Worship Aboard the S.S. Keewatin Recap (In case you missed it….)
The Keewatin service was yesterday. It was INCREDIBLE! I don’t know what to say, really. Sometimes struggling for words is an honest response to being in the presence of God.
The folks who came out to worship with us had some words:
“I had NO idea that ‘God told Noah to build the Arky Arky’ had SO MANY VERSES! That was FUN!!!”
“You can really tell the Holy Spirit is in your church. Your choir is awesome! All the music was awesome!”
“The children’s story with the spray bottles and the storm–priceless! Can we do that again?”
“God is doing amazing things with you and your people. You can just see it…”
“…and feel it too! Awesome! Just amazing. Thank you for doing this.”
“We always drive by your church and wonder what’s going on inside. Now we know and it’s pretty incredible. Thanks for sharing! We’ll see you soon.”
“You are a light of Christ in this community. God has blessed you and all of you.”
“So, next year, can we dress up in period costumes?”
It seems weird, REALLY WEIRD for me to think of a worship service as a success–that’s putting some kind of earthly quantifier on something that I don’t think can be rated that way.
Did we give our best to God in worship? Of course!
Was the Good News shared? Yes, it was!
Were we a visible witness to Christ’s power? Oh yeah!!!
Were we “reaching out to our local communities” as our mission statement says. Yep. We did that too.
Aren’t those the only things that should matter at the end of the day?
I guess some people measure success by numbers–how many bums did we put on seats. How much money went in the collection plate?
If that kind of thing is interesting, then fine. We usually average about 63 on a Sunday. Yesterday, we had 100 people worshipping aboard the Keewatin–and many more people who saw our signs around the ship. They saw Unity United Church praising God. We had new faces–people who saw our ads.
Our congregation gave two sandpails full of money to the “Friends of the Keewatin” restoration fund. I don’t know the dollar amount. They gave to our church too—but the day was about others, not us. Lest you think that a church giving to a ship’s restoration fund is weird, I suggest you track down a back issue of The Mandate and read “A Ship Called Hope” to learn the Kee’s story and what she represents to an economically challenged community.
Members of our church had a dream. We all worked on trying to make it come true. Yesterday, it was realized. Thanks to God, thanks to the amazing people of Unity and thanks for all your prayers! Next year, in Port McNicoll!
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