Robin found this old picture of me on the web! It think it was supposed to inspire me- it did inspire a laugh! Sitting by the old stained glass at First Presbyterian. Those were the days....
Tomorrow will certainly be a different venue, but we will worship the same God!
So what am I expecting? A few weeks ago I was just expecting to get the first service under our belts. Now I'm starting to think we may actually have a pretty strong preview service. I say that fully aware that setting the bar high can set one up for great disappointment. But with all the work the team has done I think this might not be half bad!
So what about numbers? Everyone asks. That's in God's hands. I've said we are going from "grass roots to glossies." We haven't done any advertising. In fact, we've been pretty low-key about this. But once we pull off a service, once we see we can do this, once we know what "this" is, then we'll pull out all the stops. We'll open the gates and try to get teh word out to the whole city!
So if we only have our fifty people there, We'll have to wonder- did we invite anyone? If we have more than 100, I'll be shocked, and we won't have enough coffee. Then, with each of our 5 following preview services, will try to build the numbers each time- holding a service, evaluating, following up, inviting more. Bu the time December hits we are praying for a pool of one hundred volunteers and the resources to go weekly!
But tomorrow is go time, and now it's time for me to pray and go to bed!
But if anyone interested, this is what I worked out for an introduction tomorrow...
I’d like to welcome you to the first sneak preview service of Connections Community Church. We are a group of people with a fairly simply, but rather grandiose dream- to begin a church here in London that will become a place where people find a connection to God, to other people, and to the world. That’s our mission statement- Connecting with God... with people…with the world. I hope you saw that printed on our materials, our banners, our shirts, and just about everything we do.
We want to provide a worship service that helps create and nurture a direct connection to God that would start Sunday morning and take your throughout the whole week. We are serious about connecting with people too. We believe without apology that people were made not only to connect with God, but also with other people, in meaningful, intentional relationships, to share with one another in good times and bad times. We are creating Connections Groups that meet throughout the week and you are welcome to be a part. But more, we want to connect with the world, in service, in love, in mission. We want to create opportunities to connect with the world here in our own backyard and abroad. We want to share and serve in the world out of the gratitude of our hearts.
We have a team of some 50 people working behind the scenes and up front to make this service, and the ministries of Connections, happen.
My name is George Saylor, my wife Robin is helping our behind the scenes today, and my three children are desperately trying to help out with things this morning, which is really the sweetest thing to see them wanting to help so much. In fact, a few weeks ago my dear Karis, 5 years old, was talking to our neighbor and said - “Please come to our new church- nobody comes to our church.”
(NOTE: THIS NEXT PART IS WRITTEN IN ANTICIPATION OF SOME FOLKS ACTUALLY SHOWING UP) Folks, it’s good to see a few people have come to our new church. If you’re here, chances are you were personally invited. We haven’t had any mass mailings, phone call campaigns, radio ads or anything like that. We’ve meet in homes, we’ve organized as a launch team, and we’ve served the community in a few special events. But we’ve come to the place where we wanted to offer a Sunday morning worship service, for we are, after all, a church. And churches for two millennia have gathered on the first day of the week to worship together as the people of God.
This is our first sneak preview service. The thing about sneak previews is this- while it’s the movie; it’s also a work in progress. They might try some alternate scenes or endings. They’ll fidget with the soundtrack and the way scenes are edited together. They’ll screen these films because they actually want some feedback. And the audience actually gets to impact what might be the final version of the film. A few months ago I had the opportunity to see the sneak preview of Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko.” As much as the movie itself, what I remember from the evening was the energy, the excitement, the feeling that something special was happening.
Well I hope you get that same feeling here. We are here to worship this morning, but this service is a work in progress. We are still playing with the music, with the lighting, with the way we want to edit this thing together and all the parts we want to bring to it. And like those screenings, we definitely want your feedback. We want to know what you think of the service, how you heard about the service, what you loved about the service, what you’d change about the service. We want your input. And to encourage you to share you thoughts, ideas, feelings, we have these connections cards that came in your bulletin.
The point is- we want to hear from you, and we want to connect with you. You have information on our Family Ministry and our Connections Groups. We have a group joining in the Terry Fox run next weekend and we are celebrating with a picnic in Gibbons park and you are welcome to be a part of it. And you are welcome to join us back here in three weeks, Sept. 30, for our next worship service.
Right now, the band is going to continue with a little more worship to set the tone for our service…
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