To watch this worship service on YouTube, click here

“What is God like?” they asked Jesus. What would you say? Although God's full nature cannot be fully described in words, Jesus did his best, giving metaphor after metaphor to help people understand. Our worship today looks at some of these metaphors, including the Parable of the Mustard Seed from Mark 4:30-35. We hope you will join us in worship as we explore and celebrate God's nature through message, music, scripture, prayers, communion—and simply spending time here. Worship is just over 30 minutes, with so much you won’t want to miss. Please share….and may God bless you richly this week.

As we do every week, our time together includes a time of communion (breaking of the bread) where you may choose to participate, or simply meditate as we tell of Jesus' invitation to "do this in remembrance of me." If you would like to share with us at the table that goes beyond earthly boundaries of time, place, and structure, we ask that you prepare a piece of bread of some type and a drink such as grape juice, wine, or water. As we pray, our prayers are given to extend to where you are. If you are unable to eat or drink, you may want to use a symbolic gesture or mental symbol as you come together at this table of remembrance with us. (Scroll down for an Order of Worship)

We hope that as you join us for worship you will feel a blessing from being part. Please tell friends, family, and others you know about our online church that is here with doors that are always open, walls as wide as the world, and always room at the table.

ORDER OF WORSHIP:
1. Opening background music: “Be Thou My Vision”
2. Welcome: Susan McNeely
3. Opening Hymn, “In the Bulb There is a Flower”
4. Pastor's Prayer with Lord's Prayer: Pastor Russ
5. Hymn: “This is My Father’s World”
6. Scripture: Mark 4:30-35 NRSV, Susan McNeely
7. Message: “Watching Things Grow” Pastor Ann
8. Hymn: “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry”
9. Communion: Pastor Deb
10. Hymn: “One Piece of Bread”
11. Sending out

If you would like to chat with one of our pastors, including talking more about belief in God, becoming a Christian or following Christ, or living as a disciple of Christ, please email us at pastor@disciplesnet.org, or contact us using the contact information on our website, disciplesnet.org, or our Facebook page, DisciplesNet Church.

ABOUT OUR DISCIPLES SHEEP:
You may notice in our videos that we have various stuffed sheep with us in worship. To us, these are not toys, but important parts of our church.
It happened this way: When we began producing worship as DisciplesNet in November 2010, one of the first problems we recognized was that when we are speaking to the people on the other end of a camera and internet, we cannot actually see the people to whom we were speaking. It was easy to speak to the other pastors in the room, but as we prayed and preached and spoke, we instead wanted to be reminded of the people for whom we were serving—including people whose best way to attend worship might be online. We wanted to be speaking to them---and as best we could hearing and telling their stories.

So, on a whim, we set some sheep that we’d used for a children’s sermon in front of our speakers, and found that helped! Before we knew it, their number was growing. They spilled over onto the table as we spoke. They have become dear to us and no longer children’s toys— but representations of all of the sheep of God’s pasture, all of God’s children—the real people like you, whom we may not be able to see in real life, but wish never to forget are there, and are each and everyone loved by God more than we can ever comprehend. Those sheep are why we are here.

INVITATION TO GIVING:
DisciplesNet Church is a not-for-profit church that exists to cross barriers and boundaries to share the Good News of God's redeeming love. We rely on the gifts of our online viewers as we continue to grow and extend our nets around the world.

We also extend the invitation for you to be part of the DisciplesNet ministry by giving a one-time gift, or ongoing, including a tithe. Even the smallest of gifts, like the mustard seed, has a way of growing in amazing ways to share God's word and the love of Jesus Christ. We have a giving page on our website, disciplesnet.org, and email address: giving@disciplesnet.org

God bless you, and thank you for joining us!

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Special photos and audio:

Opening Thumbnail: Mustard Field in Bangladesh, by Hopeoflight (Own work (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Beethoven in 1804, the year he began work on the Fifth Symphony. Detail of a portrait by W. J. Mähler. Music: Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra; music courtesy of Musopen

Grand Canyon: By Chensiyuan (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons