‘Happy Birthday’ Worship
Prayer before Worship:
God of water, wind and fire,
As a child of God,
may I taste the quenching waters of Your love.
As a child of God,
may I touch the heat of Your passion for justice,
As a child of God,
may I feel the breath of Your transforming power,
Holy Spirit, move through the babbleof our worship words that we might hear the lucidity of your Word, Amen.
Welcome and Notices
Call to Worship(Consider using 2 leaders –a child and an adult who alternate the non-bold words, with the congregation speaking the bold words)
The Wind of God blows where it will,
no one can chart its path or prescribe its boundaries.
Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting.
The Fire of God inspires the meek and the poor with gifts,
but no one can chose the day of inspiration or choose the kind of gift.
And there appeared among them something like tongues of fire,
distributed around resting on each one of them.
By the one Spirit we are all baptized into the one body of Christ, whether we are born Jew or Greek, Kiwi or another nationality.
And we all have found refreshment
in the one bountiful Spirit.
Bless the Lord O my soul
I will praise my God as long as I have being.
Songs of Praise:Holy Spirit you are welcome in this place
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit, come
Opening Prayer
Awesome Friend,
we approach you with the freedom of the richly blessed.
Enlighten our minds to perceive you,
and enlarge our capacity to receive you,
that being together in one place on this day of Pentecost
may see us possessed by that whole-iness
which makes everything young again.
With many voices we praise You, O God.
In different ways we serve You.
As we gather before you today we pray that you would send your Spirit upon us and that you would take our diversity and mold it into a common theme of thanksgiving. We pray that you would weave us and the gifts that we offer into a whole cloth of service that will blanket the world with your love, your true goodness and your glory through Jesus Christ, our Living Lord.
Dwell, we pray, within our worship and within our hearts that we may bless you and bring everlasting praise to your name. Amen.
Birthday Basket
Offering and Dedication
Bless these gifts, O God, and bless us as we offer ourselves to serve you in different ways and to praise you in many voices. Send your Spirit upon us, that when we speak the word of your love, people may hear and understand as on that Pentecost day so long ago. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflection: 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13
Song:Loving Spirit, loving Spirit
Bible Reading:Acts 2: 1-21
Children’s Task 1:A birthday banner -to decorate each letter of “Happy Birthday” –with felts e.g. flames and birthday stickers, then put it together
Song:God sends us His Spirit
Prayer of Confession
We are a Pentecost people so we can turn to God and acknowledge all the awfulness within us and without,
and ask for His mercy to set us free and let us start afresh.
The Spirit comes with fire of justice
and we offer the extinguisher of complacency.
The Spirit comes with the rain of love
And we offer an umbrella of reserve.
The Spirit comes bearing fresh winds of change
and we close the windows. Forgive us Lord.
Free us from the sins that would otherwise weigh us down or divert us. Fill us with the Spirit of Christ, transforming us with the power of love.
Assurance of Forgiveness
Hear the great good news of our faith: The Spirit is alive!
Breathe, children of God, breathe the fresh winds of the Spirit.
By God’s grace alone, I as a minister of the Gospel can promise all who repent and seek renewal: Your sins are forgiven! Thanks be to God!
And may the peace of Christ Jesus, which surpasses all understanding, be with you always, Amen.
Poem:Happy Birthday, Church!
by Ann Weemsfrom Reaching For Rainbows.
Happy Birthday, Church! (copyright 1980 by Ann Weems)
There once was a church that had only party rooms: the Session’s Party Room, the Music Party Room, the Feasting Party Room, the Do Justice Party Room, the Love Mercy Party Room, the Touch Lepers Party Room. In the centre of the building was a large round room with an altar and a cross: God’s Party Room.
There was in the church an air of festivity and brightness that could not be denied. The people outside the church pointed their fingers and shook their heads: “Something should be done about that church.” They were especially upset when they saw that the members wore party hats and smiles both inside and outside the church.
