Sunday service for 3 November 2024
Sunday 3 November 2024 – All Age service
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Service prepared by Rev. Teri Peterson
Teri Manse: 632143
Email Teri: TPeterson (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Email Charlene, Parish Assistant: CMitchell (at) churchofscotland.org.uk
Prelude Music (praise band)
Welcome & Announcements
We Gather As God’s Family (As the Bible is brought in, we stand and sing)
A family gathered in love,
striving for justice and joy,
blessing the broken-hearted,
and sharing the hope of God’s kingdom.
Call to Worship
One: Come — whoever you are, wherever you have been,
however you have answered God before.
All: The God of heaven and earth, sea and land, calls us together.
One: The God of all is the God of all.
All: Every nation and people belongs to God.
One: God’s love and God’s call extends beyond all borders —
All: reaching even to us, and beyond us,
bringing us to worship in spirit and in truth.
Bible Story Quiz
1. Who is the prophet who not just said no to God, but actually got up and ran away when God called?
Moses
Jeremiah
Micah
Jonah
2. When Jonah ran away from God, he thought he’d go down to the coast to get a boat. Where was this cruise going?
Rome
Tarshish
Cairo
Edinburgh
3. A storm came up and the sailors were absolutely terrified. What was Jonah doing while they were throwing cargo overboard and praying to every god they could name?
Helping them throw things overboard
Singing in the rain
Sleeping in the very bottom of the ship’s hold
Praying to their gods along with them
4. What saved Jonah when he was thrown off the ship into the sea?
A sea turtle
A giant fish
A life raft
His diving form and swimming skills
5. When the fish spewed Jonah onto the beach, what did God tell him to do?
Get up and go to Nineveh like I said the first time
Get up and go home, your mum is looking for you
Stay here and take a wee nap and then we’ll talk again
Try another ship
6. Once Jonah got to Nineveh and delivered his message, what happened?
No one heard him because he mumbled
No one understood him because they didn’t speak the same language
No one cared what he said and everyone laughed at him because he still smelled fishy
The people and even the animals repented, changed their lives, and Jonah became the most successful prophet in history
7. Jonah’s success at changing people’s lives with God’s word made him:
So happy he threw a party
So angry he wanted to die
Sanctuary Hymn: There once was a man who went to sea (praise band — tune: wellerman sea shanty, words TCP)
There once was a man who went to sea
heading west to find Tarshish
God had called him to go east
but he said no, no, NO!
Chorus:
Jonah! When God says go
hiding just won’t work you know
God has a word to speak
and you’re the voice God needs!
Soon there came a storm blowin’
sailors scared as they’ve ever been
Jonah said just throw me in
save yourselves and row!
Chorus
Down the depths God sent a fish
Swallowed Jonah, he’s a dish!
Once inside, pray and wish
’til the fish goes bleeeehhhhhhhh
Chorus
Back on land God called again
Nineveh’s gone round the bend
tell them you’re the one I send
to bring them back to me
Chorus
Jonah spoke, the people heard
repented as they heard the word
And to mercy God was spurred
The city it was saved!
Chorus
Rowing against the storm: Graham Gardiner
Hymn 260: Eternal Father, Strong to Save
Animals of Jonah: Anne Love
God’s compassion is for them too: Graham Bolster
Hymn: Blessed Be Your Name (praise band)
Sanctuary Offering and Response: The Doxology (tune: Old Hundredth)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Christ all creatures here below;
Praise Holy Spirit evermore;
Praise Triune God whom we adore.
Amen.
Prayer and Lord’s Prayer
Drawing prayer…
A road — whatever shape or direction — and a second road branching off another way (on one road, the thing that if God asked, you would absolutely say no…on the other, your hopes and dreams…along the road, trace your prayer for courage to follow God’s way)
Water with a boat (thanks for the people who have helped you when you were struggling)
A big fish (thanks for something in your life that was awful but also saved you or taught you something)
A sun (thanks for the light God gives in your life and prayer to be able to see what God wants you to see)
A cloud with rain (prayer for those struggling…you can even write a name in each raindrop)
A tree (ask what God wants you to grow / what fruit God wants you to bear)
You are the God of all power,
working wonders among the peoples.
You take our small efforts,
and use them to expand your kingdom.
Make us ready today to play our part,
to follow the path you have set before us,
trusting your will for all creation will be fulfilled.
We thank you for your compassion and mercy,
for your grace that comforts us in hard times
and challenges us to expand our own compassion, too.
We hold before you the prayers we have drawn, and those we don’t even know how to express.
And we also join our hearts as your church family on this 3rd day of the month to pray:
*For your other Churches in Gourock: for St Ninian’s RC Church, Old Gourock & Ashton Parish Church, Gourock Community Baptist Church, Struthers Church, Bethany Hall, the Vineyard Church, and other independent churches.
*For the leaders of St John’s congregation: for the elders, the Kirk Session, the Session Clerk and Assistant Session Clerk, and the Treasurer.
