Call to Worship

Leader: Welcome, Beloved of God! For truly, you are deeply, wonderfully, beautifully loved by the God of all creation!

All: Come, let us worship God who loves us!

Leader: Whether your week was filled with mountain-high joys or valley-low sorrows, peace like a gently flowing river, or stress like a stormy gale, this is the time to rise and come away to worship God who sustains and tends to you.

All: Come, let us worship God who loves us and tends to us!

Leader: In a world that pulls us this way and that, God’s love is our True North, guiding us with an uncommon wisdom through all that life brings us.

All: Come, let us worship God who loves us and guides us!

Leader: Beloved, the time for singing has come, because God’s love, care, and wisdom sustain and guide us wherever we go.

All: Come, let us worship and sing to the God who loves, tends, guides, and sustains us! Amen!

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

Opening Prayer

Creating God,
you are the source of nature’s splendor—
the beauty and fragrance of delicate flowers,
and sweet sound of birdsong.
We come to you this morning
with delight and gladness,
grateful for all of your wonders.
As the fields produce their harvest,
may your love grow within us,
that we too may produce a harvest
of love, hope, and joy. Amen.

Adapted from The Abingdon Worship Annual 2009, © 2008 Abingdon Press. Posted on the Ministry Matters website. http://www.ministrymatters.com/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2012/08/call-to-worship-prayer-proper-17-b.html.

Prayer of Confession

(inspired by Psalm 15)

Holy God,
we do not deserve to be in your dwelling place.
We have not led a blameless life.
We have not done what is right in your sight
or spoken the truth that you have sealed in our hearts.
We have done evil to both those we love
and to those we refuse to love as we should.
We have not been faithful stewards of that which we have been blessed
and have hoarded that which should be shared
with the least of these.
Hear our cry, God of our hope,
as we confess that which weighs us down…

Redeeming God,
save us from our foolishness and guide us to your wisdom.
Gather us in your righteousness and redemption.
Forgive us for we are seeking your light and your salvation.
Cleanse us of our brokenness that we might do justice,
love kindness, and walk humbly with you. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

Because we are not worthy to enter God’s dwelling,

God came to dwell with us

through the body and being of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Christ came to be with us, amongst us, and for us.

Hear the good news of the Gospel:

in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Alleluia! Amen!

Written by Stephen Fearing and posted on “Wild and Precious Life,” http://www.stephenmfearing.com/. Re-posted on the re:Worship blog at https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2017/01/prayer-of-confession-psalm-15.html.

Benediction

Beloved, may God bless you with the uncommon wisdom to know deep in your hearts the vastness of God’s love for you, and in that knowing, may God’s love bubble up and overflow from your heart into the world around you. Amen.

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