Imagine Wordle

Here is the Wordle version of my sermon from Sunday May 2, 2010 (aka "The iPad Sermon").

For the full manuscript, click here to visit the church's website.

And to see the full-sized Wordle rendering just click on the pic below.

SWC Annual Meeting Wordles

This past Sunday I preached about the Southwest Conference Annual Meeting, using the title "The Work We Do." The emphasis was placed on the word "We" in that title to lift up all of the amazing things that are happening all around us in the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Here is the thing, though, I didn't get home from the Conference Annual Meeting until late Saturday night which means I didn't write out the sermon but instead preached it manuscript free. So I don't have anything to plug into our handy-dandy wordle creating software.

So instead, I thought I would use my weekly wordle posting to share some of the images I helped the Justice and Witness Committee use for their presentation at Annual Meeting! Remember, the way the program works is that it takes whatever block of text you put in and creates a graphical rendering of it where the words that appear most often are displayed as the biggest words and the ones used less often get progressively smaller.

The Justice and Witness Committee took the written reports they received from each local congregation who hosted a Listening Session. Those sessions asked church members to answer two simple questions: 1) What are you doing for your local community? 2) What is on your heart.

I took those written reports, dropped them into our Wordle creator, and here is a small sampling of what we got! As always, you can click on the images below to see the fullsized rendering.

 Encanto Community Church

Southwest Conference Youth (from Thanksgiving Alive)

Scottsdale Congregational UCC

 Desert Heritage UCC

All Reports

 My personal favorite. I took all of the reports, lumped them together, pasted it into the Wordle interface and this is what popped out. 

Wordle-palazoo

Okay, so life has been crazy busy lately and I'm just now putting up the sermons from the month of April (check out the time stamp on this post, I'm running late; my apologies).

So here we go, three Wordles for the three sermons this month. You can find the full sermon manuscripts here, here, and here on the church's website.

As usual, you can see the full sized Wordle rendering by clicking on the image below.

April 18, 2010 When Love Means Feeding the Sheep

April 11, 2010 Doubt

April 4, 2010 Risen Indeed

Wordle: Preparation

Preparation is the hard work that we put in that we might be able to live into God's own vision for the future. We know that the future is bringing a lot of change for the Encanto Community Church. The changes that lead us from Lent to Easter. The changes that come when new folks join the church. The changes that come when you call your next settled minister. We thank God for the hard work of preparation that you all have taken on already and for all the good work that is yet to come as we strive and struggle, listen and learn to live into God's vision for the future.

You can find the full sermon manuscript at the church's website by clicking here. Or to see the fullsized Wordle rendering just click on the image.

Abundance vs. Scarcity Wordle

This sermon title -- "Abundance vs. Scarcity" -- came to me not from the concerns of balancing a church budget (Yes, we had our Budget Planning Meeting on Wednesday, but I promise I picked this sermon title weeks and weeks ago!), but rather as a jumping off point drawn from the contrasts in Sunday's scripture readings, and the way those contrasts are helpful in introducing our One Great Hour of Sharing Special Mission Offering that we will receive next Sunday.

And yes, I re-randomized the Wordle rendering several dozens times to get it to read "One Great Hour of Sharing" from top to bottom!

For the full sermon manuscript click here to visit the church website. Or to see the full size version of the Wordle rendering then click on the image to the right.

Not So Subtle Wordle

Okay, fine. Wordle's are never subtle. That is part of their fun. But in this case the sermon title itself is "Not So Subtle."

The life of faith is all about foreshadowing, really. We can't see around that blind curve into the fullness of what the future holds. But we strive and struggle to discern those images that will guide us and lead us, knowing full well that God will be with us each and every step of the way. These are the promises of faith that name us, claim us, and propel us forward. The future is yet unwritten, but through the eyes of faith we see the foreshadowed promises of blessing, life, and mission. And we step boldly into the unknown future.

You can read the entire sermon manuscript by clicking here to visit the church's website. And to see the whole Wordle rendering, just click on the image to the right.

LOVE! Wordle

For the first time since 1999 Saint Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday. And at Encanto we chose to celebrate by Saint Valentine's Day by focusing on God's blessed gift of love.

The good news of the Gospel is that You Are Loved! Truly, patiently, enduringly, by God. You are loved more than you will ever know. And the challenge of the Christian faith is to not stop there, but rather to take that love of God and share it with world.

Since I spend some time in the sermon picking on the pink-crepe-paper and overstuffed-boxes-of-chocolates that characterize St. Valentine's Day, I figured why not make a saccharine sweet, pink and gooey wordle!

Here is the Wordle rendering of Sunday's LOVE! Sermon. To see the fullsized rendering, simply click on the image below. To read the entire text of the manuscript, then follow this link to the church's website.

Fishing for Wordles

We are invited to follow the call of Christ in the same way that Simon and James and John did. To hear the invitation from Christ and to respond in whatever way is fitting and authentic and true. This week Christ calls us to “Go where the fish are.” And don't forget to bring your net. Because there is an overflowing catch just waiting to be brought in.

For the full manuscript of the sermon, just click here to be redirected to the church website. To see the full sized wordle rendering, just click on the image below.

Hamster Sunday Wordle

Never heard of Hamster Sunday? Well, until January 24th, neither had I!

The backstory: In November the church sold Turkey Tickets to support the 2009 Community Turkey Drive. To help spur on ticket sales I raffled off a sermon topic. So for a $5 donation (that would help a family or individual in need have a turkey for their Thanksgiving table) your name was also entered in the raffle. If I pulled your name out of the hat, then you got the right to tell me what I had to preach on. When I pulled out Youth Group Member Ted's name, he simply said one word, "Hamsters." And thus was born, Hamster Sunday.

