Listening to the Prophets

Clear View Church calls itself a “church trans-plant.” We are the roots of a traditional Christian Reformed congregation in transition desiring to live out our mission statement: being an outreaching community of Christian faith, hope, and love. To that end, we sold our old building in Mississauga, Ontario, and built a beautiful new facility in nearby Oakville to support the kind of ministry we could envision doing. We are situated in an affluent community that prizes excellence; at the same time, most seekers we hope to attract are biblically illiterate.

No longer content to have church simply “for us,” we are constantly challenging ourselves to think about building bridges and points of contact with the community in which we live. In terms of worship style, we are committed to “blended worship” and have been moving toward more sermon series that can be advertised to the community. We also put a lot of work into our website (www.clearviewchurch.com) and the use of media in our service.

What About Advent?

It was the annual “What are we going to do for Advent?” time of year. During Advent our women’s outreach ministry was planning to use a four-part Bible study series called Hallelujah: The Bible and Handel’s Messiah by Rev. Dr. Carol M. Bechtel (published by Kerygma). We decided to use the same material as the basis for our Advent series. Not only would it resonate with long-time members, but it would also be at least somewhat familiar to seekers in our community.

The Problem

The book provided a lot of background material and ideas for us to build on. But we were soon faced with the problem of how to delve into the truth of these Old Testament words from the prophets without getting bogged down in all the historical background. How could we say what needed to be said without driving the congregation to distraction with dates and history and obscure names? It’s one thing to preach to people with a solid bedrock of Bible knowledge, quite another to try to reach people with little or no Bible background. We also wondered how we could ensure that words so “old” and set in quite a different context would also speak to us. What does Haggai have to say to us today as North American people living in the early part of the twenty-first century?

The Solution

Instead of starting each sermon with a lot of historical background, we decided to begin each service with a simple visual presentation that would convey any history the congregation needed to know through narration and images. At the same time the presentations would show the continuity between the issues of that day and of our own. In the end, we discovered that the prophets had startlingly contemporary messages. Their struggles became our struggles; their questions are our questions. These presentations really raised “the question of the day,” which we then used as a theme for the rest of the service and the preaching of the Word. We also tied the lighting of the Advent candle with the script.

I co-wrote the scripts with Mike, our “technical guy,” sending them back and forth for editing and screening. Next Mike wrote an “image script” alongside the narration with images that might work as background. Various members of the congregation willingly helped record the narrations. Each clip included either a brief recording or a live version of part of the Messiah text. Despite its simplicity, the effect of the final product was astounding! (For a copy of these clips, e-mail Clearview Church at mail@clearviewchurch.com.)

Note: Since the Bible study only had four lessons whereas our series needed five (or six if we included Christmas Eve), we decided to break one lesson up into two separate but consecutive Sunday services.

Service Outline

Each Sunday we used the same basic service outline:

Prelude

Welcome

PowerPoint presentation

Choral Anthem/Solo

Congregational Songs

Opening Prayer

God’s Greeting

Children’s Message

Children leave for Sunday school

Confessing Our Faults

Assurance of Forgiveness

Offering

Congregational Prayer

Scripture

Sermon

Songs of Response

Benediction

Closing Song

Week 1

Comfort in Many Voices

Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon Notes

We have reduced the meaning of comfort to “something I want in addition after all of my needs have been filled.” But Israel needs a comfort that is much more substantial: she is in exile; her people are agonizing over questions of life and faith. God’s comfort comes in four voices.

• The Tender Voice (vv. 1-2)
• The Voice Announcing (vv. 3-5)
• The Enduring Voice (vv. 6-8)
• The Confident Shout of Joy (vv. 9-11)

The service ended with an affirmation of our comfort through a responsive reading of the Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 1 (What is your only comfort in life and in death?).

Video Projection Clip Week 1

Week 2

God's Great Shakedown

Scripture: Haggai 1:1-2:9

Sermon Notes

These words of Haggai were spoken about eighteen years after God’s edict of release. Now God has a serious charge against the people: they have the wrong priorities.

1. The Problem
   
   a)  From the people’s experience (1:6)
   
   b)  From God’s perspective (1:2-4, 9)
2. God’s Solution: Give Careful Thought to Your Ways (1:5, 7; 2:15, 18)
3. God’s Command: Go Up, Get Down, and Build! (1:8)

This ended with a challenge about involvement (or lack thereof) in “Kingdom-building activities.” In the end, God wants things done so he will be honored.

Video Projection Clip Week 2

Week 3

When We Cheat God

Scripture: Malachi 1:6-9; 3:1-5

Sermon Notes

God’s words through Haggai helped Israel clean up their act for a while. But 50-75 years later, God has charges against his people again. In contemporary language he says, “Stop dissing me!” Although we don’t have an Old Testament sacrificial system, we DO have worship. These are God’s questions of the day to us regarding our worship:

1. What is your attitude to worship? (1:12-13, The Message)
2. Where is your heart in worship?
3. What do you bring to worship?

Video Projection Clip Week 3