Catch the Fire:Glenrothes informal worship at Glenrothes Salvation Army

Sorry for the delay in posting this review - been having some much needed time out from stuff over the last few weeks.

Anyway, again, what a night we had when we gathered for the latest Catch the Fire. With the theme "Let your Will be done", we looked at the events of Holy Week and especially focussed on the turmoil of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We were a little worried before the start, as this month was very video dependant, and with the change of clocks and some lovely spring weather, the sun was streaming through the windows and making viewing of the screens tricky!! We didn't want the sun to go away but if it just dimmed a little that would help!! As it was, when we needed to see the screens it was fine.

Some of the video content we were using was from a DVD called "The Follower". For obvious copyright reasons, we cannot share the content here but I would want to highly recommend this DVD to you.  Its a Saltmine Media Production and tells of the events of Easter week in a gritty modern style. Told through the eyes of Peter (played by Richard Hasnip), there are three short films charting Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city, His death and His return from the grave. Each film is between 6 and 8 minutes in length and is ideal for church or home viewing.  You can get more details and purchase a copy here.  We ended up using the Palm and Easter Sunday clips to great effect.

To help us with the Gethsemane focus, we looked at Mark 14:32-41 and especially the way Jesus's move from "take this cup from me" to "Let your will be done" is reported.  It seems such a simple jump when you read the Gospel accounts but it was far from that.  This was a point where we really saw Jesus as truly and properly man.  The reality of the impending situation was dawning on him.  Yes, this was what he had worked towards, what He taught and what He knew He had to do, but it was not going to be pleasant, it was not going to be easy, it was not going to be an obvious victory.  To help us grasp the torment that Jesus went through, we used a couple of clips from BBC's The Passion series.  You can get the combined edited video here (we did buy the DVD but its also freely available on YouTube so we're not breaking any copyright here.  This is just a couple of clips joined together)

This clip led us into some Bible thought and real emotional connecting with our Lord.  We really 'got' what Jesus went through for us - not just the whipping and beating and life-draining walk and nails and hanging on the cross - but the mental torment... this is my Fathers will and ultimately will save the world but just now I can't face it.  We identified with times that we struggle to face something and either want a way out or just avoid the issue completely.  We realised that if Jesus got through a struggle for something we're never going to encounter, then how much more can we get through the relatively smaller issues we face day by day.

Amongst some sung worship, we had two music videos. One, we had used before - Adele's beautiful song "To make you feel my love". The other was brand new and used Barry Manilow's powerful song "Open Arms".  As always, feel free to use these videos in whatever way you feel appropriate.  They're available through the links here, and also over on our YouTube channel. 

We closed by singing "In Christ Alone" and thanked God for really speaking to us through the evening.