Develop a Discipleship System
Call to Worship
When we struggle to live as you teach us, and we fail to answer your call…
God, your steadfast loves surrounds us.
When the truth clogs up in our throat, and we fear what will happen if we speak and if we keep silent…
God, your steadfast love surrounds us.
When we open our hearts and let the truth of our sorrows, our sin, our joys, and our doubts flow freely…
God, your steadfast love surrounds us.
When our stubborn hearts encounter the grace that teaches and guides us into a life of trust and joyful obedience…
God, your steadfast love surrounds us today and every day. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, September 2024.
Opening Prayer
Loving God, it was said of the Prodigal Son that he “came to himself.”
Help us to wake up to ourselves, and to You.
Set us free from the illusion of trying to be perfect
so that we might be more fully human.
Help us not to chase after an imaginary life,
and to find satisfaction in our real lives.
And turn us away from our self-rejection
so that we might notice Your arms open in welcome. Amen.
Adapted from Ann Siddall, in Lent to Easter liturgies: Year C. Posted on the website of the Stillpoint Spirituality Centre, https://stillpointcentre.com.au/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/02/prayer-prodigal-son.html.
Prayer of Confession
God, we admit that we are prone to try to hide our sins; to keep our mouths shut and hope we are not found out. But there is no place to hide from you. Our silence only makes us sick in body and spirit. But you delight in forgiving us and in covering our sin. You are glad when we confess our failings and our needs. Hide us, O God, from trouble; teach us the way we should go. Deliver us from our own stubbornness, and draw us near, we pray. Amen.
Written by Valerie Bridgeman Davis in The Africana Worship Book, Year C (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2008), 147.
Benediction
May God’s grace go ahead of you,
trail behind you, and encircle you
each and every moment,
that with every move you make
you would know with absolute assurance
that God’s steadfast love
will never leave you alone. Amen.
Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, September 2024.
