Spillbeans

Things for Sunday 15 June 2014 (Trinity Sunday)

Here are some PowerPoint background images you could use with the Genesis readings this week.

If you are also going to use the "Through the Season" idea of stations representing each day of creation - either all this Sunday or spread out over the next weeks - you will also find a pdf with some sheets that could be used at each station. We are really looking forward to doing the whole thing up in Aberdeen this week!

Also, remember that there is a new hymn "The Creation Hymn" written by Diane Cumming specially for this service in Issue 12.

Have a creative time!

Download Days-of-creation-labyrinth.pdf

Beans means Narrative

Important News for all Beaners:

We have put together the last three years worth of material from Spill the Beans called Overspill: every word, every thought, every idea, every activity that worked and some that didn't this time round. We've done this because people have asked for back issues but also because we have thought and thought and thought and finally chosen to move onto the Narrative Lectionary from September this year.

The Narrative Lectionary is a newer lectionary than the RCL that we have been using. The Narrative Lectionary focusses very much on stories and takes us through broad sweeps of the Bible and we felt this fitted well with the ethos of Spill the Beans. There aren't as many online, bolt-on resources for the Narrative Lectionary but Text Week and Working Preacher and Rev Gals to name but a few, mainline, online resources support the Narrative Lectionary, so we're going to go with the adventure and see how this journey develops as Spill the Beans develops a resource for that Lectionary.

We realise this will not suit everyone especially those who are locked into the Revised Common Lectionary, so why are we moving to the NL?

Spill the Beans is written by a group of a dozen or so volunteers each issue (no one gets paid for writing a thing for Spill the Beans: it is a work of love!) and our primary focus has always been our own congregations. Spill the Beans came together because there were a number of local people writing their own material and we realised it was daft to reinvent the wheel individually but we could do it better together. The original group of people have been with Spill the Beans for up to six years now and we are attracted by the freshness of writing the adventure that is the Narrative Lectionary. We believe it is a way to spark new ideas and experiences into our congregations. We hope you will travel with us. Putting yourself in a new-ish space is a mark of faith and adventure and risk and desire to explore, but then, perhaps these are all the same thing.

We have therefore put together all the past issues of Spill the Beans over the last three years for those who many not be able to travel the Narrative Lectionary route, but also for those who have joined us recently and may wish to see where Spill has come from. There are holes in it, there will be future Sundays not covered by the back issues, but enough to keep the ideas flowing for those keeping to the RCL.

We hope you won't need it for that however, but come along for the ride of the Narrative Lectionary. We ask users who came to our conference last year what they thought about this. Half wanted to change and half didn't, so, as writers, we thought long and hard and decided for freshness of ideas and writing, we'd go with the Narrative Lectionary and when we met last week to begin writing, that is exactly what happened, it seemed like a new place for us.

The complete edition of Overspill is three years worth of material for £50 and can be bought and downloaded from the sidebar. It is a great archive for all those who have lost pages, misplaced worksheets, left things in the photocopier etc.

We are all looking forward to dipping our toe even more in the story of faith, the adventures of God's People and journey together into the unknown... We hope you'll trust the adventure and travel with us.

Invocation of the Spirit

An all-age invocation (or just a wee statement of faith) for Pentecost linked with 1 Corinthians 12:3-13

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

wiggle your Fingers
Like our fingers, the spirit is creative
working to build something new
spending time shaping details
and with imagination, always recreating
creative spirit
come and renew us

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

wave your hands
Like our hands the spirit holds and shares
holding those who have fallen
and sharing with those who are needy
spirit of justice
come and help us hand out God’s love.

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

wiggle your ears
Like our ears, the spirit listens
for the cry of the silenced
and the call of the earth
for renewal and rebalance
spirit of listening
come and teach us to listen

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

tap your feet
Like our feet, the spirit is always ready for adventure
to new places and new people
a journey that seeks to find God in every place
travelling spirit
come and helps us move our feet

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

whisper ‘pentecost’
Like our voices, the spirit speaks:
truth into power;
love into hate;
peace into war;
always ready to sing the song of freedom
in every language of the world
come spirit
clear our throats and teach us to sing

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

stand up, sit down
Like our whole bodies, the spirit is restless
agitating for movement
to be found where God’s works needs to be done
come spirit
make us restless again

Women Pulpit Side:   One Body, Many Parts
plus
Women Lectern Side:   One Spirit, Many Gifts
plus
Everyone Downstairs:   One Body, Many Limbs
plus
Everyone Upstairs:   One Spirit, Many Lives

PowerPoint Backgrounds for Sunday 8 June 2014 (Pentecost)

Overspill

Folks, we have created a mega-mix of all the last three years worth of material linked with the Revised Common Lectionary. It costs just £50 for every single idea that Spill the Beans have put together over the last lectionary cycle. The ones at the beginning of the cycle won't have quite as much in them and some future years will have more Pentecost Sundays than some of the years we wrote for in the past, but this will give you everything we have. Enjoy.