First Worship service

This Sunday, December 6 we at Chain of Lakes will gather at 10:30 a.m. to worship on a Sunday morning for the first time at the Lino Lakes Senior Center, 1189 Main Street in Lino Lakes.

This service is not (to use New Church Development language) our Launch or Grand Opening service. That service will take place on January 31, 2010. We will publicize that service heavily. Our plans are to send two or three different mailings out, have ads placed in the local newspapers, and invite people through a door-to-door canvass. If we were to compare that service to a business Grand Opening, we would cut open ribbons and invite dignitaries.

We’re not doing any of that this Sunday. In addition to worshipping God, a significant purpose of this Sunday’s service is for us at Chain of Lakes to learn what it is like to worship together on a Sunday morning. This service will be relaxed and informal.

I can’t wait to see how the Spirit works through our first Sunday morning worship experience.

I’ve enjoyed this week because I’m trained to prepare for worship services. For the past eight-and-a-half months a significant part of my work has been to organize events. I’ve enjoyed organizing these events and look forward to helping organizing many events in the future. But I really enjoy getting ready and leading worship. And though I’ve preached at Presbyterian churches almost every week since the middle of August, I haven’t had the opportunity to preach and lead worship for the people at Chain of Lakes. This week I’ve felt like a pastor again.

I’m sure we will have some glitches take place this Sunday. But if they do happen we’ll laugh about them. We’ll laugh not because we don’t do our best to be prepared and don’t take worship seriously, but because we don’t take ourselves overly seriously. Glitches happen. I am fairly sure that we won’t have to call the police (as happened in our first “?Why” event in May) to explain why we had accidentally triggered the building alarm. And hopefully the children won’t be scared to death of the alarm as happened at that “?Why” event. This time we have keys to open up the facility. But something will take place that we haven’t anticipated.

Everyone is welcome to this service. Everyone who attends will receive something commemorating their attendance at the first Sunday worship service at Chain of Lakes Church. Please pray for a wonderful worship experience this Sunday at Chain of Lakes.