Resources needed:
Powerpoint slide with recent images and headlines (see below)
Choosing images:
For this activity we searched for news articles from the last month on Google that had used the words “Unbelievable, Awe Inspiring, Stunning and Beautiful”. You can do this by searching for one term at a time in google and selecting “news” and a time frame from Google’s search bar.
We came up with the following four headlines and used the images and the headlines in the powerpoint with the adjectives in bold.
Sweden by drone: Stunning landscapes photographed from above
Incredible celebrations as Leicester City lift the Premier League trophy for the first time.
Awe Inspiring: We join 80 supercars driving along Australia’s Great Ocean Road.
Vincent wins most beautiful bulldog at annual Drake University competition
Choose some articles where the adjectives fit well (the “Stunning Landscapes” one worked as the images were really striking) and others where the adjectives were stretching the point (the “awe inspiring” supercars and the “beautiful” bulldog for example).
Script:
I don’t know if you’ve noticed but it’s very rare that things are described as “good” these days. It’s probably down to internet headline writers but if I were to ask someone if they’d enjoyed a new film at the cinema and they said “it was good” I’d probably think twice about going to see it because we’re so used to reviews that use words like “phenomenal!” or “mind blowing!”
Sometimes we use words like “incredible” and it is fair enough but at other times we use them for things that don’t really live up to the description.
Here are four examples from the internet on the last month. How well do you think they fit?
Show the slides, asking people how appropriate they think the words that describe the stories are.
I wonder what words we’d use to describe God?
Psalm 97 describes God in ways that are quite different to the ways that we might choose to describe him. Let’s listen to those words together and allow ourselves to be reminded that we are here to worship a God who is even bigger and better than we’re able to describe.
Read: Psalm 97:1-6 (we used the Message translation).
Pray: Heavenly Father remind us this morning of how amazing you really are! Forgive us for the times when we’ve allowed ourselves to be distracted or overly impressed by other things and fill us with a fresh sense of wonder and awe for you as we come to worship you today.