Connecting With God Week 3

How about a place where we can write the things that have broken/disappointed us (or our areas of sin/confession) onto pieces of glass/ceramic (or ripped paper), which then can be put pasted together in a collage/art piece. It can be a place of confession, prayer and dedication to God.

Tanya Reynolds
http://www.tanyamreynolds.com
http://tanyareynolds.blogspot.com

This may sound strange but what about having an alter. It actually goes with what Tanya mentioned above. You write down whatever you need to write—sin, shame, disappointments. When I did this I wrote all things I was unable, at that time, to let go of my guilt on. After writing them out and praying that God would take those burdens, you lay it on the alter and it burns. It goes along with the Old Testament…many times you will read “the aroma was pleasing to the Lord” after a sacrifice was made. There is something about that smoke (of those burdens) going up. It was very freeing.

However, fire, even a small fire, on a school campus might not be feasible. :) Works great on a beach, though.

Love doing the burning thing, always helps me let go. Since we don’t want to set off the alarms alternatives is wrtting on broken pottery (makes you think of the earthen vessels) and then breaking them with a hammer. Only problem is it isn’t too condusive to others quiet in thought. But maybe on carpet pieces for padding it wouldn’t be too bad.

So many people talked about connecting in Nature, how about a patch of grass and indoor waterfall. (Not as hard as it sounds) and maybe a large photo or painting of a mountainside.

I also have a copy of Julie Shimmers photos of nature with scriptures in power point.

Or like we did at the men’s retreat where there was the cross and we could lay our troubles down at the foot of the cross.

For non believers, just offer them some quiet time alone also. Some of those “stations” used to freak me out.

I just want to say that I really liked the way yesterday’s meetings went. I liked the band on the stage and the stations were awesome. In the future, it will probably be less of a production to have the stations much simpler. The stations were highly creative yesterday but I watched the set up crew work for quite a while to get all that set up.

Also, I liked the furniture that allowed people to chill out.

Signed,

Dave Ramsey

I believe in God because every once in a while, I hear a voice that says, “You’re my favorite.”

I agree that having options was great. Having more than 1 or 2 things to do allowed for alot of movement…so people could do them all or just one (like I did). There was alot of movement in the auditorium which was good because if you didn’t feel like doing all of the options or even any of the options, you didn’t feel like you stuck out. Plus it didn’t drag on or feel too brief. (Well done planning team)

It was extravagent (you creative people amaze me), but that was alot of work for you all. I agree—simplify (but I’m not creative so what do I know). :)

I would also encourage a place or area where people could just pray or have people available to pray with/for them.

It was great to see the interaction/connection.

It was beautiful… I was a bit concerned about the effort expended by the setup team though… it was pretty elaborate.