YOU PICK - Survivor: Old Testament

I am not a “Reality TV” junkie at all. In fact, I don’t watch any of them…not Survivor; not Dancing with the Stars; not The Biggest Loser; not even American Idol. But for our mid-summer message series in 2010, I would like to do a series that we just might call “Survivor: Old Testament.” This series will be unique more in the lead-up to the series than in the actual messages themselves. I would like this to be a six-week series from the first Sunday in August through Labor Day weekend on six of the most exciting stories from the Old Testament. And in order to determine which six stories we use, I would like the congregation to vote each week on their favorite five stories from a list that begins with 14 possibilities. Then each week we will “vote off” two stories by taking off the list the two that receive the fewest votes that week. The next week the congregation would revote for their top five and we would continue to “vote off” two a week until we have only six left. Those will then be the six stories from the Old Testament that we use.

Here is the timeline for how this will take place:

April 4 – Announce the 14 possibilities and the voting process
April 11 – Start with 14 possibilities - Vote off two
April 18 – 12 possibilities left - Vote off two more stories
April 25 – 10 possibilities left - Vote off two more stories
May 2 – 8 possibilities left - Vote off two more stories
May 9 – Announce the final six stories
June 8 – Worship Design Team Plans the services for this series
August 1 – Message Series begins
September – Message Series ends

Here are the 14 stories from the Old Testament that we will start with as possibilities:

Noah and the Ark
David and Goliath
Cain Murders Abel
Moses and the Parting of the Red Sea
Lot and the Pillar of Salt
Abraham Offers Isaac as a Sacrifice
Balaam and the Donkey
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and the Fiery Furnace
Elisha Heals Namaan of Leprosy
Deborah and the Tent Spike
Gideon and his Fleece
Jehu the Wild Chariot Driver
Solomon’s Wisdom in Dividing the Baby
The Patience of Job