Benediction
 

I always thought that the benediction prayed by Pastor Dan Scott at the end of each Christ Church service was ancient church tradition until I found it in the book of Numbers!

Num 6:22 ¶ And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,


Num 6:23 Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,


Num 6:24 The LORD bless thee, and keep thee:


Num 6:25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:


Num 6:26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.

I didn't realize that this prayer was right out of the bible! Do any of you pastors pray this prayer at the benediction?

Naw. They are Pentecostal! Plus since this prayer is in the Old Testament it doesn't count. Only standards from the Old Testament count.

:lol

That passage in bold is on a big banner in our church.

Lib!:hypercoffee

No decent respectable Oneness Pentecostal church would have anything but Acts 2:38 on a wall.

I'm on a slippery slope. :snapout

You have polluted me because I opened my mind a little.

HA!

I had the same response as you CC1, it is too catholic, too traditional, and too "dead" for a UPC church...unless you concluded it with,

"...and the POWER of the HOLY GHOOOOOOST, We know who JESUS REALLY IS, Jesus name baptism, living a separated life, paying your tithes, being in church every time the doors are open, prayer, fasting, and REVIVAL!!!!!!!"

How do you spell that deep breath intake to insert in between each of those separated by commas? :hypercoffee

i love that prayer, i dont care what cc1 says, lol,dt:hypercoffee

My pastor does not pray a benediction, he just closes his Bible and says you are dismissed. It took some getting used to when we first start attending.

One of my former pastors would throw a peace sign and say "Peace to the people" and some of the congregation would say, "Peace to the pastor". I never did get used to it......:winkgrin

hey tamor was he a former hippy, lol,dt:hypercoffee

After I conclude my message and minister some in the altars - One of our ministers will go to the pulpit and the congregation repeats this after him and then he dismisses in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN!

Too young to be a hippie. He's in his late 30's!

The UPC I have been in would never do that, there absolutely HAS to be an alter service every single service, after all, the saints need to be re-saved from time to time ya know and need every opportunity to do so.

:D

Pianoman, do you attend a Catholic church??? :D

:lol

That prayer of blessing is totally biblical as it is from the book of Numbers! I thought it was ancient church tradition myself until I found it was a quote of a biblical blessing.

Anyone who ridicules this prayer is deriding holy scripture! :)

:toofunny :bolt :toofunny :bolt

Catholics are the only ones who call them the "Holy Scriptures"

:killinme

Oops! :lol

hmmmmm.... do you call your mass "church services" to sound more modern???

I know - that was one of the things we had to get used to. There are altar services at times,but most of the people get the HG or come up for prayer before the preaching when there is congregational prayer for the sick. So many times when the preaching is over the altar service has already happened. This is the first church I have been to that this has happen on a regular basis. I really like it though, because it is very spontaneous.

That's pretty much the way it was there too. There was ministry time before the preaching. If not, and if there was an official altar call, then when everything was over and he was dismissing, he did his "Peace to the people" thing.

9 times out of 10 when there is an altar call at the end of the service, the pastor gets to avoid having to go shake people's hands in the foyer or at the door as they leave...besides the ones leaving during altar call are backsliders anyway.

:D

We have CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Call it what you may! :)

It sounds like you have a very caring priest at your parish.... :D

It's nothing to be ashamed of....

Our "priest" is a very good orator and indeed cares for his parish! :D

No alter call?

I have heard people use some of the statements between Jacob and Laban. This was 2 dishonest people talking to each other and trying to make agreements with each other.
The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.
Gen 31:49

See post #22

cool

I don't guess it matters when it happens as long as people are getting the Holy Ghost and needs are being met.

This is a common dismissal in our SS classes.

In high school Chorus class, this scripture was part of a song we sang... (yes public school) and I knew it was scripture.. never really heard it as a prayer. ;)

Our services usually end with shockamoo or praying in the altar...people leave when they are done... never a formal dismissal.

We went to a church one time and this was the schedule.

9:30 - 10:00 Prayer (close with prayer)
10:00 - 11:00 Sunday School (close with prayer)

11:00 - 11:30 Sunday School review (close with prayer)
12:00 --??? Church Service (could be 3 or 4 pm before we got out of there) (Oh, almost forgot, close with prayer)

6:00 - ??? Sunday evening Service (also closed with prayer)

The closing with prayer is good. Don't get me wrong, but every time they would say "God be with us till we meet again"! Now I can see doing that when you were actually leaving each other, but after every single change in the schedule got to be on the obnoxious side.

We used to sing this in High School Glee Club...

The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face to shine upon you
And be gracious...and be gracious
The Lord be gracious unto you...Amen

Something like that...