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Handbells and voices lifted in song to praise God!
All the arrangements are based on hymns in Lutheran Service Book, are in public domain and are made available for free to those who want to use them to enhance their worship services
Source: adrhandbell.wordpress.com | Handbells and voices lifted in song to praise God!
The Plumb line image from the Amos 7:7-15 pericope. Using earth’s tilted axis as a metaphor for the warped nature of the world and the love of Christ as the standard.
Diagram of Streaming Multicast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The following lists known LCMS & affiliated churches that offer live streaming of their services so you and your members can attend virtually. Note that this does not include those who only prerecord services and post them online later. You can find those easily enough on your video site of choice.
If your church streams services and would like to be added to this list, please contact me with the following details:
Tenebrae “herse” (candelabrum) used during Holy Week, Mainz Cathedral (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ve never been satisfied with the sound of a slamming book for a Strepitus sound in the Good Friday Tenebrae service. I like the sound of a closing grave, so I created this sound effect, which sounds pretty good over most church sound systems.
So many people ask me to pray for them. With this, not only does it help me keep track of them, linking right with my address book if I want, but also allows me to notify them I’m praying for them and lots of other options. I personally love being able to subscribe to prayer request feeds, and I put my whole congregation into a field so it brings up a couple names each day for me to pray for all of them over a few months.
PrayerMate brings all your prayer points together. Whether its your personal prayer points for friends and family, regular updates from some fantastic mission organisations, or the latest PDF prayer letter that just arrived in your inbox, PrayerMate puts it all together in one place and helps you get on and pray.
Available free on iOS and Android
When our congregation looked into the various online giving/offering options, here’s our research, based on a small church and not expecting a lot of buy-in to start with, since we have a lot of older members without computers and smartphones. I will continue to update this as I find more.
Note that we ended up choosing SecureGive when this was published, but your choice will depend on your needs.
UPDATE 2020: The table below is out of date, and I encourage you, as you consider multiple solutions, to check out Rebelgive, which offers a different model, and I’ve found it to generally be the most affordable for churches — we switched away from SecureGive and have been very happy with it.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
A. Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Shel Silverstein, 1974
Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout
Would not take the garbage out!
She’d scour the pots and scrape the pans,
Candy the yams and spice the hams,
And though her daddy would scream and shout,
She simply would not take the garbage out.
And so it piled up to the ceilings:
Coffee grounds, potato peelings,
Brown bananas, rotten peas,
Chunks of sour cottage cheese.
It filled the can, it covered the floor,
It cracked the window and blocked the door
With bacon rinds and chicken bones,
Drippy ends of ice cream cones,
Prune pits, peach pits, orange peel,
Gloppy glumps of cold oatmeal,
Pizza crusts and withered greens,
Soggy beans and tangerines,
Crusts of black burned buttered toast,
Gristly bits of beefy roasts…
The garbage rolled on down the hall,
It raised the roof, it broke the wall…
Greasy napkins, cookie crumbs,
Globs of gooey bubble gum,
Cellophane from green baloney,
Rubbery blubbery macaroni,
Peanut butter, caked and dry,
Curdled milk and crusts of pie,
Moldy melons, dried-up mustard,
Eggshells mixed with lemon custard,
Cold french fried and rancid meat,
Yellow lumps of Cream of Wheat.
At last the garbage reached so high
That it finally touched the sky.
And all the neighbors moved away,
And none of her friends would come to play.
And finally Sarah Cynthia Stout said,
“OK, I’ll take the garbage out!”
But then, of course, it was too late…
The garbage reached across the state,
From New York to the Golden Gate.
And there, in the garbage she did hate,
Poor Sarah met an awful fate,
That I cannot now relate
Because the hour is much too late.
But children, remember Sarah Stout
And always take the garbage out!
But Christians have our own garbage, don’t we?
Text: …If anyone else thinks that he can trust in something physical, I can claim even more. I was circumcised on the eighth day. I’m a descendant of Israel. I’m from the tribe of Benjamin. I’m a pure-blooded Hebrew. When it comes to living up to standards, I was a Pharisee. When it comes to being enthusiastic, I was a persecutor of the church. When it comes to winning God’s approval by keeping Jewish laws, I was perfect. These things that I once considered valuable, I now consider worthless for Christ. It’s far more than that! I consider everything else worthless because I’m much better off knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. It’s because of him that I think of everything as worthless. I threw it all away in order to gain Christ and to have a relationship with him. This means that I didn’t receive God’s approval by obeying his laws. The opposite is true! I have God’s approval through faith in Christ. This is the approval that comes from God and is based on faith that knows Christ. Faith knows the power that his coming back to life gives and what it means to share his suffering. In this way I’m becoming like him in his death, with the confidence that I’ll come back to life from the dead. It’s not that I’ve already reached the goal or have already completed the course. But I run to win that which Jesus Christ has already won for me. Brothers and sisters, I can’t consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don’t look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God’s heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:4-14, GWV)
Christians all have been set free
When Jesus died upon the tree
So all the sin that ties us down
Was covered by a bloody crown
Yet though Christ rose without a doubt
We just won’t get the garbage out
We’ll pray our prayers and sing a song
Catch a sermon, short or long,
Don’t use much profanity
And guard our sexuality
But that’s not what it’s all about
No, that won’t get the garbage out
We feed the hungry, serve the poor
Tell of Jesus door to door
Read our Bibles every day
Tell the hurting they’re okay
Help out strangers on the way
And when the plate comes, amply pay
Come to classes more than others
Cook a meal, eat with our brothers
Offer prayers for one another
And don’t forget to call our mothers
Grant forgiveness one and all
Welcome guests both great and small
Love our kids, support our wives
Offer up our very lives
Yet though from hills His name we shout,
That still won’t get the garbage out
Though trying hard all good to be
That only makes a Pharisee
Pride credits us with worthless trash
And builds a house on sand and ash
Each time you’re looking down your nose
It’s as if Jesus never rose
The sewage simply piles high
Until it towers to the sky
And when the Lord gives you a glance
He simply sees your arrogance
Dear Christian friend, the day’s begun
And there’s a race for you to run
Throw off that pride you’re carrying
So only to the cross you cling
And lift your voice and gladly sing
All glory only to our King
Since long before our first birth shout
He, with our garbage, was taken out
The victory’s already won
When Jesus cried out, “It is done!”
