Sometimes a passage of Scripture can really challenge a creative team.  Some passages are used often in church, while others rarely (if ever) get air play on Sundays.  What are your options if you hit a wall on how to proceed as a team?  Do you let this stop your process? Does it become a barrier to creative communication?

We found ourselves in a spot like this on Sunday.  We loved the rather obscure parable of the Two Brothers, but it wasn’t a story that any of us had ever heard taught on before. That made it a bit of a challenge to produce creative content to enhance the worship experience.

The obvious point of the parable is that our actions of obedience mean more than our lip service to God. This led some of us on our team to consider Jesus’ obedience to the Father to go to the cross on our behalf.  Like the two brothers, Jesus also had a choice of whether to follow His Father in obedience or to go another way.

From this discussion, we decided that perhaps we should lean into our communion moment and do something special/unique for it. Dave Cowan, our Arts Pastor, wrote the following and we expedited a quick video shoot.

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The night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Jesus came to his usual place to pray: the Garden of Gethsemane.  There, the bible says, Jesus “fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.'”

Jesus knew what awaited him in crucifixion, and the thought of it was enough to ask God to see if there was another way.  The Prince of Peace that walked on water and calmed the seas now found himself in need of peace.

There was a crossroad in the garden. Not one that could be seen, but rather felt. Would Jesus choose to follow his own path, or the one the Father had for him?

Thankfully for us, Jesus chose obedience.

The truth is… We each have a cup of our own… Our cup represents the moment where we know God is calling us to action, but the road before us seems so hard.  Will we take our own path, or the one of obedience? 

Each time we take communion we remember what Jesus did on our behalf – and each time we take communion we look to the week ahead with a fresh start. 

Let’s take the bread together…  The bible tells us that Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.  Let’s take the bread together…  

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

May we follow our Savior’s lead and be a people of obedience.

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Learning: There are times when a team may hit a creative wall. Our experiences with this has led us to take our creative juices elsewhere in the service (a creative communion moment, a creative call to Christ, a creative way for people to respond to the message).  Give it a try the next time your team struggles. It may lead somewhere great.

Set List:

Only King Forever

Fierce

O, Come to The Altar

Special: I Will Follow

No Longer Slaves

Run Sheet: