Getting Ready For Sunday: How To Prepare For Sojourn Gathered, Sunday, October 25, 2009

Our pastors Daniel Montgomery and Mike Cosper have been working hard to prepare this coming Sunday’s sermon and worship liturgy.  If you didn’t know, there is much more that goes into a worship service than simply writing down a few scriptures on a notepad and thinking of a few stories to tell.  There is much more to it than simply thinking of a few songs to sing.  The pastors and their assistants spend a lot of time each week to prepare for Sunday.  And we should celebrate this during Pastor Appreciation Month.

Like our pastors, we should prepare.  In fact, the word “liturgy” literally means “the work of the people.”  It’s what we actively do together on Sunday: from singing to reading the word, comprehending the sermon, greeting each other in the peace of Christ, taking the Lord’s Supper and more.

This week the sermon text comes from Jeremiah 28 and 29.  These chapters begin with some grandstanding by false prophets.  They’re the kind of guys tell you whatever you want to hear.  Jeremiah is the one who proclaims the true Word of God though, and the false prophet Hananiah dies by that Word.

Jeremiah 29 has a lot of implications for our mission in Louisville. Our pastor will speak on cultural engagement.  Although we are sojourners in this life, longing for the promise of a world to come, we will hear the challenge to:

“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (29:5-7)

We will also hold a Sending ceremony this week during the 9 a.m. service at The 930.  Former Sojourn elder Todd Robertson and a core launch team are starting a new church plant in Louisville’s south end called Antioch Church.  We’ve shared their story right in TravelBlog (hit the “Antioch Church” tag on this post to see each those blog articles).  You can also visit their website.

During our 9 a.m. service our pastors will call them forward, and we will formally bless them, praying for their mission.  It’s exciting to be able to lock arms with yet another Bible-believing, cross-centered, missional church in this city.

If you have our Before The Throne album, you can listen “Before The Throne Of God Above” this weekend and prepare to sing it together on Sunday.  We’ll also sing the hymn “Come Ye Sinners,” with a new melody by our own Brooks Ritter, in addition to “O Church, Arise,” “God Of This City,” and “Invitation Fountain,” among others.

I hope you’ll be able to attend one of our five services this Sunday, either at the St. Matthews campus or Germantown.  Until then, let’s reflect on this dedication, which we’ll read aloud together after taking communion:

Now, in Jesus Christ, we are a light to the world – a city on a hill. Because God has made us light-bearers, we cannot be hidden, but instead He puts on a stand for all to see the illumination of His glory. Because God has elevated us in His Son, may we be open and generous with our lives so that others will be open to God, our generous Father in Heaven.

-Based on Matthew 5:14-16