Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
August 18, 2013
Worship 10:00 am

  Beginning with Praise (9:50 am)       "There’s a wideness in God’s mercy"      145
  Announcements
  Prelude                                "Prelude in C Major"                                   Bach

*Responsive Call to Worship

*Hymn                               "New earth, heavens new"                                299

*Opening Prayer

  Hymn                                     "Amazing Grace!"                                       143

  Responsive Prayer                                                                                    722

  Annual Conference Moment

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

  Offertory                           "As Torrents in Summer"                                Elgar
                              (Please sign the attendance pad and pass it on)

*Response                         "Grant us, Lord, the grace"                                388

*Dedication

  Responsive Scripture           2 Corinthians 5:17-21                                    853

  Message                                        "Grace"                                Philip Yancey
                                                     (not posted)

*Hymn                                    "Come, thou fount"    521

*Benediction

*Postlude                                 "March Heroique"                                 Stickles

*Rise in body or in spirit

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Responsive Call to Worship

One:   Life is busy
          Sometimes chaotic
          It’s easy to forget about God
          in the middle of the distraction
          But what if we could slow down
          and worship God in our everyday moments

All:    A new heart I will give you,
          and a new spirit I will put within you;

One:   The same God who wipes our tears
          ...eases our pain
          ...brings us joy
          ...guides our steps

All:    and I will remove from your body the heart of stone
          and give you a heart of flesh.

One:   If our worship went beyond these walls
          Things could change
          Life wouldn’t blur our view of God
          It would point directly to God

All:    A new heart I will give you,
          and a new spirit I will put within you;

One:   Every breath
          Every action
          Every movement
          In every place
          would be
          an act of worship.

Adapted from Ezekiel 36:26-27 and words from
An Act of Worship video, WorshipHouse Media
    

Opening Prayer

           Grant, O God, that thinking, we may think your thoughts; that speaking, we may speak your word; that singing, we may sing to your praise; that hearing, we may hear your truth; and that willing, we may make your will our own, so that walking forward at the end of our worship, we may walk in your love and your peace, and departing from one another, not depart from you. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

adapted from prayer by Roy Pearson, Hear Our Prayer, ©1961 McGraw-Hill, Inc. New York, NT.
Taken from For all who Minister, ©1993, Brethren Pres, Elgin, IL, p.85
   

Responsive Prayer

Leader:  Merciful God,
                       your love for us makes us bold to join our prayers
                       with all who need your help.
              We bring our prayers to you:

                       For those who suffer pain;
                       For those who struggle with limits of body and soul;
                       For those who are satisfied with less than the life
                                              for which they were created;
                       For those who know their guilt and their need
                                              but do not know of Jesus;
                       For those who know that they must shortly die
                                              and for those who cannot wait to die.

   ALL:  Come, Redeeming God,
                       take all these sufferings upon yourself and transform them.
              Be merciful also to us, who offer these prayers,
                       so that we might enter the sufferings of others
                       and become agents of your healing love,
                       through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN

Hymnal #722
adapted from Contemporary Prayers for Public Worship,
ed. Caryl Micklem, © 1956 1967 SCM Press, Ltd
  

Annual Conference Moment

             Our delegate, John Ness, will share the third of a series of brief reports from the 2013 Annual Conference of our denomination. Listen to what he had to say in this installment.
   

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

             The willingness to give is a sign of life. The fruit tree gives of its fruit, and we know it is alive. When it refuses to give, we know real life has gone out of it. The heart that hoards the blessings of God is no longer alive with spiritual power. To give is to live.

by Earle W. Fike, Jr.
p. 120, For All Who Minister, Brethren Press, 1993
 

Dedication

Teach us, good Lord,
  to serve you as you deserve;
  to give and not to count the cost;
  to toil and not to seek for rest;
  to labor and not to ask for reward,
         except that of knowing
              that we do your will;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen."

by Ignatius of Loyola, 16th century
p. 121, For All Who Minister, Brethren Press, 1993
 

Responsive Scripture
2 Corinthians 5:17-21

If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
      everything old has passed away;
      see, everything has become new!
All this is from God,
      who reconciled us to himself through Christ,
      and has given us the ministry of reconciliation;
      that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,
            not counting their trespasses against them,
            and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
      since God is making his appeal through us;
            we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,
      so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Benediction

Go in gratitude, for God is gracious.
Go in freedom, for God has set you free.
Go in confidence, for God lives and reigns.
Go in hope, for God is establishing a new heaven and a new earth in our midst.
Go, and the peace of God go with you. Amen.

by Warren F. Groff
from Prayer: God's Time and Ours
(Copyright © Brethren Press, 1984)