CCC Blog

Preaching and Worship in 2023

In early October, I will be taking a few days of private study to plan worship themes for the entire 2023 year!  Currently, we plan worship themes about 2-3 months in advance, but I’ve always wanted to be more advanced and organized in planning the overall shape of worship.  So I’m very much looking forward to this opportunity to get away and think of little else but this.  The context is a workshop that is being led by two pastors in our region.  I will be one of a dozen participants.  From what I gather, each of us will plan for the upcoming year in a way that is unique to our own ministry situation and thus different from everyone else’s. 

As I prepare for this event – and this planning – I want to invite you to be part of it along with me.  Below, you will see several questions.  When I attend the workshop a month from now, I will be prepared to incorporate answers to these questions in my preaching and worship planning for 2023.  So, I would truly love to have as many of you as possible answer these questions and send me your responses ( ).  Write as much or as little as you would like.  I cannot promise I will preach exactly what you wish to hear in 2023, but I can promise I will read everything you share with me and consider it a worthy gift.  Should you share anything personal, I will protect your confidentiality or will consult you first before mentioning anything specific. 

What is it about our congregation that you appreciate most?

What do you think our congregation (and Decatur community) is most anxious about?

What big life events will you be observing in 2023 (e.g. milestones, significant changes, anniversaries)? 

If I, Michael, were to preach on a topic in 2023 that would inspire you to invite a friend to worship, what would it be? 

What is one (1) question you wish you could ask God right now?

What is one (1) book of the bible you would like to know more about ?

What is one part of your life you are struggling with?

Blessings – Michael

Making Meaningful Connections

I recently joined a clergy devotional group.  We meet 90 minutes every other week virtually.  Three of us are in Illinois, and two are located in Kentucky.  The focus of the conversations is a handbook based on the writings of Thomas  Merton entitled, Bridges to Contemplative Living.  This past week’s theme was “Purity of Heart,” and Merton believed this was rooted in humility.  To be pure in heart, he said, is to “renounce all deluded images of ourselves,” as well as “all exaggerated estimates of our own capacities” so that we me might obey God’s will for us.  He then said that meditation is necessary for this to happen:

Meditation is then ordered to this new insight, this direct knowledge of the self in its higher aspect.  What am I?  I am myself a word spoken by God.  Can God speak a word that does not have any meaning?

As part of our discussion, each of us was asked to identify the word or phrase that stood out to us in the much longer reading from which I’ve quoted just a part.  For me, it was that last sentence from the quote above: Can God speak a word that does not have any meaning?  Clearly, this is a rhetorical question, and the answer is “no.”  Isaiah 55:11 says, “...My word that goes out from my mouth shall not return to me empty but shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”  And Psalm 139:14 says “I praise you (O God), for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  If each of us is a word spoken by God, of course we have meaning.  It says so right there in scripture. 

But what is more intriguing for me is how words really only have meaning when placed in context with other words.  Alone, a single word merely signifies or represents something or possible a variety of “somethings.”  But only when connected with other words does it have the potential to convey many meanings.  It is not enough, then, that we exist as a creature “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God.  For us to accomplish any kind of purpose at all is to build connections with others.  It is in our connections with others that we realize the full potential of  what would otherwise lay dormant inside us if we remain isolated or disconnected. 

Perhaps this is the “deluded images” and “exaggerated estimates of ourselves” Merton seeks for us to renounce; the feeling that we are somehow great and worthy on our own – simply existing as we are and for ourselves alone.  And perhaps that is further why Jesus instructed us to “love our neighbor” as the greatest of all commandments.  For love is that divine force that always draws us outside ourselves and seeks to make connections – with others, with our true selves and with God.  And perhaps – having a less self-aggrandizing view of ourselves and seeking rather, in humility, to make connections with others – would be a good “cross” for us to “take up” as we seek to follow Christ today. 

Blessings – Michael

Walking By Faith

The Book of Hebrews, toward the end of the New Testament, seeks to make connections with the Old Testament and indicate a unified line of faith from the beginning to the end of the scriptures.  In Chapter 11, the author lists some of the great ancestors of our spiritual past and describes the faithfulness each  exhibited.  As the summer winds down and we gear up for another academic year, this will be our focus in worship.  Each week, for 5 weeks, we will look at one of these Heroes of our Faith.  In their own way, they trusted in God’s ability to lead us even when the path ahead isn’t entirely clear.  We will recount their storied pasts as well as look forward in our own lives to how we can Walk By Faith as they did.  

August 7 Hebrews 11:1-7

Hero: Abel

Theme: “To Thine Own Self Be True” (Be true to yourself)

August 14 Hebrews 11:8-16

Hero: Abraham

Theme: “If God is your Co-Pilot... Change Seats” (Courage is the strength to let go)

August 21 Hebrews 11:21

Hero: Jacob and Joseph

Theme: “Just Hold On” (Faith is about holding on to what really keeps us going)

August 28 Hebrews 11:23-31

Hero: Moses and Miriam

Theme: “Who’s in Your Corner?” (We all need behind-the-scenes support)

September 4 Hebrews 12:1-2

Hero: Cloud of Witnesses

Theme: “We Walk by Faith, but Never Alone” (The faith of past saints propels us forward)

-Blessings – Michael

Food Challenge #3

For as long as I can remember, my mother has baked sourdough bread.  When I was growing up, it was a near-weekly occurrence.  Sourdough bread involves using a “starter” or culture of fermented yeast that is mixed in with the rest of the ingredients.  The portion of the starter that is used for a “batch” of bread is then replaced and kept in the refrigerator until the next time bread is baked.  For the entirety of my upbringing, the back right corner of the top shelf of the refrigerator was occupied by mom’s sourdough starter.  As long as the portion of the sourdough starter is replaced when it is used for baking, the culture is quite literally living.  My mom began making sourdough bread because someone gave her some of their starter and that sourdough starter had it’s origins with a woman from Kansas who had begun it at the turn of the 20^th century.  For years my mom would gift other people portions of her sourdough starter so they could make sourdough bread of their own.  And every time she did, she included some written notes about the woman from Kansas who started it all decades earlier.  

When new families moved into our neighborhood (and there were a lot of families that lived on our block), mom would deliver a loaf of her bread as a welcoming gift.  If she knew there was a boy – in my age range – or a girl in one of my sisters’ age ranges – she would take us with her and introduce us to that child.  And when it was mom’s turn to provide the communion bread for Sunday worship (we grew up in a small-ish church where families signed up to provide bread for communion on a rotating basis), it was one of her sourdough loaves she brought – baked in a special round pan reserved for the communion bread.

All this serves as the context for our third food challenge this month.  For every week of our three-week sermons series this month on “The Meals Jesus Ate,” I offered a food-related challenge at the end of each sermon. 

Week 1 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate connected people to each other, and to God.

Week 1 food challenge – Share Food.  Sometime this month, share a meal (snack, coffee, etc..,.) with someone with whom you don’t normally eat.

Week 2 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate were extravagant because God’s grace is extravagant. 

Week 2 food challenge – Save Food.  Refrain from going to the grocery store for 1 week.  Instead, eat the food already in your house and avoid contributing to the food-wasting in our country.  Whatever you would have spent at the grocery store that week, consider giving as a donation to a food-serving organization like the Good Samaritan Inn.

Week 3 sermon theme – The meals Jesus ate confirmed the promises of God

Week 3 food challenge – Give Food.  Provide food (gift card, loaf of bread, etc...) to someone going through a hard time.  With your gift, consider including these words (or ones like them):

“May this food confirm the promise that you are not alone and that the Lord is with you through whatever you struggle or challenge may be.”

Blessings – Michael