This summer we’re having some fun with our sermons at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Tucker, GA. Here’s what I told the congregation about it in our church newsletter:
Remember in school when you looked forward to completely forgetting about homework during the summer? But then you’d get a summer reading list. Depending on your personality you either paced yourself all summer so you could complete your reading at a leisurely pace in plenty of time before school began or you frantically scrambled to find the books and tried to speed-read through all of them the last week or two of summer.
Then when you’re done with school, when enough time has passed for you to recover, you might go back and read some of those classics that you missed or you finally get to read what you want, instead of what the teacher wants.
Come May or June magazines and websites start offering their summer reading lists—usually with a click-bait type headline of “Beach Reads You Won’t Be Able to Put Down.” Well I’ve got my own list for you all. Don’t worry, it’s not required and you won’t be tested. Our summer reading list will be filled with children’s books—some classics, some new favorites, and perhaps an obscure one or two you’ve never heard of. These books are great conversational partners that can open us up to hear scripture and our call to discipleship in new ways.
We have a couple copies of each book in a basket in the narthex if you’d like to borrow one to read and return it. So read ahead if you’d like, but don’t feel you have to. Come hear and see the stories in worship each week as we work our way through a different kind of summer reading list. [Each week the books are scanned in and projected on a screen in the sanctuary while we read the book to the congregation.]
Summer Sermon Series
| June 4 | John 7:37-39 | Jordi’s Star by Alma Flor Ada |
| June 11 | Matthew 5:1-11 | Little Light of Mine Leads Worship |
| June 18 | Guest Preacher | |
| June 25 | Matthew 7:24-27 | Yertle the Turtle by Dr. Seuss |
| July 2 | Matthew 10:40-24 | The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig (sermon by seminary intern Colleen Cook) |
| July 9 | Matthew 5:38-39 | The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss |
| July 16 | Romans 4:13-25 | Old Turtle and the Broken Truth by Douglas Wood |
| July 23 | Ruth 3:1-5; 4:13-17 | Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox |
| July 30 | John 6:1-14 | Stone Soup by Marcia Brown |
| August 6 | Romans 5:1-11 | The Sandwich Swap by Queen Raina Al Abdullah [with Blessing of the Backpacks] |
| August 13 | Matthew 14:22-33 | Courage by Bernard Waber (sermon by seminary intern Colleen Cook) |
| August 20 | Philippians 4:4-7 | Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth by Douglas Wood |
| August 27 | Luke 10:25-37 | The Three Questions by Leo Tolstoy |
| September 3 | Matthew 18:21-22 | The Forgiveness Garden by Lauren Thompson [hymnsing] |
