the Bread of Life

[Randy Anderson]

Here is a progression of 3 emails from our worship team regarding Jesus as the bread of life. The first is from our pastor, and the rest are from other team members. We actually have our meeting tonight to discuss this in person, so it may evolve even further... who knows?

Hope this helps someone.
Randy

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MY OFFERING FOR AUGUST 6
Worship Theme: The church does not exist for the care and feeding of the clergy nor for the stroking and flattering of the laity. The church exists for the praise and service of God. The church?s purpose is offering bread to the spiritually and physically hungry of the world.

Scripture: John 6:24-35
Sermon Title: ?Bread for the World?
Children?s Message: ?Wonder Bread?
Metaphor: What else but a loaf of bread

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Here are my thoughts on the bread metaphor. I think focusing on the bread may spend too much time with who Jesus is, rather than how that applies to our lives. I'd like to take the metaphor a step further and talk about what to do as many of us would be in different stages of our spiritual walk. What are we to do if we are "hungry for the bread" (unchurched)? What are we to do if we are "trainees of the restaurant" (becoming disciples)? What are we to do if we are employees (disciples), or even "owners" (leaders). This kind of evolved into a restaurant/bakery metaphor. While it may work, I'm not sure if its what I really had in mind, but maybe this will help others come up with a few ideas.



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love the bakery metaphor.

More thoughts?

Jesus is the bread, we are the bakery. And not the average bakery with the fluffy, tasteless white stuff, mass-produced in a factory, but a small, personal, artisan bakery where the grain is freshly milled (always new, never stale), the water is pure (no sin is too great to be washed away), and the loaf is raised by yeast from the air and shaped by hand (we build each other up, rather than deflate each other).

People are so desperately hungry they?re looking for nourishment anywhere, and they?re bombarded by options that will leave them empty. Our bread is the most delicious, most satisfying, and most nourishing. And it doesn?t matter if you?re the owner, the baker, the apprentice, or the dishwasher?if you?re involved in God?s bakery, you?re feeding the hungry customers. And then you?re inviting them into the kitchen to learn how to bake.

[musiccat]

My thoughts went another direction ....

Dough can be formed into many different shapes. Depending on the ingredients, bread can take on many flavors, shapes and textures. God has a specific design in mind for our lives. Some, he makes into crescent rolls, others bagels, while others are pita bread. Regardless, we are to nourish the world with the message of Christ.

Also, bread is often referred to as "the staff of life". Christ is "the staff of His church". While bread nourishes our physical body, Christ nourishes our spiritual bodies. We, in turn, are to share this nourishment with others.

Just some random thoughts ....

[Randy Anderson]

At the meeting yesterday, we did discuss the varieties of bread available as well. While we all have our individual preferences, as the bakery, we need to realize that not everyone shares our same tastes. We need to provide a variety of breads

Randy

[[Admin] osborn4]

To extend that a bit, the bread is all still made of basically the same stuff.

Jesus is still Jesus no matter what our needs are.

Sometimes we need something tender and flakey. Sometimes we need something a little more hearty, with some roughage.

But we all need bread, in some shape or form.

[tww]

Just something I ran across recently that you might find useful. If not for this service, perhaps in the future. Cool idea anyway. Scroll down the page to the second idea - "Be the Body". Check out the video.

http://emergingminister.com/ideas/index.htm

Check out the rest of the site as well - some interesting stuff and some good ideas.