Nursing Home Church Service
The following will appear in the youth leaders' October newsletter to teens and parents:Doug's Ministry Highlight
This morning (October 2nd, 2005) our youth group had its very first church service at the Norway Rehabilitation and Living Center. This is something I’ve been looking forward to ever since I started talking to Georgia, the Activities Director at Norway Rehab, about the possibility of bringing in teens to lead a church service once per month. Her response to the idea was “We’ve never been able to get anyone to lead a church service here on Sunday mornings, because the people who can preach are already preaching somewhere else!”
One of the residents confirmed this when she was asked “Do you have Sunday morning church services often?” and she replied, “In all the time I’ve been here, I think this is the very first one.”
Their eagerness to have a church service was evident; church was supposed to start at 10:00, but when we arrived at about 9:45, there was already a group of about 15 residents sitting quietly and patiently waiting for the service to begin!
Tommy H. and Rachel B. helped lead hymns on their guitars, Ellis W. ran our sound system (we wanted to make sure everyone could hear!), Becky L. shared a scripture reading, and David Knightly shared the message, about seeing with our spiritual eyes. Others helped in many other ways; setting up and carrying equipment, handing out and collecting hymnbooks, and greeting the residents.
I was so busy trying to get things set up before the service that I didn’t get a chance to visit with any of the residents until after the service was all over. I chatted briefly with a couple residents, who were thrilled to have the service, and promised that they would be back next month for sure!
I appreciated our teens being willing and eager to serve in so many ways, and I know that they have been – and will continue to be – a great blessing to our brothers and sisters at the Norway Rehabilitation Center!
Any teens interested in helping out with our nursing home church services should plan to be at the South Paris Baptist Church at 9:30 AM on the first Sunday of each month.
Just a couple more comments to add to this...
Last year I taught the teens about "small things", and the importance of small things in the Christian life. I realize that the same thing is certainly true for leadership. As we were getting ready for the church service, I realized no one had got the residents' hymnbooks out, so I asked one of the residents where they were kept. She told me, and I went to get them out of the cabinet. Then, just as I was about to pass them out, I thought, "No, I've got teens here who are hoping for something to do..." So I called one of the girls over and asked her to hand them out. Then I overheard one of the other leaders say to her, "See Taylor? I told you Doug would have something for you to do."
Such a little thing, and if I hadn't been on my toes, I would have missed an opportunity to get a teen involved...even in a small way.
After we got back from the Nursing Home, Arnold asked me to tell the church how it had gone, so I stood and gave a brief report. Katie asked me which nursing home we had gone to, and then was very excited because that's where her grandfather is. Her grandfather is not a believer, and did not come to the church service, but Katie hopes that if she comes with us, she can get her grandfather to come. That would be cool.
Posted On Oct 3, 2005 at 5:01 AM
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