From Sampler to Sower

Our church is preparing to embark on an exciting journey next Wednesday night. Along with many sister churches across the denomination, we will be journeying from Ash Wednesday, through Easter, to Pentecost Sunday in a series we’re calling Ashes to Fire.

To begin this journey, we will be having a special Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday, March 9 at 6:30 pm.  Like most Ash Wednesday observances, our worship service will focus on reflection and repentance at the outset of our Lenten journey.  And as in similar Ash Wednesday observances in the past, our service will include a ritual called the imposition of ashes.

We realize that such a ritual may seem unusual to some of our parishioners.  It is very possible to have grown up Nazarene and never taken part in such a ritual.  Understandably the unfamiliarity of the ritual to some, as well as its association in the minds of some with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters, leads to questions.  This is my attempt to answer some of these.
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It’s been a bittersweet day today.

It’s Sunday, January 31 as I write this.  Unusual I know.  I don’t normally write on Sunday.  (Of course, I guess you could say lately, I don’t normally write.)

But I’ve got some time on my hands now.  I’m sitting in the food court at the mall while my son and a bunch of his friends watch To Save A Life with about 100 others from our church.  I went to the first showing with about 200 of my closest friends.  And as good as it was, I didn’t feel like sitting through a second round so soon.  So while he watches, I’m writing.

The movie is a big part of the sweetness of the day.  (I should probably be posting this in my “Why I Love My Church” series, but instead it’s here.)  We really felt like this movie was something God wanted to use to speak to our youth ministry and church.

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The Title Slide from Sunday's Message

This Sunday our church tried something different.  That in and of itself would be enough for me to love our church — we have no problem at all trying something new.  However, in the famous words of Ed Valenti, “But wait. There’s more!”

Pastor Phil Rogers spent all week telling people they did not want to be late for church this Sunday because something was in the works that has never happened at our church.  And we could tell something was different from the first moment we entered the sanctuary.  The customary greeters met us at the doors and handed us a packet of sermon notes that had been sealed, along with a stern warning not to open the folder until we were instructed to do so.

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