Responsive Call to Worship

Leader:  Come, let us worship 
People: For we are the people of God's pasture.
Leader:  Come, let us worship and bow down, 
People: For we are the sheep of God's hand.
Leader:  Come, let us worship and bow down, 
                     before the Lord, our Maker.
     All:  For the Lord is our God,
                     and God desires our worship!

Hymnal #662. by Earle W. Fike, Jr.,
from We Gather Together, © 1979 Brethren Press.

Opening Prayer

         Lord of the Harvest, bless this place and time. Help us not to forget that this sanctuary is like a barn, and this moment is "gathering time." You have rolled up your sleeves and been at work in the fields around us. That’s the truth we are here to proclaim. This worship is really about you, about what you have done and continue to do to make things right in this world that you created. Thank you, God, for not leaving us alone. We’re grateful for your Son - for the work he finished upon the cross as our Savior, and for the work he’s still doing as our Lord. And your Holy Spirit provides just what is needed for the work to which you call us, God. Thanks!
         Forgive us, Lord, for the things we should have done, but didn’t, as well as for the things we shouldn’t have done, but did anyway. Forgive our attitude, for so often we take this life for granted and miss the wonder of it all, blinded by sin. Help us to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Right now. Amen!

Invitation to bring forward pledges

"Make a joyful noise! ... Worship with gladness ... Enter with thanksgiving."
(quotes from the children's anthem)

         Having prayerfully considered what you and God together will give toward the work of this church in 2003, you are invited to bring your pledge forward and place it in the basket while we sing the next hymn. May this be a cheerful act on your part - a "thanksgiving", filled with "gladness," "a joyful noise." May the following words originally written by the apostle Paul to the believers in Ephesus be true of us. Listen:

         "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints," he wrote, "and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power." (Ephesians 1:15-19)

         Knowing the hope to which we have been called; knowing the glorious riches of our inheritance in Christ; knowing the immeasurable greatness of his power for us, please stand and sing.

A Testimony to God’s Faithfulness

         A person in our fellowship recently had a door slammed shut as she moved in the direction of her dream, career-wise. That road came to abrupt, absolute dead-end. After being devastated and disillusioned, another possibility knocked on her window, as if out of nowhere - a new direction that seems so obviously from the Lord that she just has to testify to God's faithfulness.

Responding with our Tithes and Offerings

         "For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations." (Psalm 100:5)

         We have heard personal evidence of how, when a door was slammed shut for someone, God opened a window. Do we hear the voice of God calling in this testimony?

         Where is calling you? What is your "vocation?" One writer put it this way: "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet."*

         Ponder this as you return your offering. Where is "your deep gladness?" Where does it meet "the world’s deep hunger?" Respond with gratitude, praying your own prayer of dedication, as the plates are passed. Ushers? It’s your turn.

*Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC,
©1973, Harper & Row, p. 95.