Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
October 23, 2011
Worship 10:00 am              Sunday School 11:10am
 

  Announcements
  Prelude                                "Prelude in D Major"                                Fischer

GATHERING THE COMMUNITY

*Call to Worship                                                                                    (insert)

*Opening Prayer

*Hymn                                    "Here in this place"                                          6

  Sharing a joy, a concern, a word of testimony or praise
                                 (please be brief, and aware of God's listening presence)

  Hymn                       "Marvelous grace of our loving Lord"                        151

  Pastoral Prayer (from Annual Conference)

PROCLAIMING GOD’S WORD

  Scripture                                     John 6:1-14

  Response                  "Alleluia, the Word of God is living"                      (insert)

  Scripture                                    John 21:9-14

  Response                  "Alleluia, the Word of God is living"                      (insert)

  Message                     "Let’s Partake: Called to…" (text - .pdf)
                                                  Stan Noffsinger
                        video of Annual Conference sermon, July 6, 2011

  Response                  "Alleluia, the Word of God is living"                      (insert)

RESPONDING TO GOD

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                                        "Prayer"                                    Beethoven
                                        (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

  Consecration of the Congregation

SENDING THE COMMUNITY

*Hymn                                   "Move in Our Midst"         418

*Benediction

*Postlude

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

            Pastor Pete is taking a weekend vacation. In his absence, we are revisiting our denomination’s 2011 Annual Conference with the Wednesday morning sermon (in video form) delivered by Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the Church of the Brethren, on July 6. All the worship resources are from that service.
  

Call to Worship

Leader:  Come - all you who are in need of refreshment.

People:  We hunger and thirst for God.

Leader:  Come - that your hunger and thirst might be satisfied. God is here. The table has been prepared. Christ bids you to come to the feast.

People:  Such an invitation, such a promise restores our souls.

Leader:  Come - Christ invites you to bring your whole selves, your hunger and thirst, but also the gifts you have to share.

People:  When we are weary, we often forget that we have gifts to share. Such a call challenges and inspires us to think beyond our own needs.

Leader:  Come - partake of the feast, made richer by your presence, your gifts.

People:  We come - to worship our God, to be renewed, to share our gifts with this gathered body, and as the body of Christ to be inspired and empowered to go forth to extend God’s love throughout the world.

from the Wednesday morning worship
at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren
July 6, 2011. View the online webcast.
The worship leader was Rhonda Pittman Gingrich,
who may have written this.
  

Opening Prayer

            Open our eyes and our ears, our hearts and our minds to your presence among us. Here in this place you offer us the bread of life, the gift we need to nourish, inspire, and empower our spirits. Here in this place you call us to bring our gifts to the table. That, as the body of Christ, we might participate in offering the bread of life to others. Our spirits are hungry. The world is hungry. Open our eyes and our ears, our hearts and our minds to your invitation and to your call, that in this place we might both receive and share the bread of life. Amen.

from the Wednesday morning worship
at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren
July 6, 2011. View the online webcast.
The worship leader was Rhonda Pittman Gingrich,
who may have written this.
  

Pastoral Prayer

1 - God, who moved over the face of the waters, transforming chaos into created beauty, move in our midst, transforming the chaos of our troubled and aching hearts into an awareness of your peace which passes all understanding.

2 - Hear now our prayers, those we find words to articulate and those we can only express through tears, cries, groans, and profound silence.

1 - Divine Love, we celebrate the reality that there are no “if s” in your heart; that your love for us does not depend
                 upon what we do or say,
                     on our looks or intelligence,
                     on our success or popularity, or
                     on any single aspect of our identity.

2 - Your love and grace are steadfast and unconditional, and your love binds us together in one body.

1 - Giver of all good gifts, we thank you

2 - for the spirit of unity that gives shape to our work together;

1 - for the vulnerability and willingness to share that deepens our dialog;

2 - for the expressions of respect that builds up the body;

1 - for the diversity of gifts which enrich our life together:

2 - for the spirit of generosity which bears witness to your kingdom.

1 - As we strive to be a reflection of your perfect love, recognizing how our brokenness bears witness to your kingdom,

2 – O Amazing Grace, forgive us when we deepen the wounds in the body of Christ,

1 - when our words and actions, intentionally or unintentionally hurt, rather than heal, exclude rather than extend, tear down rather than build up,

2 - Forgive us when we fail to recognize that we are all created in your image and gifted with promise.

1 - Forgive us when our sisters and brothers ask for bread and we offer them stones.

2 - Forgive us when we relate to one another from a position of control rather than compassion.

1 - Forgive us when, in our certainty, we fail to open ourselves to your continuing revelation through your Living Word.

2 - Forgive us when our fears prevent others from experiencing true freedom in Christ.

1 - Forgive us when we carry a burden far greater than our shoulders can bear, when we fail to share that burden with others, or doubt your promise to give us rest and lighten our burdens.

2 - And even as we ask for your forgiveness, help us also to forgive one another, because forgiveness has the power to heal and restore the wounded body of Christ.

1 - Word made flesh, grant us the grace to understand that we are your people and that it is only together that we embody your story. Make us ever mindful in our daily living that, as persons made in your image, we are co-creators with you, crafting the story of you and your people in this time and in this place.

2 - Grant us humility as we continue to wrestle with our tensions, openness as we seek to truly listen to one another, grace to disagree in love and to avoid unkindness toward those with whom we differ, and wisdom as we continue to seek the mind of Christ together.

1 - We pray that the weariness bred by conflict and brokenness within the body might not interfere with our mission and ministry within the world, bearing witness to the good news of Christ’s love in word and action.

2 - Through the gift of your Son, chosen, blessed, broken, and given to the world, you satisfy our deepest hungers, so that we might become the living body of Christ, chosen, blessed, broken, and given to a world that hungers for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing. We are only a few loaves and fishes, but we are enough when we think in ways that defy the world’s limitations.

1 - Bless our hands, our hearts, our vision to work together for the bringing of your kingdom, that
     in our differences we may find grace,
     in our laboring we may find justice,
     in our suffering - hope,
     in our embracing - love, and
     in our risking - transformation.

2 - So that as we move into the future we might be known by the quality of our faith, by the depth of our love, by the level of our hope, and by the audacity with which we engage you, engage life, and engage our neighbors.

adapted from the Wednesday morning worship
at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren
July 6, 2011. View the online webcast.
The worship leader was Rhonda Pittman Gingrich,
who may have written all or part of this.
  

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

We have come to be nourished, to fellowship, to worship, and to talk together about how we can engage in God’s work. But this is not a catered meal. This is a pot luck of sorts. We must each share from the abundance with which God has blessed us. We must share our time, our talents, our money to create the feast. God is good! God is always faithful. Let us respond to God’s faithfulness to us by giving generously towards God’s mission and ministry at this pot luck.

Ushers?

adapted from the Wednesday morning worship
at the 2011 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren
July 6, 2011. View the online webcast.
written by the worship leader, Rhonda Pittman Gingrich.
  

Consecration of the Congregation

            Please stand and receive this consecration that was extended to the gathered body in Grand Rapids, Michigan before they headed home. Because Annual Conference pulls together all the congregations of our denomination, these words are for us:

Where the hunger of the world beyond you
meets the feast spread on the table within you
may you step into that place
and extend Christ’s love.
 

Benediction

            Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glory without fault and with unspeakable joy, to the only God, our saviour, be glory and majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before time was, now, and in all ages to come, amen.

Jude 1:24-27 from
J. B. Phillips, "The New Testament in Modern English"
1962 edition by HarperCollins