ATSP prayers – including balloon sorry prayers.

Use an inflated (but not tied off) balloon for the sorry prayers. Ask people from the congregation to suggest things to be sorry for (greed, selfishness ect). Write these on the inflated balloon using a sharpie or similar pen, and then let the balloon go whilst acknowledging that God forgives our sin as we let it go.

Use the downloadable jigsaw to create an image with a memory verse from Psalm 19. The jigsaw will print up to A1 size, but can be scaled down if you prefer. Have the pieces precut and hide them around the church. Keep back the 4 corners, you will need these to introduce the activity. It will be useful to have a board to stick the jigsaw pieces on as they are collected (we used a piece of cardboard with masking tape glued in strips). If you are using a piece of cardboard it would be helpful to draw the outline of the 4 corner pieces to ensure the whole jigsaw will fit.

When leading the activity start reminding people that God is a creating God. We can find that story in Genesis 1. It starts ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and darkness covered the deep waters… Then God said let their be light’ put the first corner on the board, ‘and it was good’. God kept speaking, he said ‘Let there be a space between the waters and the heavens’ put the next corner on the board, ‘and it was good’. ‘Let the waters flow together to one place so dry ground may appear.’ Add the next corner ‘and it was good’ ‘God said let lights appear in the sky’ add the final corner ‘and it was good’.

Look at our jigsaw – but it is not finished! We need to complete our creation, invite the congregation to find the missing pieces. Make sure they take them back to their seats first. When the pieces have been found, say that the jigsaw needs completing in the right pattern, just like God created the world in a pattern, there are rules… We need to add the edges first (people bring those pieces forward). Then the middles. When the jigsaw is complete stand back and read the verse together.

This video from engage worship has images and the text from Psalm 19. Invite a reader to read the words from the screen as the video plays. This has extra impact if the person reading cannot be seen from the front of church.

In the talk, we consider the following three points:

1. God reveals himself to us through creation.
2. God reveals himself to us through scripture.
3. We need to guard against conscious and unconscious sins, and surrender to God.

A full talk is available to download.

We had 4 different responses for this service. The responses have been crafted to reflect different elements of Psalm 19.  

1. Nature mandalas. Collect different natural objects (sticks, twigs, leaves, pinecones, ect.) and invite the congregation to create images or mandalas with the them. Discuss with people how we can see God all around us in His creation. Some examples and questions to consider as you create are available to download. This response reflects the first part of the psalm.
2. Create a prayer space and display images from the download section. These images have different bible references on that focus on trusting God. This response reflects the second part of the psalm.
3. Surrender control – write areas of control on paper, take to the cross. Set up a station that has a cross and pieces of paper. Invite people to write areas of their lives that they need to surrender to God and to leave them at the cross. This response echoes the third part of the psalm.
4. Download a copy of the journal sheet which has questions on it designed to prompt thinking about this topic. This can be completed during the service of offered to be taken home for later use.

Play: ‘O Lord my Rock and My Redeemer’ by Sovereign Grace or ‘So Will I (x100billion)’ by Hillsong