Call to Worship

We gather to listen to the voice of Jesus say, “Come, follow me!” But will you follow when Jesus also calls you to release the hold wealth has on you?
We want to follow Jesus anywhere he leads, and we can with God’s help.

We gather to remember all that God has taught us through scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. But what about when we have to put what we know into action?
We want to put our faith into action, and we can with God’s help.

We gather to live into God’s economy of abundance, recognizing the riches of the prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness that surround us. But what about when the world tempts us back into scarcity?
We want to turn away from scarcity and choose God’s abundance, and we can with God’s help.

We gather to shine as a beacon of a new way of living where following Jesus means sharing in God’s abundant gifts together. But will you keep shining when others try to pull you astray, putting the pursuit of wealth before the pursuit of God?
With God’s help, we will resist the pull of wealth and the fear of scarcity and pursue the way of love, abundance, and flourishing for all creation. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2024.

Pastoral Prayer

God of infinite patience and wisdom, we come to you with so many things that claim our time, our energy, our resources, our very lives. We are easily drawn away from serving you by the enticements of the world for wealth, ease, and comfort. Just like the young man in the scriptures, we are owned by our possessions, held captive by our treasures. You continue to offer to us healing and hope. You seek to transform our lives from captivity to freedom in witness and service. We look at the world in which there is so very much warfare and strife, anger and hatred, and we easily become overwhelmed by the needs and the stresses. Help us to place our lives and our trust in you, knowing that with your help, many wonderful things can be accomplished which will provide hope and peace for others and ourselves. Give us courage and strength to truly be your disciples. For we ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Written by Nancy C. Townley on the Ministry Matters website. http://www.ministrymatters.com/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/10/pastoral-prayer-mark-10.html.

Prayer of Confession

God of grace: we offer you our lives. We confess we are often stingy in our gifts of time, of talents, of treasures. We confess our addiction to the drugs of consumerism and that, as your church, we have often fallen headlong into the culture’s seduction. Forgive us and free us to joyful simplicity, that we may be signs of grace to your world. Amen.

Written by Valerie Bridgeman Davis, The Africana Worship Book, Year B (Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 2007), 163.

Benediction

May God bless you with courage to turn from the riches the world values, trust to choose God’s economy over the world’s economy, and opportunities to discover God’s abundance over and over and over again. Amen.

Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, July 2024.