Crosby Beach Labyrinth

Ht Jonny Baker, really creative act of 'guerilla worship' by the Dream network, and something that anyone could do on pretty much any beach, if they got down there early enough one morning at low tide. Inspiring.

Praying on the Beach

We're repeating our 'Beach Service' next month at Burton Bradstock, and here's a bit more stuff from the prayer leaflet we'll be using. For other material, have a look at what I posted last year. It sounds like Yeovil Baptists have beaten us to it, having had a beach communion a couple of weeks ago, but the more the merrier.

The thing that bugs me about most of the beach services you can find on the internet is that it's just a normal church service transposed to a new setting. What's the point of that? If you're in there among sand, sun, sea and a howling gale off the North Sea, then those should be the raw material of your worship and prayers, shouldn't they?

Sand

1. Trinity
The basic triquetra, a Celtic symbol of God the Trinity, is made with three simple arcs. Start by drawing the first arc. From the point you finish the first arc, draw the second so that it intersects the first two-thirds of the way along. At this point, the symbol looks like a fish. The final arc joins the two end points.

Pray a prayer such as this one (known as the trisagion, or "three holies")
Holy God
Holy and strong
Holy and immortal
Have mercy on me

2. Sin
Just above the tide line, write, draw or build something representing sin, watch the sea wash it away.

3. Grains
“how precious to me are your thoughts O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” (Ps 139:17). To meditate on this verse, take a handful of sand, then count how many grains you are holding.

4. Scripture
“Because you have done this and not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendents as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore.” (Genesis 22:16-17, God speaking to Abraham)

Just finishing off a leaflet with some prayer suggestions for our beach worship this Sunday afternoon at Charmouth. If you're from the Yeovil area and see this in time, you're welcome to join us! Here's an extract from the leaflet, to give a flavour of it. Everyone will get this as they arrive, and then has the rest of the day (and any subsequent visits to the seaside!) to use it as they want to. There are other prayer exercises based on Sand, Stones and Air.

With Jesus on the Beach

Find a few minutes during the afternoon, and pick one of the exercises below to do. Feel free to express yourself in sand, stone and water, and let God express himself to you through them.

At tea time, there’ll be a chance to share with others anything God has said. If you want to ‘redeem’ what you find on the beach to make something for our tea time worship, please do!

At around 4.30-5pm, we’ll eat together, share bread and wine to remember Jesus, and beyond that there’s no plan! Our worship will be what we bring to it, in words, shapes, silences, and ourselves.

Sea

1. Tides, waves, undercurrents.
Beach warning signs say beware of rising tides, large waves, and unseen undercurrents.
In your life, including your spiritual life, what are the rising tides, big waves, and undercurrents? What is Jesus saying to you about these things?

2. Sea tides
Let the love tide swelling
Surround me and my dwelling
Let the power of the mighty sea
Flow in, Lord, and strengthen me.
Tide of Christ covering my shore
That I may live for evermore.

3. Waves
There is always another wave of grace coming from God. “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” (John 1:16)

4. Swimming
Get in the sea and begin swimming breaststroke. (you can do this standing too!) As you push away imagine giving things to God. Decide on some appropriate words to repeat in your mind. As you bring your arms and legs back towards you imagine gathering God towards you and use words linked to asking and finding.

Float in the sea and meditate on God’s love lifting you up and supporting you.

5. Scriptures
“If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the farthest side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” (Psalm 139: 9-10)

“Who is this, that even the wind and the waves obey him?” (Matthew 8:27)

“If you have faith, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea’, and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Mt 21:21). If you have a problem, go and find a landslip or some signs of the sea eroding the land, and meditate on these words of Jesus.

“Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty.” (Psalm 93: 4)

Prayer Exercises

We're having a beach service next week, so I did a 'beach prayers' search on google, and ran across the following excellent link, which has lots of great ideas for prayer....

http://www.embody.co.uk/archive/safe/index.html#

It's a section entitled '25 safe experiential prayer exercises' and is exactly what it says on the tin. We'll probably use some of these on the beach next Sunday (weather permitting). The site itself looks intriguing - seems to be a Christian community in Bristol which offers Jesus-centred life coaching as its model of evangelism/discipleship, worth a closer look.

The frustrating thing about the search was that most churches which have beach services just seem to transpose a normal service to a seaside venue, with deckchairs and mats instead of pews. This just seems barmy to me. When you've got sand, sea, rocks, shells, sky, all the smells and sounds and textures of the seaside, to then ignore all of that and incorporate none of it into your act of worship just feels wrong.