Presbyterian's show emotion? Is it possible?

Frozen chosen.
Decent and in Order.
Appropriate.
Tradition.
Always make the central focus God.

Presbyterians strive to focus on God's
activity, presence, speaking, creating and
not our own.

Several generations of preachers
were taught in seminary to
be frugal with personal stories.
"Don't make the sermon about you!"

As things go the pendulum can swing
too far in both directions.

Too much emotion....too much
personal story telling
and faith is reduced
to self worship.

Too little emotion....too little
personal story telling
and faith is reduced
to meaningless formality.

Emotional babble
or
Robotic recourse...
neither are too helpful.

Somewhere in between
is the gift of emotion and story
that helps us to focus on God
as well as enliven our worship and lives.

I believe our ordinary and personal
stories reveal the depth of God's love....
and when we do not share them
we do not share what God longs
for us to know and experience.

For four weeks the small church
I am serving have been sharing
simple, ordinary and personal
stories.

These stories have been crafted
into liturgy....
Calls to Worship,
Litanies of Confession and Affirmation,
and prayers.

We don't know which stories belong
to whom....
and that really hasn't mattered....
all that matters is that our
common words in worship
have been infused with
ordinary and personal stories....
and in the midst of stories
about loss,
home,
adoption,
financial help,
moving...
God's story has been revealed.