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Welcome
Welcome to this mid-Summer hymn sing. As you prepare to worship,
look through the hymnal and pick out a favorite hymn and write it
on the enclosed suggestion card. During the Prelude, place it in
the basket up front. We’ll then “sing from the basket.” Any not
chosen today will be woven into services later in the summer. By
the way, “I owe the Lord a morning song” was a favorite of Mary
Stephen.
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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.
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Opening
Prayer
O God, author of eternal light
lead us in our
worshiping this day:
that our lips may praise you,
our lives may bless you,
and our meditations glorify you,
through Christ our Lord. AMEN
Hymnal #673
Sarum Missal, 11th c.
Hymnal, #673
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Hymns
from the Basket
The congregation was invited to bring, during the Prelude,
their hymn suggestions and place them in the basket up front.
After shuffling the papers in the basket (at three points during
the service), the song leader picks out a hymn for everyone to
sing. It is up to the song leader how many songs will be sung
during each hymn sing section, as well as how many and which
verses will be sung of each. The song leader may also chose for
the congregation to sing with accompaniment or a capella. Everyone
will stand during the final hymn in the third section.
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Congregation in Prayer
Almighty God,
from whom comes each good gift of life,
we remember your loving kindness and your uncounted mercies
as we join in grateful praise.
For
all your gifts to us and to our human race;
for our life and the world in which we live,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the order and constancy of nature;
for the beauty and bounty of the world;
for day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest;
for the varied joys which every season brings,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the work we are enabled to do,
and the truth we are permitted to discover;
good there has been in our past,
and for all the hopes which lead us on toward better things,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
all the joys and comforts of life;
for homes and families;
for our friends;
for the love, sympathy, and goodwill of persons near and far,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
all cultures, wise government and just laws which order our common
life;
for education and all the treasures of literature, science,
and art,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the discipline of life;
for the tasks and trials which train us to know ourselves
and which bring us to accept one another,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the desire and power to help others;
for every opportunity of serving our generation in ways large
or small,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the gift of Jesus Christ, and everything which is ours as his
disciples;
for the presence and inspiration of your Holy Spirit
throughout our days,
we give you thanks, O God.
For
the tender ties which bind us to the unseen world;
for the faith which dispels the shadows of earth
and fills the closing years of life with the light of hope,
we give you thanks, O God.
ALL: God of all grace and love,
we have praised you with our lips
for all the richness and meaning that life holds for us.
Now
send us into the world to praise you with our lives,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. AMEN
Hymnal
#721, taken from
The Hymnal of the United Church of Christ, ©1974.
United Church Press, 700 Prospect Ave., E.,
Cleveland, OH 44115-1100
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Prayer before returning offerings
Gracious God,
we thank you for
gifts that belong not to us alone,
but to all our sisters and brothers,
since they, too, are created in your image.
Let their need become our need;
let their hunger
become our hunger;
and grant to us
also a portion of their pain,
so that in sharing ourselves,
we discover the Christ who walks
with our brothers and sisters. AMEN
Hymnal #750
by Kenneth I. Morse, from We Gather Together,
© 1979 Brethren Press.
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Responsive Benediction
Leader: We came to worship.
People: We go now to serve.
Leader: We have been given the light.
People: We go now to let it shine.
Leader: We have been blessed by God’s love.
People: We go now to share it.
Leader: We are Christ’s disciples.
People: We go now to witness to all.
Hymnal #763
by Jimmy Ross
from We Gather Together
copyright ©1979, Brethren Press, adapted
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