more, perhaps the balloon should be us, but I’m not exactly sure how I would carry out the analogy from there. I think the reverend was right in one aspect, we, our Methodist / Congregational – united mix, does not think on the Holy Spirit much. We associate being moved by the Holy Spirit as being too radical. There is no jumping up in my church or calling out as the Spirit fills you. We are fairly orderly and reserved. Certainly, we could all think more on our relationship with this part of the trinity. As he spoke, I had to contain myself from jumping up and saying “Amen, Brother!”. And there are times when I feel moved to do something like that, but I reserve myself. I can count the number of times I have experienced people getting physically moved by the Spirit. I have always felt slightly uncomfortable when it has happened, but also I have looked on the people a bit admiringly because clearly they had allowed God into both their mind and body.

Pentecostalism is now the largest growing segment of Christianity, according to the book Our Religions.

I thought it rather interesting that when I came home Pentecostalism came up again when I got home as the news was abuzz with vice presidential candidate, Sarah Palin’s religious background. You guessed it – Pentecostalism. I was certainly glad that I had already been introduced to this segment of Christianity, so that I didn’t see it quite as differently as I once did.

UPS Brough Packages of Hope

I have gotten two deliveries this week: one, my package from Operation Christmas Child with all the materials for our church’s kickoff and two, a package from PRAY publication for my husband’s program on God & Me.

Operation Christmas Child as I mentioned on August 26th is a program run by Samaritans’ Purse that delivers the word of God with shoeboxes filled with toys for children around the world. In an effort to assist those spearheading the program at their church, Operation Christmas Child provides organizations with prayer cards, DVD’s, bulletin inserts, and more. This will help me put the program together properly for a great kickoff and continued reminders during the weeks of the collection. Our final collection day (shh! Don’t tell anyone. It is a collection day only for those that “forget” the week before. Experience has taught me well) and wrapping day, November 16th is also OCC’s Shoebox Dedication Day so I will be giving the Children’s Sermon. As I’ve been mulling over how I may do the sermon this year, I have decided that I may work with the children to create a Mad Libs type prayer - not to be funny, but to include their ideas in the final prayer. Our church is familiar with the program and knows the concept from my previous year’s presentations.

The PRAY publication box held the God & Church and God & Life student workbooks, mentor workbooks, and counselor workbooks. As part of my husband’s wood badge, he made it a goal to plan, promote, and execute a God & ME Protestant program through our church. As Boy Scouts only affects the two oldest segments, those are the segments we are going to make sure are run. If others want to include the younger two segments, we will happily assist them, but it is not absolutely necessary to run this lower section of the program. I worked on this program 4 or 5 years ago when our children were in the younger levels and was very impressed. And for those of you that know my husband’s propensity to assign me extra work, as you expect, I will be running one of the levels. Fortunately, the break will allow DS to take one level and DD to take the other. We will be promoting the Protestant version, but there are religious awards for almost every religion under the son. I’m sure as I work through teaching this program you will hear more about it.

These two boxes will certainly bring us plenty of work but also the joy that the work of the Lord can bring.

Singing to the Lord

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn— shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
Psalm 98:4-6


My husband has always complained that my church does not have a church service but that we sing too much. For me the songs are the great binding thread that runs through each service. Apparently, the woman that gave the sermon today agreed as she spoke of the importance of our church’s hymnal. Tracey spoke of the history of the hymnals in our pews. Our church has been so attached to these hymnals that we have chosen to rebind our hymnals as opposed to changing. Our congregation loves our old traditional songs.




One of the best parts of the sermon was actually a reading which she made directly from the hymnal itself. I have repeated it below for your interest:

Directions for Singing
From John Wesley's Select Hymns, 1761

I. Learn these tunes before you learn any others; afterwards learn as many as you please.

II. Sing them exactly as they are printed here, without altering or mending them at all; and if you have learned to sing them otherwise, unlearn it as soon as you can.

III. Sing all. See that you join with the congregation as frequently as you can. Let not a single degree of weakness or weariness hinder you. If it is a cross to you, take it up, and you will find it a blessing.