Other congregations came to take a look and were shocked when they saw this church having so much fun during a worship service, snapping their fingers and dancing.
“Sacrilegious,” screamed the crowd. But the people in the church just smiled at them and went right on doing things like taking people in wheelchairs to the park and playing ball with them.
When everybody else was collecting canned goods for the poor, this church bought pizza and marched right into dingy, dirty, paint-peeling apartments and sat down to eat with the tenants.
They held picnics for the old folks home, and old men ran races while the congregation stamped their feet in applause. It was at one of these picnics that some of the members climbed up on the roof and shouted: “Good news!”
“Now we can get them for disturbing the peace,” said one of the outsiders. The police arrived with sirens, ready for the arrest, and came out two hours later wearing party hats and smiles.
One Sunday afternoon, the entire congregation met at the jail and passed out flowers to the prisoners. The following week after bread and wine and much laughter at the Lord’s table, the people went to the hospital and asked to see the dying patients. They held their hands and mopped their brows and spoke to them of life.
“Disgraceful!” shouted the crowd. “They must be stopped.” So the crowd appealed to the governing body of the denomination, and this committee of respected church people went to see for themselves.
“Do you deny the charges of heresy?” asked the committee. “Do you deny that you’ve mocked the church and the Lord?” The people of the church looked into the stern red faces and smiled at them. They held out their hands to the committee and led them to the Birthday Cake Party Room. There on a table sat a large cake decorated beautifully in doves descending and red flames and words that read: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHURCH! The people began cutting cake and blowing up balloons and handing out party hats to the committee members.
“Wait!Wait!” cried the chairperson. “Can’t you take anything seriously?”
“Yes,” said the people. “We take our commitment to the Lord veryseriously indeed.”
“You don’t take it seriously at all,” interrupted the chairperson in loud voice and red face. “You have parties and wear silly hats and blow up balloons and sing and dance and have fun. Do you call that commitment?”
The people smiled at the chairperson and asked him if he’d like a glass of wine. The chairperson hit his fist on the table. “I don’t want wine, and I don’t want birthday cake. We’re here to reprimand you. We’re here to show you that you’re wrong. Can’t you be serious?”
“We are,” said the people. “We’re asking you to take communion with us.”
“With birthday cake?” screamed the chairperson. “Outrageous!”
“Outrageous? [said the people] “We ask you to sit at our table and sup with us. God gave the Holy Spirit to believers, and that is something to celebrate! It’s an occasion for a party. We are celebrants of the gift of Life. We are community. We are God’s church. Why are your faces red when we are trying to do justice and love mercy? Why do you shake your fists at us when we are trying to discover the hurting andbegin the healing? We are overjoyed that we can be the church, a community of people, who are many, yet one—who are different, but who walk together and welcome any who would walk with us. When we weep there is someone to weep with us and to affirm us and to take us to a party. When we see injustices, we must be about God’s business of freeing the oppressed. When we are faithless, we have God’s promise offorgiveness. Isn’t it remarkable that we can be God’s good news? Is itany wonder we have a church full of party rooms? There is so much love to celebrate!”
The committee stared at the people, and the people moved closer to them and put their arms around them. The committee chairperson stepped up to the table and sliced a piece of birthday cake, took a bite, and laughed out loud. He began slicing and passing it out.
When the wine was poured and the hands were held, the chairperson raised his glass and said, “There is so much Love to celebrate! Happy Birthday, Church!” And all God’s children say…Amen.
Birthday Cake and Banner
Today is Pentecost and for us that's the birthday of the church, when the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God came into the church and gave the church life.
Today we celebrate what God has given us and we offer to God what he has put inside us. The Holy Spirit gives us gifts, abilities, talents, things that we can do to help us do what God wants us to do. God gives us gifts through the Holy Spirit so that we might be strong and be able to show the world the love that God wants everyone to have.
