Offertory Prayers and Invitation for June 2014

Each month's Offertory Prayers include at least one "Invitation to the Offering" (see below) along with a digital image for those who might want to use it. We hope you will find this a helpful way to remind the people in your pews that their offering travels to many places to make a powerful difference in the lives of people they may never meet. You can find great stories of the difference our giving makes at http://umcgiving.org

Invitation to the Offering
The offering you made last week empowered ministry within our congregation and in response to the needs of our community. It also helped support the work of ministries beyond the local church that reach people who are in desperate need to feel the touch of love and reconciliation. Through the World Service Fund, you made possible life-changing learning opportunities such as the United Methodist Seminars Program offered by the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) in Washington D.C. Through the program, young people (high school age and older) can explore issues that intersect with living out our faith (human trafficking, domestic violence, poverty, etc.) on location at the GBCS headquarters in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill. This ministry happens thanks to the generous support of United Methodists like you. I invite you once again to give generously as we worship God through the sharing of our gifts, tithes and offerings.

Learn more about the UM Seminar Program and the work of the General Board of Church & Society at http://umc-gbcs.org.

June 1, 2014 – Seventh Sunday of Easter/Ascension Sunday
Holy God of Heaven and Earth: As we remember Christ's ascension this very morning, we pray that we might not be found looking to heaven for his return, but into the faces of those who walk the earth with us. May we see Christ in the face of the stranger, the outcast, the oppressed, the unloved, and the unlovely. May the gifts we give this morning empower your church to make room at Christ’s table for all those and more, your beloved children, whom we might embrace in love, and in doing so, find ourselves in your embrace. In the name of your blessed Son, we pray. Amen. (Acts 1:6-14)

June 8, 2014 – Day of Pentecost
God of wind and flame: Set us on fire this morning as celebrate the explosion of your Holy Spirit coming into the world on the Day of Pentecost! Remind us that the gift you gave that day was not just the gift to speak in different tongues, but also the gift of hearing and comprehension. May your Holy Spirit keep us attuned to the voices all around us, to those who need us to be bearers of your love and compassion. May these gifts we give help us, through your church, meet those needs. In the holy name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. (Acts 2:1-21)

June 15, 2014 – First Sunday after Pentecost/in Kingdomtide
God who moves before us, behind us, and beside us; through your risen son you have commanded us to “Go!” but we have made ourselves comfortable in our churches and in our homes. You have commanded us to reach out to the world; but often we have limited that outreach to those who look like us, speak like us, live like us. As we worship this morning, and we pray the prayers and sing the songs, and as we offer ourselves and our gifts to you, remind us again that we are called to go into the world. Help us to be more of a movement of hope and love and less an institution of rules and protection of the way things have always been. We pray in the name of the one who sends us, Jesus the Christ. Amen. (Matthew 28:16-20)

June 22, 2014 – Second Sunday after Pentecost/in Kingdomtide
God of our joy and our sorrow, of our living and our dying: help us to find a life that is full in the things that you would have for us: love, justice, compassion, hope, faithfulness, mercy. Let us not be so attached to life that we are afraid of change, or transition, or what the future holds. As we offer to you this morning a small portion of what you have entrusted to us, help us to have hands that hold nothing of this world as tightly as we hold on to you and your son Jesus our Savior. In that Holy name, we pray. Amen. (Matthew 10:24-39)

June 29, 2014 – Third Sunday after Pentecost/in Kingdomtide
God of grace who renews your people every day in every breath, help us find the balance in life that keeps us aligned with your will. Help us not neglect rest for the sake of work, or neglect feeding our souls for the sake of feeding our bodies, or neglect to be present with the poor and powerless for the sake of keeping company with those who are well off in terms of power and wealth. As we offer our tithes and offerings this morning, open our ears and hearts to hear the promise Christ made to us: even the smallest act of compassion for the least of your children will not escape your notice, and that the rewards for us will be heavenly! In Christ, our rock and our redeemer, we pray. Amen. (Matthew 10:40-42)