Family Service vs Earth Hour...who will win??

Well, after talking about it, and sounding like we were gonna be really green and hippy about Earth Hour, we piked.

Merl had a sermon to write for this morning's family service at church. And, as he says, "I was such a good planner that I left it to the last minute...". So the options open to us were

1) sit in the dark for an hour and then spend 2 1/2 hours on the computer
2) forget Earth Hour and get to bed at a reasonable time

I figure we didn't use any more power than if we'd observed Earth Hour, and we got some sleep, so that's all good :)

Family Service was great. Attendance was down a bit, but that is common for family services. Some people just can't stand them and stay away. And I can kinda see their point. I have been to my fair share of abysmal, uninspiring, chaotic, no-fun-for-anyone family services.

But, this one was fun, and although I might be a teensy bit biased, I think it had good accessible content for all ages. I also think that God made His presence felt and that the full spectrum of ages were able to worship as well as learn. Not an easy feat! Merl introduced the song King of Love, by Duggie Dug Dug to the congregation, which has some beautiful sign-language actions that go with it. I think this is partly what enabled people to participate in worship together.

The service was based on the 'Harvest' service suggestions in Scripture Union's The All-Age Service Annual. Which I highly recommend. We got heaps of good feedback after the service, which is always good :)

Using the Grocery Store Wars (5min Star Wars spoof) as a bouncing board, Merl introduced the centrality of food to our daily lives. He talked about the parable of the Good Samaritan and how everyone is our neighbour. He talked about how our food was one of the ways we are connected to people on the other side of the world;

"When you buy that 99c chocolate bar, or eat your easter eggs, your neighbour is the child slave in Ivory Coast who harvested the cocoa...
Do our food choices make us complicit in the sufferings of others?...
Is there something else I can buy that instead eases people's suffering and is a blessing to someone else's life?
Can I give someone an honest day's wage for their honest day's work?"

All good stuff.

P.S. Earth Hour seems to have gone well in Christchurch, anyway...