I sometimes get asked: Does Mount Ararat buy the sermon series we do from other churches?

I am not afraid to admit that I listen and learn from many great pastors across the country, but I can honestly share that most of creative ideas we do in worship are morphed together from our people. We have some very talented people praying and dreaming together to create some unforgettable experiences.

I believe the message begins as soon as people pull into the parking lot. Every thread of the Sunday morning contributes to the message (positively and sometimes negatively). As we plan a series, we think of how the stage will look, what will appear on the screen, and what will be placed in a person’s hand through a worship guide.

Every series begins with prayer and the leading of God’s Word. In getting alone with God, I try to map 8-10 months out (However, I am always open for change as the Spirit leads). I sometimes miss how the Holy Spirit weaves this all together until I look back months later in reflecting about the journey we have taken. After the Easter series, Coming Home, I sensed in my spirit that God was leading our next sermon series in a different direction based upon what occurred during our look at Luke 15 shared from the “older son” on the story. His sound bites from the story seemed to strike a nerve in the hearts of many (including my own) so we followed God over to Galatians.

So here is how the process began. I sat down with some of the other pastors and Gwen Curtis (my assistant) to brain storm how we could share the message of grace from this small 6 chapter letter. We felt the tension of Paul’s letter in dealing with themes such as legalism, works, law, freedom, Holy Spirit, and community. We knew we were dealing with following laws to earn acceptance verses receiving the rule of grace. Pastor Matthew had just led several groups to go through a teaching called Life Rules. He suggested we could replace life with grace. It could have a double meaning with word rule. We immediately started thinking about environments where rules are defined or assumed. We first thought about an elementary play ground during recess. It is amazing how rules are discovered through the play of children. We then thought of many people’s objection to Christianity as being a list of rules to follow. We really like this word picture, because all tend to have life sucked out of us from time to time with all of our “to do lists”.

We then pitched these ideas to Artem Mirskov (Yes, he is Russian) to dream up the artwork. He blew us away in what he came up with on his first try! Artwork does not always come easy because often I can see something in my head, but then I cannot get it out of my mouth (I know that is hard to believe) so Artem can get it onto paper. However, this time it surfaced immediately–Grace Rules!

to be continued…