Worship on July 6
A small crowd gathered together for worship on the Sunday following the Independence Day holiday. That didn’t dampen the spirits of the ones who were there.
Our church historian, LaVaughn Stong, led our worship service as we celebrated religious freedom in our country. LaVaughn stated her purpose of the service as 1) Celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence 2) Honor those who have served our country and 3) Worship God who has given us such gifts.
A small parade opened the service with 9 men from our congregation who have served in our country’s conflicts known as WWII, Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm and Iraq. As they were standing up front hold our nation’s flag and the Christian flag, Reverend Mack Bradish sang the National Anthem. He was accompanied by Conner Remaly on the drum. The congregation then recited the pledge to the American Flag and the Christian Flag.
When these honored men were seated, LaVaughn read the prayer of Invocation. She also read several Bible verses. The congregation responded with “Blest is the nation whose God is the Lord.”
Ginny McCabe sang the song “American Christian”.
Jeff Reach taught the children. He had copy of the Declaration of Independence, a miniature Liberty Bell and a bag filled with balloons. Jeff read a few lines from the historic document. Any time he read the name “God” (or a variant thereof) the kids were to ring the bell and set off some firecrackers (that is, pop some balloons). The kids had a great time making noise.
We sang two verses of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
LaVaughn did a presentation entitled “Monuments of Our Liberty” in which she had 11 pictures of the various national monuments. She talked about why each of these is important to our religious freedom.
Following the collection of the offering we had the folding of the American Flag. This was done by 2 generations of Boy Scouts in our congregation. Bill Stong who earned his Second Class rank. Pastor Rick who is an Eagle Scout. While these 2 scouts folded the flag, LaVaughn talked about what each fold represents.
LaVaughn asked all the men of the congregation who had served in the military to come forward. Each one introduced himself and told which branch of the service he served in and where. There must have been 25 men across the front of our sanctuary representing every branch of the service and nearly every portion of the world. A few of the men took the opportunity to talk about some of their war stories.
Pastor Rick read the scripture lesson of the morning from Hebrews 6:1-12. He briefly talked about how exciting the faith is when we take the time to serve others. If we keep the faith to ourselves we become dull and uncaring. When we reach out, we grow in our faith.
The closing hymn was “My Country Tis of Thee.”
About 87 people were present for worship on this Patriotic holiday Sunday.
