Epiphany Stars: A Success!

I'm calling our Epiphany Stars a success.  I'm glad that I cut out more than I thought I would need.  I thought we'd have about 20 worshipers yesterday, but we had more like 40.

I enjoyed many parts of the process.  First was the cutting of the stars and the writing of a word, along with some decorations:

My spouse and I experimented on Saturday.  I pulled out this star:

On Sunday, because we had so many people, the distribution of the stars took longer than I expected.  But people seemed patient.  And more important, people seemed open to the idea.  I thought there might be some refusal.  But everyone seemed happy to get a star.  I pulled out a different star:

That star is now on the window sill above my writing desk.  This morning, when I took a picture of it, I got this glowing effect:

Will these stars make any difference to any of us?  I have no idea.  Several people after the service told me how much it meant to them. 

I liked how the process combined the best ideas of Epiphany (God speaking to us by way of a star) and of New Year's (changes and intentions).  I like that it was different--my original Epiphany sermon was dark, dark, dark, full of Herod and refugees and fleeing evil.  I like that it was a bit more interactive than the traditional service tends to be.

But most of all, I like that I took what felt like a tiny risk, introducing something like this at church, and it worked on at least one level.