Two churches in Suzhou, Jiangsu, held worship services to celebrate Thanksgiving which falls on Thursday.
In the second service held on the morning of November 21, churchgoers of Shishan Church sat at intervals per the social distancing requirements after they showed their health codes. They stood up to sing the hymn Great Are Thy Mercies, Heavenly Father, then the Good News Choir performed the song What a Wonderful Savior and the reading of "Psalm 103".
Pastor Liu Yingjie preached a sermon titled The Mercy at the Edge of the Field, citing Lev 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 23:24-25.
Then, the Evergreen Choir presented a hymn Love, Joy and Life, with a dance The Beatitudes from Jeduthun Choir. After a male and female duetted the song, His Sheep am I, members of the expansion meeting of the church council sang the songs When I Praise and Living Sacrifice.
Next, Senior Pastor Meng Yanfeng called on believers to pray and donate for the new 81 stained glass windows containing 14 biblical stories, 29 faith signs and 30 color blocks, as they will cost more than 650,000 yuan.
On the same morning, Dushu Lake Church also hosted a Thanksgiving praise service. The worship and praise part was led by the praise team of Grace Church of the Korean Fellowship affiliated to the landmark church in the Suzhou Industrial Park.
Wang Tianlu, a deputy senior pastor of the church, shared a sermon Metaverse-Tower of Babel or Garden of Eden? The pastor mentioned that in traditional beliefs, we only needed to deal with relationships with God, men, and the world, but today and even in the future, we could not ignore the concept of "meta-universe". Regarding how Christians should live in the virtual world, she said that in common sense, we might think metaverse is still far away from us, but it is already everywhere in real life.
"Children play games and we need to use navigation when going to a place..." As an inseparable part of our lives, the Internet was both a crisis and a turning point for churches and believers. Finally, Wang pointed out, “Proposing this concept is not to draw a conclusion, but to provoke the question whether we can live without the virtual world.”
- Translated by Abigail Wu
每年11月是感恩月，苏州2教会在 上周主日 11月21日举办感恩节崇拜。
2021年11月21日主日上午，狮山堂举行了两场感恩圣乐崇拜。
上午9点半，参加第二堂的信徒陆续出示健康码和入堂码，进入教堂后按标志分隔而坐。第二堂圣乐感恩崇拜中，会众起立唱诗《天恩歌》后，由佳音诗班献唱赞美诗《奇妙的救主》、诗朗诵《诗103篇》。
刘颖杰传道围绕利19:9-10和申23:24-25，以《田角边的爱》为题进行证道。接下来是赞美感恩环节，常青诗班献诗《爱，喜乐，生命》；耶杜顿诗班献上舞蹈《八福》，男女二重唱《我是主羊》；最后堂委会扩大会成员献上《当我赞美》《活祭》两首诗歌。
第三个部分是孟牧师介绍了教堂彩色玻璃事工，总共为81个窗体。由14个圣经故事，29个信仰标识和30个色块组成。造价为655029元，呼吁大家为此献上力所能及的支持。
2021年11月21日上午，苏州独墅湖基督教堂举办了感恩节赞美会活动。
该堂副主任牧师王天路以《元宇宙——巴别塔还是伊甸园？》为题进行主题分享。牧师提到传统信仰我们只要处理好与神与人与世界的关系就可以了，但今天乃至未来我们不可忽略的一个概念就是“元宇宙”。基督徒该如何与虚拟世界相处？常识中我们觉得它离我们很遥远，但现实生活却处处离不开它，“孩子玩游戏，出门要导航……”生活中网络已经与我们不可分割。这对于教会和信徒来说一方面是危机，一方面也是转机。最后王牧师指出，“提出这个概念不是给出结论，而是能引发思考去面对这个问题，离开它我们是否还能生活。”
http://www.gospeltimes.cn/article/index/id/59246
http://www.gospeltimes.cn/article/index/id/59252
苏州基督教狮山堂和独墅湖基督教堂于11月21日举办圣乐感恩崇拜
Two churches in Suzhou, Jiangsu, held worship services to celebrate Thanksgiving which falls on Thursday.
In the second service held on the morning of November 21, churchgoers of Shishan Church sat at intervals per the social distancing requirements after they showed their health codes. They stood up to sing the hymn Great Are Thy Mercies, Heavenly Father, then the Good News Choir performed the song What a Wonderful Savior and the reading of "Psalm 103".
Pastor Liu Yingjie preached a sermon titled The Mercy at the Edge of the Field, citing Lev 19:9-10 and Deuteronomy 23:24-25.
Then, the Evergreen Choir presented a hymn Love, Joy and Life, with a dance The Beatitudes from Jeduthun Choir. After a male and female duetted the song, His Sheep am I, members of the expansion meeting of the church council sang the songs When I Praise and Living Sacrifice.
Next, Senior Pastor Meng Yanfeng called on believers to pray and donate for the new 81 stained glass windows containing 14 biblical stories, 29 faith signs and 30 color blocks, as they will cost more than 650,000 yuan.
On the same morning, Dushu Lake Church also hosted a Thanksgiving praise service. The worship and praise part was led by the praise team of Grace Church of the Korean Fellowship affiliated to the landmark church in the Suzhou Industrial Park.
Wang Tianlu, a deputy senior pastor of the church, shared a sermon Metaverse-Tower of Babel or Garden of Eden? The pastor mentioned that in traditional beliefs, we only needed to deal with relationships with God, men, and the world, but today and even in the future, we could not ignore the concept of "meta-universe". Regarding how Christians should live in the virtual world, she said that in common sense, we might think metaverse is still far away from us, but it is already everywhere in real life.
"Children play games and we need to use navigation when going to a place..." As an inseparable part of our lives, the Internet was both a crisis and a turning point for churches and believers. Finally, Wang pointed out, “Proposing this concept is not to draw a conclusion, but to provoke the question whether we can live without the virtual world.”
- Translated by Abigail Wu
Two Jiangsu Churches Celebrate Thanksgiving
