On May 31 North Fresno Church celebrated Pentecost Sunday. As worship leader for our contemporary service I took a risk with our little conservative congregation and it seems to have worked.
As everyone came into the sanctuary they were handed a red, orange or yellow balloon (colors of fire). During the first two songs each attender blew up his/her balloon and then took a wide-tipped marker and wrote on a balloon completing the following sentence: "Come Holy Spirit and...." On the chorus of the third song ("Come and Fill Me Up") we launched our balloons as prayers to the heavens. God's breath to our breath and back again!
What ensued was a wild, chaotic, unpredictable balloon fest -- a real celebration of the Spirit. Perfect!
After a crazy free-for-all of 200+ bouncy balloons, everybody grabbed one and then shared what was written on it as a way of meeting and greeting one another. The only problem we had was that we used "washable" markers and they tended to smudge a bit. As a result, everyone's hands were inked with different colors. That was an easy explanation. "You've been marked with the colors of the Spirit," I said.
Check out this video if you're interested in the vantage point of someone in the congregation. It might take a few minutes to load.
This image of Occasio is taken from a work by Johan Amos Comenius (1592-1670)
Jeff, I did realize that there was someone who was globophobic (cool word) but only after the fact. Fortunately he blessed the entire adventure. As a worship leader I've learned it's impossible to make everyone happy, but I keep trying!
Posted by: Tim | June 22, 2009 at 02:29 PM
Tim, It was a great illustration and people had fun with it. Did you realize that another Jeff in our congregation is globophobic and couldn't go inside that Sunday?
Posted by: Jeff C | June 22, 2009 at 01:34 PM
this looks like so much fun! what a cool idea...
Posted by: Karen | June 16, 2009 at 06:26 PM
Love it!
Posted by: Jeff Zimm | June 15, 2009 at 11:39 AM