The Big Idea
Have you ever considered why some people are called ‘Saints’? In the New Testament Paul refers to all believers of Jesus as ‘saints’. This means anyone who has faith in Jesus is a saint, whether they have done big things of little things, whether they lived a long time ago or live now.
Music
Songs at the start:
- Great is Thy faithfulness – traditional
- Holy forever – Chris Tomlin
Song in the middle:
- All through History – Nick and Becky Drake
Songs at the end:
- The Rock – Nick and Becky Drake
- O Jesus I have promised – John Ernest Bode
Other songs you could consider:
- I stand amazed – Charles Hutchinson Gabriel
- Blessed assurance – Fanny Cosby
- Be thou my vision – traditional
- By Faith – Keith and Kristen Getty
- More than conquerors – Rend Collective
- Same God – Elevation Worship
Activity
In this activity we are looking at different Christians from the past and what they have done because of their faith. We cut out images of different people (Charles and Susannah Wesley, Fanny Crosy, Corrie Ten Boom, Johann Sebastian Bach and others) and hid them round the church. We then invited people to find the images and match them to empty photo frames with statements about what each person did. Talk about how these people can inspire our faith journeys.
The photos and frames are available as a download. The completed frames can then be displayed in the church along with some of the things created in the response.
Readings
The reading is based on Hebrews 11 and the first 2 verses of Hebrews 12. We used 2 readers for this to offer contrast to the many examples of faith from the chapter. A script is provided in the download section.
Talk
The talk explores who a saint is, and the examples that we can follow. We are encouraged to look not just at biblical examples of faith but also to Christians of the past and to those in our own lives who have inspired and encouraged us on our journey. We are empowered through the Holy Spirit to take our place in the sainthood of all believers that we might support each other to run the race God has laid out for us.
A full talk is available to download.
Response
We had 4 different responses for this service.
- Set up the Prayer space and invite people in to sit quietly, reflect and pray.
- Think about the saints in your life – how does the reading continue? (“By faith…., by faith…. By faith I….”) Use the ‘by faith’ worksheet to support your reflections. This could be taken home to be considered more or as an encouragement.
- Draw a picture of yourself in a polaroid frame, then add it to saints’ gallery. The frames can be decorated with glitter, sequins and stamps. Optional extra, people could also consider what theu have done ‘by faith’ and write this onto the bottom.
- Focusing on the verses from Hebrews 12, invite people to remove sin or barriers to Jesus. Write Jesus on a chalk board (or display board) and cover with paper bricks. Remove a brick as a sign of removing the barriers
Play: ‘By Faith’ – Keith and Kristen Getty or ‘Same God’ – Elevation Worship