Meditation Development
Please use the following info to help and assist with your development of communion and offering mediations. Additionally, please feel free to contact one of our leadership with any questions, concerns or hangups you may have. Thank you for your willingness to step in and be involved in this essential part of our services!
2nd Service - Change Explained:
Please take a few moments and watch the following video (18:38) explaining the reason behind the change in our 2nd service structure. This change is implemented in April 2023.
Please take a few moments and watch the following video (18:38) explaining the reason behind the change in our 2nd service structure. This change is implemented in April 2023.
Meditation Development:
Use the following video (11:47) as a simple guide to developing mediations.
Use the following video (11:47) as a simple guide to developing mediations.
Below are some scriptures that can be used for developing meditations. This is not an exhaustive list.
Communion:
- Matthew 26:26-28 / Luke 22:19-20 / Mark 14:22-25- The Last Supper
- Acts 2:42-47 - Early Church Priorities
- John 6:53-58 - Life Comes from Christ
- Acts 20:7 - Early Church Commitment to Communion
- John 6:31, 35 - Jesus Bread of Life
- 1 John 1:3 - Fellowship with Christ
- 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 - Many Partaking in One
- 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 - Proper Manner of Communion
Offering:
- Acts 20:35 - More Blessed to Give than to Receive
- Luke 6:38 - Measure Used is Measured Back to You
- Mark 12:41-44 - Gift of Poor Widow
- Luke 33:34 - Treasure is Where Your Heart Is
- 1 Timothy 6:17-19 - Don't Set Hope on Riches
- Acts 4:32-35 - Church had All Things in Common
- Matthew 6:19-21 - Treasures in Heaven
- 2 Corinthians 9:7 - Deciding in Your Own Heart
- Hebrews 13:15 - Offering Sacrifice of Praise
Script Template
Here is an outline of the main points we are looking for. Everything in bold, please be sure to include for consistency.
- (walk on stage at appropriate time)
- "(Greeting), my name is (insert name), I am a (fill in your roll at NCC {volunteer, small group leader, elder, attender, etc}) here at NCC."
- (Point everyone to the announcements and upcoming events and details that can be found in the bulletin and on the NCC Church app)
- "Let me share with you a couple important things coming up..." (share announcement info provided by office, remember to focus on details)
- "Every week we take a couple moments to focus our attention on worshiping God through offering and communion. I want to share a couple thoughts on these..."
- (point everyone's attention to a meditation thought on offering)
- "In the same way, we worship God through communion. We will have a time of communion later on in the service, right now let me point our thoughts towards what God's Word says about communion..."
- (share meditation on communion)
- (once completed, remind everyone that we will have an opportunity to take communion individually from the communion stations, after the sermon)
- (pray for communion and offering, to conclude the meditation time)
Example Script
(use the following as an example only)
**Walk on stage**
Good morning, my name is Matt, I'm the Sr Minister here at NCC. We are glad that you are joining us this morning. I want to take a couple minutes to do a couple things this morning.
First, I want to point our attention to announcements and events coming up. We communicate this information in two ways...if you have a bulletin, you can read about what is happening there. Also, if you have our North Christian Church app, under the 'Weekly Update' and 'Upcoming Events' tabs in the app, they communicate what is happening here as well.
I do want to highlight one specific event coming up. (this info will be provided each week) Next week, after the completion of this service, we are having an all church lunch, we hope you can join us. This gives us a time to share a meal together with people we normally may not spend time with, as well as eat some good food. If you want to join us, please see the signup in the foyer on the events counter.
Secondly, I want to point our attention to offering and communion. We set aside time each week during our service to consider how we worship God thru offering and communion.
Considering offering, let me point our attention to Mark 12, where Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." Offering is sometimes a difficult thing to do every week when it's not well communicated. It can seem that the church, or God, just wants our money. And so we talk about it every week.
But, consistently through scripture we read, God is much more concerned about our hearts. He wants our heart, soul and mind. We can look at every area of our lives and ask, "Do I allow God to lead this area?" Do I allow God to lead my marriage? Do I allow God to lead my parenting? Do I allow God to lead my career? Do I allow God to lead my education choices? Do I allow God to lead my schedule? Do I allow God to lead my finances?
Allowing God to lead our lives is giving Him the pen to write the story and set the priorities. This is a challenge, but it allows us to put Him above everything else. This is our worship of Him. Let us worship God through how we handle our finances, and how we view our giving.