Birthdays need banners…
Bring up the banner the children have made and hang it at the front.
And with any birthday, we need a cake~
As the cake is brought in we sing Happy Birthday church.
Ask a small child to blow out the candles.
Children’s Task 2:Making Breeze Balls
This activity goes on in quiet while the testimonies are shared…
For instructions on how to make these, check out the Uniting Church in Australia’s website -
pentecost/Pentecost-Breeze-Ball.pdf
Some experiences of the Holy Spirit in our lives
We invited 3 different people in the congregation to share their experience of the Holy Spirit –the diversity of each added to the freedom of those listening.
Holy Spirit Holes
It is Pentecost - the day we celebrate God’s gift to us of the fire of the Holy Spirit –the same fire that burnt the bush before Moses and attended God’s gift of prophetic speech in the Old Testament. Amidst wind and tumbling tongues of fire, the church is born and prophetic witness to God is renewed in the visions and dreams of men and women, girls and boys. Our task is therefore to be open enough to receive what God wants to give –allowing the gift of the Spirit to float freely in our lives.
Back in the Middle Ages, in Europe, very few people could read for themselves, and there were no mass produced books to read anyway. So the only places where followers of Jesus heard the stories of the Bible were in the churches, where they were depicted in paintings and murals, sculptures and icons, stained glass windows and in the drama and pageantry of worship.
People in the middle ages loved the great festivals of the church, when the Bible stories came alive as they were re-enacted. Pentecost was one of their favourites for they really threw great parties! As they celebrated the church’s birthday and the gift of the Holy Spirit to all people, the churches were decorated with bright red to symbolise the fire of Pentecost. As the people entered the church, the choir and organ would make amazing whooshing noises of rushing wind! And one of the really amazing things in some of the churches in Rome was the holes that were made in the church ceilings –they called them Holy Spirit holes, opening to the sky. Through them, they would drop symbols of the Holy Spirit, like real doves and red rose petals fluttering down on the people!
It is an amazing concept –the willingness to make holes in their churches to let the Holy Spirit in. Now, I’m not suggesting we make physical holes here, but I do think we need to be willing to open ourselves more to the Spirit.
So take some time over the next few days and reflect on what ways you might make some holes in yourself –holes that let the Spirit in more easily. Holes that allow the Spirit to work more easily in your life.Holy Spirit Holes.
So be it, Amen.
Song:Spirit of the living God
Sharing the Breeze Balls (use fans to make a wind)
Prayers of Intercession
Holy Spirit, because you have come to us like wind and fire,
this world can never be a barren and joyless place.
May all people and all nations
make room for your Presence.
May they come to recognise you, to trust you, and to love you.
Then in loving you, may they find the resources to love one another.
Spirit of truth, inflame your children with a zeal for a reformation of communities and nations which is grounded in love.
Give us a passion for justice and truth administered with grace and mercy.
Teach the way of Christ in all things.
We pray, loving Spirit, for the comfort of your Spirit for all who are frail, diseased, injured or in sorrow. We pray especially this morning for…
Please shape, direct and bless all the powers of healing, and let trust and peace reside in every heart.
Today we commend to your care the many branches of your church. Especially we remember the other Christians who worship in this city. Those churches we know by various names.
May your Holy Spirit move among us like wind and fire and forge a new era of understanding, cooperation and witness to the world. Through Christ Jesus our Redeemer. Amen.
Hymn:Glory be to God the Father
Benediction and sung Amen
In the power of the Holy Spirit we now go forth into the world, to fulfill our calling as the people of God, the body of Christ.
Go in peace;
and may the Spirit of God be above you and below you,
may she be to the right of you and to the left,
to the front and to the rear,
may the Spirit inhabit your hearts and your mind,
and move through your hands and your feet.
May the Spirit fill your eyes and grace your lips -
to the glory of God our Father
and Jesus Christ, our Risen Saviour
both now and forevermore. Amen
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