{"id":1624,"date":"2011-03-21T09:45:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T15:45:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2011-03-21T09:46:45","modified_gmt":"2011-03-21T15:46:45","slug":"public-confession-of-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/public-confession-of-scripture\/","title":{"rendered":"A Super Simple Way to Get More Scripture into Your Corporate Worship Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"Before the show by sparktography, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sparktography\/2853639465\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3137\/2853639465_f0dd47e44f.jpg\" alt=\"Before the show\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><br \/>\n<strong>One thing I love about our congregation is that we\u2019re a body of believers that is highly engaged in God\u2019s Word<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yesterday was a testimony of this and I wanted to share what we did as I\u2019m certain it could be a great way for any congregation to both <strong>fill your corporate worship gathering with intentional Scripture proclamation<\/strong> and challenge your church body to continue to let God\u2019s Word \u201cdwell in [them] richly.\u201d (Colossians 3:16)<\/p>\n<h3>What We Did<\/h3>\n<p>Instead of doing a congregational confession of faith that is spoken in unison by the congregation we decided to let the people confess their faith by sharing a Scripture passage that has been meaningful to them in their daily walk with Christ.\u00a0 <strong>Here\u2019s how we did it<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Set up a microphone on either side of the sanctuary right next to the seats<\/strong>.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s really helpful if you don\u2019t call people up to the platform area as that can be fairly intimidating.<\/li>\n<li><strong>We had the microphones facing the people<\/strong> (both to avoid feedback by not pointing them at the speakers) and to help lessen the \u201cfear\u201d aspect of having to look out at the whole congregation while they shared.<\/li>\n<li><strong>We made sure the sound tech is trained to adjust the gain on the microphone<\/strong>.\u00a0 We had short people, tall people, people who spoke loudly and softly, kids and adults that came and shared.<\/li>\n<li><strong>We used wireless mics<\/strong>.\u00a0 Super easy to setup out in the midst of the congregation as there\u00a0aren\u2019t any cables to deal with.\u00a0 Just make sure your mics are on and that the sound tech controls everything.\u00a0 No use distracting from the Scripture shared by getting everybody wondering out loud \u201cIs the mic on?\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>We had planned this time into the gathering specifically but didn\u2019t give a heads up to the congregation that we were going to do it<\/strong>.\u00a0 We knew this would work for two reasons: a) we had just finished coming off of a concert of prayer service that proved that the congregation was willing to share Scripture and confess God in the midst of the congregation and b) we know the many in our congregation are highly engaged with God through Scripture reading during the rest of the week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Bringing the call to worship to life<\/h3>\n<p>Psalm 34:3 mentions to its audience to \u201cMagnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.\u201d\u00a0 This is a popular verse used for a call to worship and by many worship leaders to encourage the congregation to do just what it says.\u00a0 However, often, while we do sing \u201ctogether\u201d as the first says, it might not always be a conscious decision to \u201cmagnify the Lord\u201d and \u201cexalt his name\u201d but just the thing to do because you sing at church.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This choice to remember what God is doing through His word AND proclaim it in the midst of the congregation gives everyone in the congregation that opportunity to magnify the Lord and exalt His name together<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>And it was a sweet time.\u00a0 We had seasoned believers (that\u2019s a nicer way of saying \u201colder\u201d), college students, mothers, fathers, and even a four-year-old sharing the verse \u201cBe Still and Know that I am God\u201d that they are learning to do in their family.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What have you done that has purposefully engaged your congregation to share Scripture and God\u2019s faithfulness \u201cin the great congregation?\u201d<\/strong> (Psalm 40:9)<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Flickr | Sparktography\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sparktography\/\" target=\"_blank\">photo by Sparky<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 5px 5px 0;float:left;height:50px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/public-confession-of-scripture\/\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"595\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One thing I love about our congregation is that we\u2019re a body of believers that is highly engaged in God\u2019s Word.\u00a0 Yesterday was a testimony of this and I wanted to share what we did as I\u2019m certain it could be a great way for any congregation to both fill your corporate worship gathering with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-worship-leaders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1626,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1624\/revisions\/1626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamanoffering.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}