And in a similar thought, we also worship God through communion as well. Communion can serve as a representation of us surrendering to God's leading in our lives as well, and we see this example in Jesus. Right before Jesus was arrested and taken off to be crucified on the cross, we find Him in a state of intense prayer with God, and we read these words from Jesus in Matthew 26, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet, not as I will, but as You will."
Right in the moments before His arrest that leads then to His death, we see a moment where Jesus was looking at what was coming up, and desiring something different. Crying out to His Father, God if it is possible any other way, let it be. But, if not, Jesus says, I surrender my life to Your will.
I have seen this in my life, maybe you have too. Our lives are going in one direction, God interacts with us, and begins leading us to a different place. For me personally, I don't always like the direction God is leading. I want it my way. I want to control the outcomes.
But, as we see Jesus aligning Himself with God's plan, we get the opportunity to do that as well. To surrender our lives to God's will and leading in our lives, to allow Him to write our story, to show Him as Lord of our lives and worship Him through our surrender to Him. As we take the bread and juice, remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for us, we can join in that surrender to God in our lives, and worship Him through this act.
Let me pray for our time this morning. As a reminder, after the sermon, there will be a time of reflection and worship. During that time, feel free to take communion on your own. Communion is located in the four corners of this room.
**prayer**
**Walk on stage**
Good morning, my name is Matt, I'm the Sr Minister here at NCC. We are glad that you are joining us this morning. I want to take a couple minutes to do a couple things this morning.
First, I want to point our attention to announcements and events coming up. We communicate this information in two ways...if you have a bulletin, you can read about what is happening there. Also, if you have our North Christian Church app, under the 'Weekly Update' and 'Upcoming Events' tabs in the app, they communicate what is happening here as well.
I do want to highlight one specific event coming up. (this info will be provided each week) Next week, after the completion of this service, we are having an all church lunch, we hope you can join us. This gives us a time to share a meal together with people we normally may not spend time with, as well as eat some good food. If you want to join us, please see the signup in the foyer on the events counter.
Secondly, I want to point our attention to offering and communion. We set aside time each week during our service to consider how we worship God thru offering and communion.
Considering offering, let me point our attention to Mark 12, where Jesus says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind." Offering is sometimes a difficult thing to do every week when it's not well communicated. It can seem that the church, or God, just wants our money. And so we talk about it every week.
But, consistently through scripture we read, God is much more concerned about our hearts. He wants our heart, soul and mind. We can look at every area of our lives and ask, "Do I allow God to lead this area?" Do I allow God to lead my marriage? Do I allow God to lead my parenting? Do I allow God to lead my career? Do I allow God to lead my education choices? Do I allow God to lead my schedule? Do I allow God to lead my finances?
Allowing God to lead our lives is giving Him the pen to write the story and set the priorities. This is a challenge, but it allows us to put Him above everything else. This is our worship of Him. Let us worship God through how we handle our finances, and how we view our giving.
And in a similar thought, we also worship God through communion as well. Communion can serve as a representation of us surrendering to God's leading in our lives as well, and we see this example in Jesus. Right before Jesus was arrested and taken off to be crucified on the cross, we find Him in a state of intense prayer with God, and we read these words from Jesus in Matthew 26, "My Father! If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Yet, not as I will, but as You will."
Right in the moments before His arrest that leads then to His death, we see a moment where Jesus was looking at what was coming up, and desiring something different. Crying out to His Father, God if it is possible any other way, let it be. But, if not, Jesus says, I surrender my life to Your will.
I have seen this in my life, maybe you have too. Our lives are going in one direction, God interacts with us, and begins leading us to a different place. For me personally, I don't always like the direction God is leading. I want it my way. I want to control the outcomes.
But, as we see Jesus aligning Himself with God's plan, we get the opportunity to do that as well. To surrender our lives to God's will and leading in our lives, to allow Him to write our story, to show Him as Lord of our lives and worship Him through our surrender to Him. As we take the bread and juice, remembering the sacrifice that Christ made for us, we can join in that surrender to God in our lives, and worship Him through this act.
Let me pray for our time this morning. As a reminder, after the sermon, there will be a time of reflection and worship. During that time, feel free to take communion on your own. Communion is located in the four corners of this room.
**prayer**
Please contact myself or one of the other elders if you have any questions or concerns about anything mentioned here. Thank you for your involvement in this essential aspect of our services. You are appreciated!
-Matt
-Matt