Worship Stations @ the Asian American Equipping Seminar III

For the closing chapel service at the ISAAC - Fuller Seminary Asian American Equipping Seminar III (March 20, 2012, in Pasadena, California) we used Travis Auditorium to set out three worship stations:

1. "Release," by Olga Lah (click to see the very excellent narrative by S. Edward Yang). This was a full-scale art installation, which served as the visual focus of the worship space.

2. A prayer station on "Family / Culture / Growing Up" (with sticky notes for writing prayers, interspersed with Scripture texts and items related to the subject; I was especially proud to find my copy of the mid-80's Time magazine cover story on "Those Asian American Whiz Kids"--should have put it side by side with last year's Tiger Mother cover story!)

3. A station for prayers for "Church and Faith," dominated by tokens of my evangelical / Baptist / more or less fundy upbringing (Scofield Bible, Chick tract ["The Beast"!], songbook from Urbana '81, Francis Schaeffer's The Mark of a Christian).

I really like prayer stations! They are a way of praying together that works especially well for introverts like me.

Here's the full program:

Healing of Memories

Third Annual Asian American Equipping Symposium

ISAAC / Fuller Theological Seminary

Closing Reflection

v Responsive Scripture Reading:

Isaiah 61

Leader: Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. (v.7)

All:  The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

to proclaim freedom for the captives

and release from darkness for the prisoners,

² to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor

and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn,

³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.

Leader: Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.

 Women:

⁴ They will rebuild the ancient ruins

and restore the places long devastated;

they will renew the ruined cities

that have been devastated for generations.

⁵ Strangers will shepherd your flocks;

foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.

⁶ And you will be called priests of the LORD,

you will be named ministers of our God.

You will feed on the wealth of nations,

and in their riches you will boast.

Leader: Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.

 Men:

⁷ Instead of your shame

you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace

you will rejoice in your inheritance.

And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,

and everlasting joy will be yours.

⁸ “For I, the LORD, love justice;

I hate robbery and wrongdoing.

In my faithfulness I will reward my people

and make an everlasting covenant with them.

⁹ Their descendants will be known among the nations

and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge

that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”

Leader: Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.

All:

¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up

and a garden causes seeds to grow,

so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness

and praise spring up before all nations.

Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion,

and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.

v Prayer Stations

We invite you to prayerfully reflect on your experience at this Symposium through silent and written prayers, alone or with others here.

Prayer Stations:

1. Installation piece by Olga Lah: “Release”

2. Family / Culture / Growing Up

Memories of how you were raised; what happened in your family; your schooling; your experiences of ethnicity and race; the ways you became who you are

3. Church and Faith

Memories of your faith journey at church and elsewhere; what you were taught about God; how you were shaped to think of Jesus and what it meant to follow him; what church felt like when you were growing up; your first Bible; your experiences with other religions

  

Solo Violin: Corrie Covell

Pieces including “The Lark Ascending” by Ralph Vaughan Williams,  inspired by the George Meredith poem of the same name. An excerpt:

And know the pleasure sprinkled bright

By simple singing of delight,

Shrill, irreflective, unrestrain’d,

Rapt, ringing, on the jet sustain’d

. . . . . . . . . .

Was never voice of ours could say

Our inmost in the sweetest way,

Like yonder voice aloft, and link

All hearers in the song they drink

v Responsive Scripture Reading:

Psalm 147

Leader: The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

All:  Praise the LORD.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,

how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

² The LORD builds up Jerusalem;

he gathers the exiles of Israel.

³ He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds.

⁴ He determines the number of the stars

and calls them each by name.

Leader: The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

All: Great is our Lord and mighty in power;

his understanding has no limit.

⁶ The LORD sustains the humble

but casts the wicked to the ground.

⁷ Sing to the LORD with grateful praise;

make music to our God on the harp.

⁸ He covers the sky with clouds;

he supplies the earth with rain

and makes grass grow on the hills.

Leader: The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

All: He provides food for the cattle

and for the young ravens when they call.

¹⁰ His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;

¹¹ the LORD delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

v Closing Song: Taizé setting of the Nunc dimittis

            Let your servant now go in peace, O Lord;

            Now go in peace, according to your word.

Lord, I thank you for these memories you have healed:

Lord, I look to you as you are now healing these memories:

Lord, be my strength to somehow face these memories still in need of healing:

Other prayers: