More Pictures of Youth Service

Pictures of the Youth Service at Chapel Rock, Prescott

Elements of Youth Service at Chapel Rock

In my previous post I left out the actual parts of the service I used.

• My opening was a thanksgiving collect, composed in the moment giving thanks for each of them who were present at the retreat, all the people who had helped make it happen, and then named the adult leaders present.


• Romans 5:1--6: Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us, by faith, into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. We rejoice, then, in the hope we have of sharing God's glory! And we also rejoice in our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and his approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts byh means of the Holy Spirit, who is God's gift to us. (This is a favorite passage of mine which in NRSV has the line--"suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope...." Since the retreat was on "facing challenges" I introduced this theme with the first reading which highlights how troubles or suffering actually gives us deeper character which will lead ultimately to a great ability for hope, because of God's Spirit.


• Psalm 118:1-7, done with rap rhythm
• Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good: *
• his mercy endures for ever.
• Let Israel now proclaim,
• "His mercy endures for ever."
• Let the house of Aaron now proclaim,*
• "His mercy endures for ever."
• I called to the Lord in my distress;*
• ["His mercy endures for ever."
• The Lord is at my side, therefore I will not fear;*
• ["His mercy endures for ever."]
• The Lord is at my side to help me;*
• ["His mercy endures for ever."]

The Gospel: Luke 11: 5-10, includes the story of the man demanding 3 loaves of bread for a friend who has suddenly appeared to visit. The man at first refuses and then gives in and gets up and gets the food "because you are not ashamed to keep on asking."

This follows immediately with the familiar pharse "Ask and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.

The rest of the service is in the earlier post. I would like to include the words from Enriching Our Worship Eucharistic Prayer A, but I have not figured out how to cut and paste into this format yet.

More to follow--Rev. Pam

A Successful Youth Service

On Tues. Oct. 9, I did a Eucharist at Chapel Rock camp, in a "rock formation chapel" for our newly formed Youth Group.



What follows are the elements which I believe made this first worship event for youth at our church work.



1. We started with a song the youth chose the night before: "Live out Loud" by Steven Curtis Chapman, handing out card stock lyrics from a download, suggested by one of the youth.



2. I used "An Order for Celebrating the Holy Eucharist" (Book of Common Prayer, 1979, pp 400-401).



3. The theme of the Retreat was "I faced the Challenge," so I used Romans 5: 1--7, from Good News for Modern Man, read by a young person (practiced the night before). Then did Psalm 118, vvs. 1--7, but keeping the 2nd line always--"His mercy endures forever," as rap. I said the first line beating the rhythm and the youth came in, some clapping, keeping the rap rhythm. For the gospel I used Luke 10:5--10 [Good News bible], with its message of ask and you will receive.



4. Probably the most effective element was my "homily" done as a "man on the street" interviewing a male and female high school student with a mike prop.

I asked them the following questions:

• What obstacles or difficult situations do you face?


• What or who helps you get through these.


• What helps?


• How/where do you find God/Jesus?


• How does this help?


• If Jesus were standing here what would you ask for (it is good to ask for what you want, even if it seems silly)?

5. For Prayers of the people I modified in the moment the First Form (p. 413-415) from A New Zealand Prayer Book, HarperCollins, 1997, mainly citing the areas--"We pray for the world... then concluding our petitions using one line and response said by me.

6. I forgot the peace, so it was put at the end, therefore went straight into the offertory song: "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercyme, which many did sing along with the CD using the lyric sheets.

7. For the Eucharistic Prayer I used Form A from Enriching Our Worship I, reading the Postcommunion Prayer myself (and doing a bit of explaining as I went), with the Youth Director serving the chalice.

8. We ended with the old goodie--"Amen" from the Sidney Poitier movie, and exchanged the peace.

I spent 30 minutes the night before getting volunteers for the different parts and having them pick out the music from a CD personal mix of downloads, which made all the difference in the service. It became THEIR service, not the adults.

Probably the music (one youth cried through the whole service being reminded of a family funeral by the first song, the "Man on the Street," and the setting were some of the key components in the success of this first ever worship service for the youth at St. Luke's, Prescott.

Let me know what has worked for you.

Rev. Pam