Here’s my very first Creative Chaos entry for Ragamuffin Soul. I’ve blogged about this idea before, but I wanted to make a more pointed post about it for Creative Chaos. This idea works very well as a special communion service, and would probably be pretty cool in a youth worship gathering.
There’s a two-fold idea going on here with our symbolism. First, fire as representative of the cleansing power of God from our sin. The cleansing we receive when we confess and repent of our sins, those sins are remembered no more and we are made completely new. Call it the Refiner’s Fire if you will. Second, there is the idea of the fire of the Spirit of God burning within us. That as we confess and repent of sin and allow the Spirit to reign, we can’t help but be on fire for God, and fires get noticed. Fires are attention getters that often cannot be contained, and are contagious.
Here’s what you need. Purchase some flash paper, enough so that you can cut it into one-inch squares enough for each person in your gathering to have one. I’ll get to the use in a moment. You also need a large metal bowl, not plastic or wood, because you’re going to light a fire inside it. Make sure you have a fire extinguisher or two handy just in case.
During your gathering, pass out the paper squares, one per person, and have them write a sin or a temptation or a struggle down. Sometime during your gathering, have a time of prayer and reflection. You’ll probably have the band playing a song during this time. We chose Matt Redman’s Come Let Us Return to the Lord. Have the crowd bring forward their pieces of paper on which they’ve written and place them in the bowl. Stress the idea that this is a sin or struggle they are confess and giving to the Lord. They are literally throwing it away and giving it up to Him.
If you do stations for the receiving of the elements of Communion, you might want to have people come and take them after they’ve deposited their paper.
Once everyone’s back in their seat, have your pastor/speaker talk a little more to wrap up the ideas of confession and repentance. Again, stress the idea of placing all these things at Christ’s feet, and point forward to the victory inherent in the action. Talk about the passion for the Lord the Spirit can bring as we deal with our “stuff” in such a way.
Then, the moment of truth. Make sure you’ve rehearsed this ahead of time. Buy twice as much flash paper as you think you’ll need (it’s pretty cheap) and do a practice round with the approximate amount of paper you think you’re going to need. Flash paper goes up quickly, but it can produce a HUGE fireball when a mass of it is set off all at once. We’ve done it with a group of 200-250, and the fireball that it produce went about eight feet in the air, and I could feel the heat from about 15 feet away. If you’re doing this with a large group, consider multiple bowls that can be set off simultaneously.
Either way, you strike a match, take a step back away from the bowl, and throw it in. It WILL make an impression, and you will get a very visual reminder of both the cleansing fire of God and the fire of the Spirit within. The flash of fire will be big, but short and the heat will dissipate almost immediately (unless you’ve set your clothes on fire). You can now hold the bowl up to the crowd and show that there is no sign of the paper at all. No ashes, no blackened bowl, no residue, nothing. The sins laid at Christ’s feet are COMPLETELY gone!
Turn your gathering now to focusing on the work of the Spirit and pray down the fire of God into the hearts of your people.
Suggested songs:
- Consuming Fire (Third Day)
- Fire Fall Down (Hillsongs United)
- From the Inside Out (Hillsongs United)
- Light the Fire (Fusebox)
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