IV. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, then when you sung the songs of Satan.

V. Sing modestly. Do not bawl, so as to be heard above or distinct from the rest of the congregation, that you may not destroy the harmony; but strive to unite your voices together, so as to make one clear melodious sound.

VI. Sing in time. Whatever time is sung be sure to keep with it. Do not run before nor stay behind it; but attend close to the leading voices, and move therewith as exactly as you can; and take care not to sing to slow. This drawling way naturally steals on all who are lazy; and it is high time to drive it out from us, and sing all our tunes just as quick as we did at first.

VII. Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he cometh in the clouds of heaven.


What are your favorite hymns? Here is a site with music and words to Methodist Hymns that you might find helpful, if your recall is a little weak.

10 Hints for Overcoming Distractions at Church

I am convinced that the devil speaks at church too – not out of people’s mouths, but in little distractions. Ok, this weekend, one big distraction –HEAT. As our church visits another church for the month of July, we must endure services with no air conditioning. So as Mother Beth gave a wonderful sermon on the parable of the sower, I noticed a drip of sweat slowly trickling down my right leg. I made sure that the window was really open. I felt pity for women from the 1800’s that probably attended services in long gowns with petticoats and stockings. I longed to be back in my own church. . . . Oh, oh I’m supposed to be listening. I must have had to remind myself 100 times to focus.

Now I will admit that this is not the first time that I have been distracted in church and it doesn’t just happen in other churches. It happens in my own church too. It certainly helps to keep Satan at bay if the speaker has written a good sermon and can deliver it well, but truthfully the onus of paying attention is on me. Sometimes I am distracted by others; sometimes by something physical like a tickle in the throat, and sometimes by things left undone – notes to write, groceries to buy, bills to pay. This is definitely an area that I need to work on. And I have begun adapting some strategies to help me, as I think it is very important to my growth to learn and listen to what is being said.

1. Consciously focus – Make the sermon your focus and actively tell yourself to listen. Engage. This should not be a passive exercise.

2. Change your Body posture – Sit upright. Lean in a little. Keep your back straight. Make not just your ears listen, but your whole body.

3. Box away distracting thoughts – If a thought comes into mind, visualize packing it away in a box and refocus yourself. You may find yourself doing this one more than once.

4. Write it down – As an absolute last resort, jot a quick note to yourself. This will allow you to put away the idea, secure that you will not forget it. Caveat: Notice the word “quick”. Don’t write out your grocery list or pen the Declaration of Independence just write one or two words that will job your memory.

5. Change your seat – Clearly this should be done before the service begins. If you notice that part of the reason that you get distracted is because you can’t hear or some people in the pews near you are not making the sermon their priority, find a new area to sit.

6. Join a committee – If some of your distractions do come from being unable to hear or from uncomfortable seats, join a church committee to make a change. Can you put in a sound system? Get new cushions?

7. Talk about it – Talk about the sermon when you get home. If you know that you are going to face questions about what you’ve heard, you are more likely to pay attention to what you hear.

8. Take notes – Look at the sermon like a college lecture. People may wonder what you’re doing at first, but if it helps you to focus, then it is worth it. Be discreet, but jot down notes. This is another way to make your listening change from passive to active.

9. Practice – Active listening is a skill. It needs to be practiced. You will find that as you employ some of these ideas, you will become a better listener and be able to focus at church better.

10. Change churches – If despite using all of these ideas, you still cannot focus. Perhaps the problem is not with you but with the speaker. The Lord has blessed us all with talents that we should us to glorify Him and perhaps the person speaking is not using his or her real calling. Don’t think that you are at fault for not understanding or being able to focus on God’s word. I will garuntee you that if you try other churches, you will find a preacher that will appeal to you and keep your interest.


By following these 10 strategies, you should be able to focus on the message. As for me, I’m on step #9 practice. I’m definitely much more attentive than I was, but every once in a while the devil whispers in my ear.


Read Matthew 13: 3-8 & 18-23