Emphasis Preaching Journal

A recently widowed woman in her early seventies is returning to the church where she raised her children. Her recently deceased husband had required much home health care, which she attended to throughout the years. Now she is returning to the church they attended before his illness. She arrived at a modern looking, erected metal fabricated building, with outdoor live streaming words on electric screen with modern architecture. Upon entry, she saw the entire interior of the church had a new makeover! There were movable chairs instead of pews.

Contents
"Who are the Good People?" by C. David McKirachan
"Lower Lights" by C. David McKirachan


Who are the Good People?
by C. David McKirachan
Genesis 32:22-31

An elder came to see me asking why Lent and Advent put so much emphasis on confronting our need to repent. Shouldn’t we be focusing on problem solving and lifting spirits? After all, there were a lot of good people in the congregation who needed to be comforted rather than reminded of all the dark places in life.

"I think," said the Archdeacon, "the time may have come to close this Church. The cost of repairs would be something in the region of 100,000 pounds, and you only have 24 people on the electoral roll."

The PCC was aghast. They had expected to be without a vicar for some time, but they hadn't expected quite such a bombshell as that. After all, they'd paid their parish share regularly despite having such a tiny congregation, and had been looking forward to a new vicar eventually coming and pulling them out of the doldrums.

Is there anything better to eat than fresh homemade bread? I don't think so. I have been told that if you are trying to sell your home and are showing it, you should bake some bread so the aroma of fresh bread greets the potential buyers. You are then appealing to two senses - sight and smell. I know it would affect me positively to walk into a home that smells of homemade bread. But even better than to smell it is to eat it.

(Note: If your church or community sponsors a specific "food bank" or relief agency, use that agency's name as the illustration in this lesson.)

Good morning, boys and girls. How many of you know the story about Jesus feeding more than 5,000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish? (Let them answer.) If you remember that story, you'll remember that all those people were fed and when the meal was finished there were 12 baskets of food left over! That's an amazing story from the Bible, isn't it? We call it a