*For the land, people, and governments of the nations of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Andorra, Spain, and Portugal.
Set us on your path once again, and give us a big-picture vision,
to see your care for all that belongs to you —
earth and heaven and all that dwells therein.
Re-make us in your image that we might live only for your glory.
We bring all our prayers to you
in the name of the One who reconciled the world to you,
and who entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation,
Jesus the Christ
who taught us to pray together:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
Sanctuary Hymn GWA29: In Ages Past the Mighty Lord (words: Michael Morgan; tune: Kingsfold)
Benediction
Dorothy Day once wrote: “People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”
Trusting that God can maximise even your small effort, go to live for God’s kingdom first, bearing the blessing of God’s mercy for this world God so loves.
And as you go, may the Spirit of God go above you to watch over you. May the Spirit of God go beside you to be your companion. May the Spirit of God go before you to show you the way, and behind you to push you into places you might not go alone. And may the Spirit of God go within you to remind you that you are loved more deeply than you can possibly imagine. May the fire of God’s love burn brightly in you, and through you into the world. Go in peace. Amen.
Sung Benediction Response (John L Bell, tune Gourock St John’s)
Now may the Lord of all be blessed,
Now may Christ’s gospel be confessed,
Now may the Spirit when we meet
Bless sanctuary and street.
Postlude Music
Announcements
* We worship in the sanctuary on Sundays at 11am, and Sunday worship is also online. If you are able, please enter by the front door in Bath street, and only those who need step-free access should use the back door. If you feel unwell, please worship online, to protect both yourself and others in our community.
* The Sunday evening service is on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month. We have toasties and sandwiches together from 5:30 and the service will start at the back of 6. All are welcome for this simple meal and time of worship. The Sunday evening service is informal and reflective, with guitar-based music, Bible readings, and prayer for our parish. Come along and discover practical ways to apply the word to your life, in a chilled vibe that fosters connection and reflection.
***Remember that next Sunday for Remembrance Sunday the sanctuary service begins at 10:45, and then afterwards there is a short service at the anchor before we join the parade down to the War Memorial beside the pool for the town remembrance service.
* The first Sunday of the month at 11am is now an all-age service, with different ways of encountering God’s word without a traditional sermon. All people — young and old, different personalities and learning styles, are welcome! You’ll find a more informal service with a variety of music, a Bible story, prayer, and some more interactive elements. The online service for the first Sunday will therefore also be different — there will still be a reading, prayers, and music, but usually not a sermon.
* Charlene is available for Conversation Corner (Vestry Hour) on THURSDAY MORNINGS in November, from 11am-12noon. Just ring the bell at St John’s Road and she’ll have the kettle on for you! Come in to chat about anything you’d like.
* Bowl and Blether is TOMORROW Monday 3 November, and on the first and third Mondays of each month through the winter. Doors open at 11:30am, soup and toasties are served from noon – 1:30. All are welcome to join us for lunch and a chat in our cozy warm hall. Volunteers are also needed and welcome, please speak to Teri or Charlene if you’d like to volunteer for set up, toastie-making, serving, or clean up.
* The Contact Group meets on Tuesday 5 November at 2pm we will welcome podiatrist Anne Melville to speak to us, and on Tuesday 19 November when we will hear from Jenni Murray of the Bothy. Our Syllabus of Events is available for £5.
* We are excited to host a Resound Worship concert on Thursday 7 November at 7:30pm! We’ll also have an opportunity for a meet-n-greet with the band, when we can hear more about their music and also their charity that their proceeds support, at 6:30pm. You can register online for free to help us plan for chairs and catering, and then entry is by donation at the door.
* Starter Packs are in need of bathroom/kitchen cleaner, shaving foam, shampoo, hand wash.
The FoodBank are in need of diluting juice, long-life juice, tinned ham, and tinned tuna.
You can bring donations to the church and place them into the boxes in the vestibule. Thank you!
* Did you know that the ministry we do at St John’s costs about £3000 per week? Everything we do is funded by your generous giving — all our support for young people, older people, bereavement care, community outreach, worship, study, spiritual growth, and community work is because of your offering. If you would like to set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online by clicking here. If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Teri and she can give you the treasurer’s details. You can also send your envelopes to the church or the manse by post and we will ensure they are received. It is also possible to donate to the work of the parish assistant, speak to Anne Love about how to go about directing new donations to that new item in the budget.
* Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Youtube, and to sign up for our email devotions! Midweek you can watch Wine and the Word on Youtube, pray with video devotions on Facebook, and consider a new angle on something with a devotional email. Feel free to s
* Wednesday Evening Bible Study is reading the gospel according to Luke on Wednesday evenings at 7:30pm in the manse. All are welcome!
* Free period products are available in the church toilets for anyone who might need them, thanks to Hey Girls and Inverclyde Council.
