A Better Way: Celebration of Gifts Retreat

This half day retreat (2 and 1/4 hours) was created for Brunswick United Methodist Church in Maine by its Council of Ministries:  Tara Robertson, Darren Joyce, Lori Umberhind, & Corley Byras, Rev. Karen L. Munson, and Music Director Shari Tarleton.  The event brought together worshipers from 2 weekly services, traditional and contemporary to get to know each other, themselves, and the ministries of the congregation.

       We feel small and weak, but we are gathered together to signify the power of              God who transforms death into life. That is our hope, that God is doing the impossible:   changing death to life inside of each of us, and that perhaps, through our community, each one of us can be agents in the world of this transformation of brokenness into wholeness, and of death into life.   -Jean Vanier

Prep:  
*Invite each group or ministry in the church to prepare a trifold display and one page information sheet before hand for the Ministry Fair. 
*Choose a simple Spritual Gifts inventory to introduce. 
*Place in bulletins:  names tags, index card, Mr Potato head puzzle piece with a "getting to know you" question on the back (see below). 

Worship   
Theme: “”Body of Christ

Gathering Music  “We Are The Body of Christ”  

Greeting  As we worship and fellowship today, let us keep our eyes and ears open to God’s particular gifts in each other.

Call to worship from 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11, by KL Munson
Leader:  Come and learn, God’s gifts await.   
ALL:  We come, ready to receive.
Leader: Turn away from “false gods,” silent and demanding.

ALL:  We turn toward God, from whom all blessings flow.

Leader: Come, celebrate the many gifts of the one Spirit.

ALL:  We come rejoicing in many ministries and one Lord.

Leader:  Come, learn and celebrate the Spirit’s activity in our midst.

ALL: We come to see each other’s gifts, to celebrate each other’s ministries.

Leader: Come to the connection Christ is creating

ALL:  We come to hear wisdom, to seek knowledge,

           to share faith, to witness miracles in the making.

Leader: Come, bless the one LORD, from whom all gifts and grace flow.

ALL:  We come.


Music                         Gather Us In    TFWS 2236

Children’s message  “When the Body Works Together”  
    Would you please turn your imaginations on?  
     I want you each to imagine that you are one big ear.  Nothing else, just an ear, all of us. Are you imagining that you are a big ear?  OK.  Now please walk to the back of the room, as an ear.  Can you get there?  What's the problem.  (We don't have any feet or legs). Oh, ok.  Then lets each imagine that we are a foot, a great big foot.  Are you imaging what it would feel like to be a big foot? Now, big feet, tell me what I'm saying. (whisper a message).   What's wrong?  Why can't you hear, big feet?  


You need ALL the parts of your body don't you?  You need all the parts to work together, just like sports teams need all the parts of a team to work together. 
Churches are like that too.  Every single person here, and the people who aren't here today, is essential.  The great teacher, Paul of Tarsus, called that "being the Body of Christ."  One of the things churches do is help each person discover what gifts God is giving them and how to share it.  


Here's an example of how the Body of Christ worked together here.  Some years ago, the people in the church saw (with the eyes) that the church needed some new facilities.  They listened to each other (with their ears), and thought about it (with their brains) and got to work (with their hands and other gifts) and found a way to build.  To do that they had to borrow money.  We've been paying back that money.  This spring, the church decided to finish paying it back so that more money would be available for ministry.  And today we get to celebrate the vision form those years ago, and the persistance of the years between, and the "get it done" of the past month.  We get to tear up the mortgage becuase we don't need it any more.


Mortgage disposal  -"Frst Tear" Peggy Weinzetl (final Campaign helper)  

                                 and Ed Abrahams (original building committee member)

                                 Pieces then distributed among congregation to tear. 

Music            Bind Us Together/ God is Already Here

Scripture             I Corinthians 12: 12-31

Message              “An Even Better Way 

                                             with THE DAFFODIL PRINCIPLE, By Jaroleen Edwards
  
Music                         Covenant Prayer                                    (Worship & Song 3115) 

Community prayers

Lord’s prayer

       response:               “I Need Thee Every Hour” Jennifer Maillet, flute

Offertory                        Witness

Please put a name card for each person in offering plates to be used in a blessing later.

Doxology   UMH #94

Offering Prayer

Instructions
       Please choose either the gifts workshop in the sanctuary, or the Ministry Fair in Fellowship Hall.  In 25 minutes, you'll hear our theme song and know that its time to switch rooms.  After another 25 minutes, you'll hear the music call us all back to the sanctuary. 

10:15 Transition – We Are the Body of Christ

10:15  Mixer

 “getting to know you questions”(Mr. Potato Head puzzle pieces with stickers, see below)  Find 2 people whose puzzle pieces connect to yours.  Ask each other the questions on the back of your pieces. 

