Welcome
WelcomE: It’s good that you’re here.
If this is your first time with us, here’s our simple, five-part Spotlight framework so you know where we’re headed for the next 90 minutes:
Welcome > Worship > Learn > Serve > Farewell
This week’s Spotlight focuses on community—how it grows through the Gospel, how it is a truly important part of life, and how God’s love in and through community means that you might feel lonely, but you’re never alone.
Watch & Get Started: Welcome
Begin by watching this 3 minute and 23 second masterpiece (it’ll help ease your mind and heart into our main focus today):
Check In: Let us know you’re here
Please check in using the form below (it’s the best way you can help us serve you well).
Watch: The Distance Isn’t New
Worship
Listen & Interact: God’s Promises
First, click the play button in the bottom bar of the frame. Once the song (With You by Elevation Worship) starts playing, use the length of the song to click around the interactive image to read and meditate on God’s promise that you’ll never be alone.
Watch: Children’s Message
Children, ages 3 to 12, watch the brief Children’s Message below.
watch: The Devil wants to isolate you. Jesus was isolated for you.
Listen & PRAY: Psalm 121
Listen & Respond:
You might feel lonely, but you’re never alone. As you meditate through this remarkable sand art music video of the song Never Alone by Koine:
Watch for a particular image or lyric that provides rest for your soul - and might provide that rest for someone else.
After the song is over, on your own or with your group, submit your favorite thing about the song in the box below.
Learn
Interact & Read: The dangers of isolation
Use the small right-arrow on the right side of the image to proceed through the slides.
Wise King Solomon described a man in an isolated situation (and the lessons we can learn from him) in Ecclesiastes 4:7-12.
Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
There was a man all alone;
he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
“and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
a miserable business!Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
There is a difference between being alone and feeling lonely. Loneliness is dangerous, and in recent years it seems like society in general has become worse at being alone and better at being lonely. This has a lot to do with the breakdown of how we interact with one another.
Watch & Respond:
Watch this fascinating video that visualizes a portion of a TED talk called Connected, but Alone? by Sherry Turkle. As you watch, fill in the following blanks:
Monkeys organize in groups of _____ to _____ members.
The natural size of a group of humans is about _____ members.
As the social fabric in the Western world weakens, it is not surprising that more and more people define themselves as _____.
We get to edit—and that means, we get to _____.
We are lonely, but we’re afraid of _____.
If we are not able to be alone, we’re only going to know how to be _____.
Watch & Discuss:
Serve
Watch & DO: Building Community
Three Ways We’re Building Community
Your Pastor Serving You
You Serving Others: Your task - and remember, you’re not done with the Spotlight until you’ve completed the service task - is to reach out to three different people this week.
First, one person from your church.
Second, one person you haven’t talked to in a while.
Third, one person in an elder care facility. (They’re particularly isolated right now due to Coronavirus precautions.)
Your Script
Greet them and ask how they’re doing!
Ask them if they’ve seen any good movies or shows during quarantine.
Share a movie or show you’ve seen.
Ask when the last time they had a good conversation with somebody was.
Share with them one of the verses from the interactive image back in the worship section!
Farewell
Pray: 3 Prayers
Pray through the prayer requests you/your group submitted earlier.
Pray for all who are seeking God through different media and methods this week. Pray they would be reminded that he is here with them.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen.
Consider Giving:
God is good to provide ways for the church to keep doing its work even when things seem upside down. In fact, the uniqueness of this moment means that people who are worried or overwhelmed or frustrated are especially in need of the truth that God loves them and holds them in his arms.
When you support Illumine, you support our part in God’s effort to show himself to the world - in fact, you are God’s effort to show himself. Thank you for considering a gift to this ministry.
Listen & MEDITATe: You are not alone