Sunday Service for 26 July 2020, ninth Sunday of Pentecost
26 July 2020: 9th Sunday of Pentecost
Service prepared by the Rev. Teri C Peterson,
Gourock St. John’s Church of Scotland
Contact: tpeterson@churchofscotland.org.uk
Welcome and Announcements
Though we cannot be together in person, we can be together in spirit! Please note the following announcements:
* Coffee Fellowship Time will happen today on Zoom! The room will be open from 11:45 – 12:45 for you to drop in for however long you wish, so grab a cup of tea or coffee (or juice or whatever you prefer!) and maybe a biscuit, and come have a chat! We look forward to seeing you!
* The Kirk now has online giving! If you have not already set up a standing order in order to facilitate your spiritual discipline of giving, or if you would like to make an extra gift to support the ministry St. John’s does in our parish, you can give online here! If you would like to set up a standing order, please contact Peter Bennett, our treasurer, or Teri and she can give you his details. You can also send your envelopes to the church by post and we will ensure they are received. Remember: no one is coming to your door to collect your envelopes, so please stay safe!
* We also now have an audio recording of the service available on the phone! Simply dial 01475 270 037 to listen to the most recent service. Please share this number with your neighbours, friends, family, and fellow church goers who don’t have the internet, so they can listen in!
* The theme for worship this summer is “Postcards of Faith” — we’ll be getting some postcards from God’s people throughout scripture, following their journeys with God and each other.
* This summer we are taking a Church Family summer trip! We’ll be journeying together from Shore to Shore — the shores of the Clyde to the shores of the sea of Galilee, to the hometown of St. John the Evangelist. Keep track of how much time you spend in prayer, reading the Bible, serving others, or going for a walk. For every 10 minutes, you move us 1km along the journey! Then each week send Teri a note, text, or phone call saying how far you “traveled” this week. We have followed Jesus around Galilee and Judea, and will start our journey home this week!
* Children’s Time happens each Sunday morning at 11am on Zoom. If you would like the login details, please contact Teri.
* Churches across Scotland are calling people to join together in prayer on Sunday evenings at 7pm, placing a lit candle in the window and spending time in prayer for others. Our Sunday evening prayer services will be shared across our “Fuzzy Parish” (now called CONNECT). Tonight’s service will be led by David, beginning around 6:57pm on the Connect Facebook page, and be sure to like / follow it while you’re there!
* Feel free to share this with others, with the attribution information at the top. If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and who also does not receive the tape ministry, you can either print this service out and share it with them, or let Teri know via email or phone call and we will be sure they receive a printed copy.
* Sign up to our YouTube Channel so you never miss a video. Don’t miss “wine and the word” — an occasional series during the 5pm hour that helps us transition from one part of the day to the next, via reflections similar to those that would normally have been in the “God’s Story, Our Story” take home inserts given out each week.
* Mid-week there is a devotional email, which is also printed and included with the following Sunday’s sermon distribution to those without internet access. You can sign up for the email here.
* If you or a church member you know is in need of friendly phone calls or help with anything while they self-isolate, please contact Teri. Elders are already in contact with people in their districts as well, and you can pass information to them! We are hoping to continue and even deepen our connections to one another, building up the Body of Christ even when we can’t be in the building.
* At this time the St John’s Kirk Session has decided, for a variety of reasons, not to open the building yet. We will continue to worship online and via the telephone recording ministry, with mid-week offerings on video and by email, and through phone calls and zoom gatherings. If you have questions about this, please do contact Teri, or Cameron, or your elder. However, the building works that were suspended during lockdown are resuming. If you see people around the church building, they are likely contractors, and we would ask that you go ahead and say hello but keep a safe distance, and do not enter the building at this time. It’s important that we do everything we can to ensure they have a safe worksite, so that they can continue the work both on the tower and inside the sanctuary as quickly and safely as possible.
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Due to the more informal style of today’s worship, there is no script, though the reading is printed below for those who want to follow along. If you know someone who normally receives the printed version, can you please phone and invite them to listen to the recording instead, as there won’t be a print edition this week? Thank you!
Hymn 251: I, the Lord of Sea and Sky
Prayers, Reading, Sermon
Hymn 533: Will You Come and Follow Me
Reading: Jonah 1, 3, 4 — New International Version
The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’
But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.
Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship.
But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, ‘How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us so that we will not perish.’
Then the sailors said to each other, ‘Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity.’ They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, ‘Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What kind of work do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?’
He answered, ‘I am a Hebrew and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.’
This terrified them and they asked, ‘What have you done?’ (They knew he was running away from the Lord, because he had already told them so.)
The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, ‘What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?’
‘Pick me up and throw me into the sea,’ he replied, ‘and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.’
Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried out to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man’s life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, Lord, have done as you pleased.’ Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows to him.
Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
…
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.’
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, ‘Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.’ The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
‘By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.’
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, ‘Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.’
But the Lord replied, ‘Is it right for you to be angry?’
Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. Then the Lord God provided a leafy plant and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the plant. But at dawn the next day God provided a worm, which chewed the plant so that it withered. When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, ‘It would be better for me to die than to live.’
But God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’
‘It is,’ he said. ‘And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.’
But the Lord said, ‘You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left – and also many animals?’
