Simpsons Service

We had the first of our 'The Gospel According to the Simpsons' services at the Cafe Service yesterday. Comments have been good, and it seemed to attract a decent crowd. The clip we used was from 'Bart Gets an F' (series 2 episode 1), roughly the last 5 minutes, from Bart praying for the school to be closed so that he's got more time to revise, through to him pinning his D- graded test on the fridge and saying 'part of this D minus belongs to God.'

Other elements were a Simpsons quiz, devised by a Year 6 lad in the church, a couple of brief stories of answered prayer, a 3-4 minute talk, and a 10-15 minute prayer station slot where people were free to wander around to several prayer stations, or make 'Lent Prayer Chains' at their tables (40 paper strips, colour coded for the different days of Lent, Sundays, Mothers day, Good Friday etc. - can make it up so that it works like an Advent calendar, and tear a link off for each day, or start with the ingredients and make the chain 1 day at a time, writing prayers onto each link). All bookmarked by a time of worship at the start and finish, and with lots of prayer helps and resources to take home (prayer cards, and some of the rejesus resources)

Very encouraging, next month is Homer vs Lisa & the 8th Commandment (series 4), on the 10 commandements, morality, and how to please God. You've got to love a job where the main preparation is watching a DVD of cartoons.