Welcome home. This is a place where you can kick off your shoes. Put on comfy pants. Relax on the couch. This is a place where you can be yourself. You can take off the masks and hats that we each wear in the world and be ourselves. This is a place where you can just be. Let us be together. Let us be with our God.

We give of ourselves, our time continuing Paul’s mission. Each week in our worship, we collect tithes and offerings for this same purpose.

The fabric of ministry - woven of different colors and textures of ministry - we can be stretched and shaped - sewn together - tailored 

Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”

Do you know what happened next?

So now what?

How do we follow Jesus now?

We have so many questions…

Where will we find our answers?

Together in prayer

God does lead us, we have invited God to be present in whatever we do, and wherever we are and to lead us in all of those places and postures. God’s commandments guide us in how we can allocate our gifts and resources, so they benefit our wellbeing.

One: God commanded have no other gods. Make no idols. Do not use the name of the LORD your God to exploit others. Bring no harm with your words. Jesus teaches us not to focus on the riches of this world but only focus on God, nobody can serve both God and wealth. Almighty God, write your law upon our hearts. 

Many: In this pureness of heart will see God. 

Call to worship to be used around the 10 commandments or the sermon on the mount

Welcome:

Let us enter into worship of our God together. We come to worship to praise our God and offer our gratitude for the presence of God’s grace in each of our lives. In your bulletin, you’ll find an adapted prayer in the voice of Moses, let’s re-create this praise in our worship today. 

Call to Worship Psalm 90:  

One: The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. 
Many: The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. 

We love you, Lord,

We seek your formation,

Take our lives and our worship this morning as a token of our love for you.

Shape us and form us and make us, O God.

Two versions - One more closely reflects Psalm 4 and the other is with gender-neutral language for God

Scripture Based Call to Worship (from Psalm 4)

Answer me when I cry out, my righteous God!
Set us free from our troubles! Have mercy on us! Listen to our prayer!

The Lord will hear us when I cry out.

We remember…

The Lord takes personal care of us.

Risen Christ,

Let us see your works, the results of your presence on earth,

Let us see the signs and wonders that can only be a result of God’s work.

Let us believe that you are risen indeed,

Let us go in the belief that because we belong to Christ,

We are also free from death.

Let us go, seeing and believing that Jesus will always find us.

We can never be lost from Christ.

Amen and Alleluia

Do you remember?

So now what?

Do you remember the rest of the Good News too? The rest of what Jesus taught us?

What difference does it make? What difference should it make to you?

Ever Present God,

You are found by those who seek you.

On that first Easter morning,

Mary came to mourn,

she rose early seeking to visit her beloved friend,

she knew exactly where to find Jesus.

But her beloved wasn’t where she expected.

Holy God,

We sometimes miss the signs and wonders that point us to you

We look for you in the wrong places

We look for you in a fortress instead of on the beach

We look for you on a throne instead of on a cross

Who are we looking for?

We seek the Jesus who defies expectations.

Written for an Easter Sunrise service. Incorporates O Come, O Come Emmanuel themes to tie Advent to Easter. Could be modified to use in Christmas Tide as well.

On this radiant Easter morn,

As dawn breaks and shadows flee,

We gather in joyful expectation,

To celebrate Christ’s victory.

Alleluia!

Alleluia!

Christ is risen, He is risen indeed!

This litany was written for an Easter Sunrise Service, the retelling of God’s works through Wisdom was modified from the order of worship in the United Methodist Book of Worship. My original content was added for flow. There are two versions. I modified one to use ungendered language for God and Wisdom.

Seeing God in One another - praise through creating art and prayer.

Unconventional Prayers of the People & Pastoral Prayer  

I was convicted this week that we are all humans, created with love by God. In the image of God.  

Greeting One Another  

Those of you who are able, I would like for you to get up, and go sit right beside someone that you haven’t spoken to yet this morning. Shake their hand, greet them, and welcome them into worship with you and into your physical space.  

Go ahead! Go and sit beside someone you haven’t spoken to yet this morning. If it is harder for you to relocate, one of those of us who it is easier to uproot will come to you; just stay where you are.  

Does anyone need a partner still? Let’s each look around and make sure all have a place.  

We are going to hand out a ½ sheet of paper and a pen/pencil. We are going to make contour drawings of each other. So I invite you to look into your partner’s face and then draw them. Contour drawings are done without picking up your pencil. We will set a timer for two minutes, for those two minutes, you should look at the beloved child of God in front of you and put their essence on your paper.  

Don’t worry if you are a terrible artist, we will trust the Spirit in our endeavor to compensate for any lacking skills we have here. The point of this is to see the beauty and care of our Creator in each other. Ok, timer is set, go!  

Let us go out seeking the promise of Messiah, 

just as the magi did.  

Let us bring our gifts and share them generously in the name of Christ.  

Let us go, love, and serve the Lord.  

Epiphany Wisdom prayer based on Wisdom of Solomon 7

“Your incarnation in Jesus may have happened long ago,

but Christ’s wisdom works outside of time, stays pure, and offers a renewal of all things;

in every generation, Your Spirit passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God and prophets. On Epiphany, your works manifest to us and are more beautiful than the sun, more magnificent than every constellation of the stars. “

Call to Worship from Isaiah 60

Traditional and Inclusive Language versions