10:35 Music for transition to ministry fair  -We Are the Body of Christ

Children up to age 6:  activities with Marie Ring & ­Lauren Umberhind (see below)

10:40-11:00              Gifts a & ministry fair

11:00 Transition – We Are the Body of Christ

11:05-11:25              Gifts b & ministry fair

a) spiritual gifts  -20 minutes, Lori, computers

            Part of Spiritual Gifts-create a gifts map with thumb print mural.

            Leave up for more people to tag later on a Spiritual Gifts bulletin Board. 

b)Quick sticky note and sorting activity (with Wall Calendar?)  –Darren & Tara 

Fair area set up-give each group a tri-fold, may also provide brochure or ½ sheet  “take away” flier. Activity fair/learning center/rotation model

11:25-11:45 Re-gathering and Sending

 

Circle in Sanctuary with music (We Are the Body of Christ  to gather, instrumental then sung).

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 13: 1-13
Express appreciation for participating
Mini- Circle Instructions
            Group by birthday month using 12 pre-distributed signs
            Receive name cards that have been divided into 12 piles.

            One each card, write one or more gifts observed in that person.

Sending Prayer: hold a new name and face in your mind and ask God’s blessing

Sending Song We Are the Body of Christ
                  Collect name cards in basket as sing.

*Afterward, mail name cards to each person.  

Children's Activities

 Children’s activities, ages six and under.
Begin sitting on the floor in a circle.

Bible Activity:  The Body of Christ[1]

The Bible says:
The body of Christ, the church, is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. … the body isn’t one part but many.

Have one person stand up. Ask, “how many body parts can you see?”

Ask everybody to stand up and move as many part of their body as they can.                                                                                                            Ask, “Can you name some more body parts?”_______________________________ Say, “God made every part of our body and said, “it is good.”

The Bible also says,                                                                                If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body?

What would happen to your own body if your feet had a fight with your hands and went away?

If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body?

What would happen to your own body if your ear was sad because it wasn’t an eye and stopped working.

 If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell?

Imagine that your whole body was an eye.  What would that be like?

 But God has placed each one of the parts in the body just like he wanted. If all were one and the same body part, what would happen to the body? …. there are many parts but one body.

So the eye can’t say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”

If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part gets the glory, all the parts celebrate with it. You are the body of Christ and parts of each other.

When you have an earache, can you take your ear off so that the rest of you doesn’t hurt? _______
 No, all of our parts make up one body.  And all of the people in our church make up one church.

Bible Activity:  Gifts

Ask everyone to sit down at the table

In the church, God gives us different gifts and different work.
Some teach, some preach,
Some lead, some help,
Each of us has a role
No one can do everything.

Imagine what it would be like if you had to do everything your family does at home, all by yourself.  What would that be like?________________________________
Who does their part at your house?  ____________________   What’s your part?_____________________________________

Imagine what it would be like if you had to do everything our church does, all by yourself. 

What would that be like?__________________________________
Who does their part in our church family?  ________________ What’s your part? _____________________________________  (ex:  smile giver, singer, dancer, helper…..). 

This is how you use a gift that God has given you. 
*Write your gift on your nametag.

Prayer Flag Activity
         Colored paper prepared as prayer flags
         Crayons
         Yarn
         Tape.

*Draw a picture of yourself, using one of your gifts, on a paper prayer flag. Write your name on the back of the prayer flag

*Think of someone else in our church family using one of their gifts. Draw a picture of this person on a new prayer flag.  Write their name on the back of the prayer flag.

*Add as many people as you want, each to a new paper prayer flag.

*Lay the prayer flags in a long row, with the picture side facing down. Cut a piece of string that is 3 feet longer than the row of prayer flags on each end.  Lay the string along the top of the row of prayer flags.  Fold the top of each prayer flag over the string and tap it down.

*Puzzle Activity

Return to a seated circle on the floor

Say: What connects all the parts of our church family is love:                                    Love for Jesus that becomes love for each other.
This is what the teacher Paul wrote about God’s love:

 Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth.  Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.

Many things are just temporary, but not God’s love. When all becomes perfect in love, the parts will come together into one whole….and faith, hope, and love will remain—these three things—and the greatest of these is love.[2]

Say, “Let’s practice working together in love.”
Pass out the Mr. Potato Head puzzle pieces around the circle.

Ask the children to place their pieces on the floor in front of them.
Ask one child to put a piece in the middle of the circle.
Work with the children to put the puzzle together as a group.

Prayer: 
Dear God, We are happy that each of us is different.  We are happy that all of us share your love.  Help us see your gifts in each other and ourselves.  And help us use our gifts just as Jesus used his, so that everyone may know your love. AMEN


[1] 1 Corinthians 12-13, excerpts
Common English Bible (CEB) adapted for younger children

[2] 1 Corinthians 13: Common English Bible (CEB)
Copyright © 2011 

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