You can find the full manuscript of the Hamster Sunday Sermon at the church website by clicking here. And to see the fullsize wordle rendering of that sermon you can click on the image below. Hallelujah! Hamsters!

Wordle: On Baptism

On the second Sunday in January, the first Sunday after Epiphany, we celebrate Christ's baptism.

Baptism is about beginnings. It is about welcoming folks into the fullness of life in God. It is about humbly following the path of Christ and courageously taking up the work that defined him and his ministry.

To read the full sermon, check out the manuscript at the church website by clicking here. To see the full sized Wordle rendering then just click on the image below.

New Year's Wordle

A whole new year, a whole new decade, and a whole new wordle!

On the first Sunday of the new year (and a new decade!) we look back at the last 10 years and look forward in hope to the next 10 years. For the full manuscript of the sermon, check out the church's website by clicking here. For the full sized wordle rendering of the sermon, click the image below.

Praising God and Singing Wordle

On the First Sunday after Christmas we had a Sing-A-Long! Everyone named off their favorite Christmas Carols and we sang them together. It was great! Big thanks to our organist Jerry Jensen for playing us through such a merry worship service. Instead of a full sermon, I simply offered a very brief homily on the joy and value of singing.

For the full (but nonetheless brief!) manuscript of the homily, you can click here to go to the church's website. For the full version of the Wordle, just click on the image to the right.

Mary's Christmas Carol Wordle

On the last Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Love, we finally get Mary's story. It seems a fitting time to pay tribute to the mother of our Lord after all. Advent is the time of preparation and anticipation and what could better fit that theme than the time of hope and expectation known as pregnancy.

Mary has much to teach us. And the Magnificat (this Sunday's scritpure) is a terrific place to start. Through it Mary stands as a sterling example of a person of faith. Lifting up for us the spiritual gifts of living a life that is faithful, thankful, and prophetic. Faithful, thankful, and prophetic – these are the gifts that Mary offers us this day.

You can find the full manuscript of the sermon by clicking here and visiting the church's website. Or to see the full sized Wordle rendering, just click on the image below.

Some Holiday Greeting?!? Wordle

This is one of my favorite sermons, despite the fact that things are so dichotomous on the third Sunday of Advent. When we light the pink candle and celebrate God's gift of joy, we have John the Baptist yelling at us "You brood of vipers!" while calling us to repent and using hellfire and brimstone images.

I take a non-traditional view in interpreting John the Baptist's "wheat and the chaff" imagery. For the full sermon manuscript, visit the church's website by clicking here. To see the entire Wordle rendering, click on the image below.

John the Baptist Wordle

We get back-to-back Sunday's with the one, the only John the Baptist! So we use this first Sunday sermon to simply introduce the man who came to prepare the way. We lift up those things he did that we should do too (preparing the way, being filled with the word of God) and those things we might want to chalk up to ancient world eccentricities (locust lunches and camel's hair clothes, anyone?).

For the full manuscript of a Communion Sunday shortened sermon, simply visit the church website by clicking here. To see the entire wordle rendering (in exciting black and white this week!) then click on the image below.

Anticipation Wordle

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What's that, you say? It isn't New Year's yet? Well it is in the church!

This past Sunday was the First Sunday of Advent we begin all over again a new Christian Liturgical Year. As we slow-play our way to the celebration of Christ's birth in our heart and in our world at Christmas we take on the Season of Advent -- a time of anticipation and preparation.

Here is Wordle rendering of this past Sunday's sermon on anticipation. For the full manuscript simply visit the church's website by clicking here. Or to see a full-size version of the Wordle just click on the image below.

Give Thanks for Wordles!

On Thanksgiving Sunday we lifted up the blessings that we are thankful for. Like Wordles!

For the full sermon manuscript you can visit the church website here. Or to see the entire Wordle image click on the picture below.

Transition and Transformation Wordle

Throughout my ministry at Encanto, I've periodically preached about the fundamental thing before us in our Interim Time together – change. Specifically the cycle of change, transition, and transformation. Today is another one of those days. A reminder of sorts, but one brought about by the new developments in the life of our church – the Search Committee formally submitting our Congregational Profile to the denomination, the advent of our Transition Fund, the lovely smiling faces of the new members we welcomed into full fellowship here at the Encanto Community Church last week. We've got change all around us, it would seem. So it seemed a good time to touch base again.

Here is the Wordle for this Sunday's Sermon. For the full text, visit the church website. To see the full sized Wordle rendering, just click on the image below.

Family of Faith Wordle

Here is the Wordle from New Member Sunday at the Encanto Community Church. We were thrilled to welcome five new folks into full membership in the church...and even more thrilled when a throng of young children attached to the new members came up with them.

On New Member Sunday we talked about family. The family of faith. The ways that we are connected with one another. The ways that trust, promise, and intentionality trump mere genetics and a shared last name when it comes to being family. For the full manuscript of the sermon you can go to the website by clicking here. For the full version of the Wordle you can click on the image below. Enjoy!

Wants and Needs

This week we talk prayer. James and John the sons of Zebedee turn to Jesus and tell him, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Which is a trick my three-year-old tries on me all the time. And, is something we try all to often with our prayer life too.

For the full sermon manuscript go to the church website by clicking here. To see the full version of the Wordle click on the image below.