And God Himself to us has run
He’s present now: “You’re home now, son.”
Your garbage He’s washed clean away
The cleansing flood brings a new day
And that with Word and bread and wine
You’re called by name. He says, “You’re mine.”
What pride are you still clinging to?
That clogs your heart with fearful goo?
This week, what change occurs in you
When not defined by what you do?
How will you jump the hurdles now
His victor’s crown upon your brow
When, knowing that your race is won,
You follow footprints of God’s Son
And to eternity you run
But while you’re breathing, never done
The Lord keep you each day en route
For Jesus took our garbage out.
I originally wrote this song with a contemporary feel, but the band complained that the tune had too many triplets in it, and with another look, I realized it worked well in a more traditional setting using the tune “Bunessan” (LSB #789), best known as the tune to “Morning Has Broken.” So I offer the lyrics and both settings in multiple formats. It’s based on the creeds and works well as a credal song and possibly as a Sanctus or hymn for Christ the King Sunday (AKA The Last Sunday of the Church Year) or Trinity Sunday.
One thing to note: using Bunessan, the first 3 stanzas use the tune twice, so think of it as 8 total stanzas for the purpose of accompaniment.
1. One God Almighty, Maker of ages
Father of all, knit me in the dark
Spreading the cosmos, fueling the atom
Birthing the nova, watching the lark
Majesty, glory, pow’r without limit
Yet in His mercy, He calls me, “Son”
Crafted from clay Divine exhalation
Formed by the Master, Three Who are One
2. For my salvation from my rebellion
Womb of a virgin, sent forth His Son
Feet above heaven too weak to stand up
One became two so all may be one
Carried my weakness, suffered by Pilate
Nailed to a tree for us in our sin
Buried, descended, risen, ascended
Coming to claim us, merit through Him
3. Sevenfold Spirit binds us together
Sent to give life from Father and Son
Wiser than reason, greater than power
Pours out the gift that bonds us as one
Mystical Body, holy communion
Rising to life without sorrow or end
All by His grace, Divine mediation
Father yet Brother, King and yet Friend
B: Open our eyes, Lord, to those in blindness
Open our hearts, Lord, kindness to show
Open our hands, Lord, reaching in service
Open our mouths that Your world may know
C. Immortal Myst’ry, Maker of hist’ry
You have revealed to all through Your Word
Eternal gifted, penalty lifted
Freed us from bondage we’ve all incurred
©2012 Strength and Song Publishing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
I Believe the Mystery-Chord Sheet (docx: Contemporary, Chord Sheet)
I believe the mystery (pdf: Contemporary, Lead Sheet)
I Believe the Mystery (PowerPoint lyrics)
Contemporary tune:
LSBX file for Lutheran Service Builder
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1213970.jpg "English: Wall painting at Partrishow (3) The A...")
English: Wall painting at Partrishow (3) The Apostles’ Creed. Note the scraps of paintwork around the panel: there may be a palimpsest of images here, with possibly most or all the walls painted in the mediaeval period. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Here’s a credal song that I wrote that we use around here.
1
By the Word the Father spoke light into the darkness
By the Word all creatures came to be
By the Word the Father broke the land from formless waters
By the Word breathed life in you and me
2
By the Word the Son became the light into the darkness
By the Word born flesh in Bethlehem
By the Word Who’s crucified and raised to rule forever
And the Word will come to judge all men
C
He is the way, the truth and the life
Christ Jesus, God’s only Son
Lamb who was slain is the Lion forever
And in His blood we are one
3
By the Word the Spirit speaks light into our darkness
By the Word He sets the captives free
By the Word unites us in the everlasting kingdom
By the Word we live eternally
C
He is the way, the truth and the life
Christ Jesus, God’s only Son
Lamb who was slain is the Lion forever
And in His blood we are one
As You are, Lord, make us one
©2013 Strength and Song Publishing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
LSBX File for Lutheran Service Builder