Long Green Valley Church of the Brethren
Long Green & Kanes Rds., near Glen Arm, Md.
November 9, 2008
Worship 10:00 am, Sunday School 11:10 am

Junior High Sunday

  Morning Praise (9:45 am)                                                               Praise Band
                           "Grace like rain"  "Lord, I lift your name on high"
  Announcements
  Prelude

Come to the Light

  Entering Hymn                 (vs. 1-3) "Here in this place"                                   6

  Prayer of Invocation

  Hymn                                (vs. 4) "Here in this place"                                    6

*Praise Song                          "Shine, Jesus, Shine"                  (insert/overhead)

Be Transformed

   Listen to the Word

  Song                                       "No longer blind"                    (insert/overhead)

  Skit

  Song                                       "No longer blind"                    (insert/overhead)

Not Conformed

  Returning our Tithes and Offerings

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

*Response                                    "Sanctuary"                        (insert/overhead)

*Prayer of Dedication

By the Renewing of your Mind

  Tercentennial Minute

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

  Prayer Song                            "Teresa’s prayer"                    (insert/overhead)

  Pastoral Prayer

Conscious and Conscientious

  Scripture                            Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-16

  Message            “Choosing to be ‘Transformed by God’”

*Hymn                                (vs. 1,2,5,6) "Take my life"                                 389

*Closing Litany

*Leaving Song                   "You shall go out with joy"                                427

#'s are from Hymnal: A Worship Book

Worship leaders - see basic guidelines

Prayer of Invocation

(Members of the youth group are stationed around the sanctuary and pray the following:)

A. “O God who knows the longing of our hearts, here in this place let us hear You speaking our name and give us the courage to open our eyes of faith to meet you this day.”

B. “Though we are young and old with so many different ways of looking at the world, Lord, here in this place receive our fears and our dreams that aren’t so different.

C. “Though we are male and female, with unique perspectives on life, gather us together here in this place as one family, children of the God in whose image we are all created.

D. “As we worship here in this place, touch us O Lord, with the new light of your healing love, the love that called us to this place, the love that holds us forever.”

E. “Here in this place, here in this worship, receive our worship as we lift our voices as one body. Gather us in all peoples together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.”

by Dave Witkovsky, Huntingdon, PA
National Junior High Sunday 2008 Worship Resources
   

Listen to the Word

(Note: the Junior High youth, meeting ahead of time, will choose 2-3 translations of Romans 12:1-2,
which they will read at this point in the service, after the following words:)

            The theme of National Junior High Youth Sunday this year is “Transformed by God.” It is based upon Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Let’s listen to this scripture. We’ll read it from a few different translations, which we chose last night during our lock-in here at church. Hearing the same verses more than once can help us to really listen to God’s Word. As Jesus said, “those who have ears, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15).

Romans 12:1-2
  

Returning our Tithes and Offerings

MONEY: Crisp, crackling, round, shining, jingling;

MONEY: The symbol of status, a medium of exchange, the love and worship of it is the root of evil.

MONEY: It will buy you...a bed but not sleep; a book but not knowledge; medicine but not health; recreation but not happiness; a living but not life.

MONEY: To see it...is tempting. To feel it is reassuring. To hoard it...is debilitating.

MONEY: TO SHARE IT JOYFULLY IS LIBERATING AND FULFILLING!

In this spirit let us present our tithes and offerings.

Author Unknown
National Junior High Sunday 2008 Worship Resources
 

Prayer of Dedication

            O God, we offer up to you ourselves, our feeble efforts, our less than willing generosity, our even the very best we have to give. Transform our gifts that they may be instruments of love and grace to those we worship with and those we seek to serve. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

by Beth Sollenberger-Morphew
National Junior High Sunday 2008 Worship Resources
  

Tercentennial Minute
Ralph and Mary Blocher Smeltzer take a stand

During the First World War loyal German Americans became the objects of suspicion, persecution, and even death, because of their ethnic background.  Following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the entrance of the United States into the Second World War the same suspicion and persecution was aimed at loyal Japanese Americans. Between February and November 1942 some 110,000 Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes because of war hysteria, some with only 48 hours notice, because of Executive Order 9066.  They were interred at camps in such bleak places as Manzanar, California.

            In 1942 Ralph and Mary Blocher Smeltzer stood up against most of their countrymen.  Though they received threats against their lives they worked for the release of Japanese-Americans while volunteering to teach at the Manzanar camp. 

They later helped resettle a thousand Japanese Americans through the Church of the Brethren in cities like New York and Chicago.  Many considered them traitors, un-American and un-Christian.  Yet time has proven they were right, unequivocally right, in doing the work of Jesus when they advocated for those who were hated by many who considered themselves Christians.

After the war the two were sent to Austria, where Ralph served as director of the Brethren Service Center from 1946 to 1949.  He went on to hold various positions in the denomination, including director of the Washington office.

Ralph Smeltzer again courted the hatred of those who claimed to be faithful by working as a mediator between the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and civil authorities in Selma, Alabama. 

He died in 1976.  In February of 2005 Mary Blocher Smeltzer was one of more than 200 teachers honored at a ceremony in Los Angeles for having taught Japanese American students in the internment camps. 

And that’s the Tercentennial Minute for Sunday, November 9, 2008

by Frank Ramirez, pastor of the Everett, PA Church of the Brethren
posted by permission                        
The Everett church graciously makes available these weekly vignettes from Brethren history
to all who are interested during this 300th anniversary year of our denomination.
Frank will be the guest preacher for our Homecoming on October 26, 2008
(this is our congregation's 100th anniversary year)
  

Pastoral Prayer

written closer to the time (if not at the moment)

Closing Litany

Leader: Lord, we leave here today with excitement, knowing that you can bring about change in our lives.

Congregation: Behold! If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.

Leader: We leave here with gratitude, knowing this is a place of new beginnings, clean slates and fresh opportunities.

Congregation: Everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

Leader: We leave here with inspiration, refreshed, re-energized and seeking God’s will.

Congregation: Those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles.

Leader: We leave here with open hearts and minds, ready to let God continue the work begun in us.

Congregation: I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.

Unison: We leave here open to God’s presence, ready to be transformed by God. Amen.

by Walt Wiltschek
National Junior High Sunday 2008 Worship Resources