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there’s always more

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Some weeks just feel like there’s always one more thing to do. This week it was the Ash Wednesday bulletin, then the Sunday bulletin, then the Wednesday service, now thinking about those parts of the Sunday service that aren’t in the bulletin–because there’s so much more to worship than what’s printed there, right?

This week we have a prayer of dedication from the Rev. Sarah Rentzel Jones, pastor of St. Peter’s (Lischey’s) UCC in Spring Grove, PA…may it spark our thinking and praying and creating! What else do you need for this week? A prayer for illumination? A children’s time? A call to confession? Share you ideas here!

Dedicating the Offering
We give Thee but Thine own, O Lord, and we do this intentionally each week to remind ourselves that everything we have is on loan from you. The gifts that we have presented today are not all that we have, but a portion which we set aside, so that your work can be done in this church and in the world. Help us to be ever mindful of your generosity toward us, so that we might be generous in return. Amen.

confession: distracted

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You call us to love you with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength.
But so often we are worried and distracted by many things.
We forget your love and your call to love,
and we begin to think it is about us—
about our image, about doing it right,
about being the best, about getting what we want.
We forget to look to you, and even when we look, our vision is clouded.
Clear the chaos within us, O God,
that we may focus on you.
We will seek you with our whole hearts.
Amen.

 

Submitted by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL.

CTW: the intersection of Enduring Love & Faithfulness

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Call to Worship

L: We come, so God might open our eyes,
P: that we may discover the wonders surrounding us;
that we may embrace the joy deep within us.
L: We gather, so Christ might widen our hearts,
P: that we may hear the sounds of brokenness around us;
that we may sing the melodies of hope.
L: We are here, so the Spirit might teach us the ways of humility,
P: that we may walk that street named Enduring Love;
that we may wait at the corner called Faithfulness.

 

Submitted by Rev. Thom Shuman, author of Lectionary Liturgies.

The unprinted parts

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Many of us probably have the bulletin done already…but there are always those things that don’t need to go in the bulletin that we wait to do until later. What words will we use to introduce the scripture reading? What words will we use to call people to confession? How will we introduce the offering? What prayer of dedication will we come up with this week? What children’s sermon ideas are floating around out there? Will the charge before the benediction be different this week?

I confess that the prayer of dedication I almost always use is this: “God, you have been so generous to us. You have filled us to overflowing with every good gift. We return these gifts to you and ask for your blessing–use these gifts, and use us, to do your work in this place and around the world. We pray in the name of Christ. Amen.”

Yeah, I could use a new one. What’re you thinking this week for those unprinted parts?

call to confession: we just don’t have it all together

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Friends, anyone who says they have it all together is just not telling the truth. Let’s take this time to speak truth, to admit our failings, before God and each other. Let us pray.

(we pray together the prayer of confession in the bulletin)

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation—the old way of living is gone, the new way has begun. Friends, believe and live this good news: in Jesus Christ, we are freed to live, love, and serve! Thanks be to God. Amen.

 

Submitted by the Rev. Teri Peterson, Ridgefield Crystal Lake Presbyterian Church, Crystal Lake IL.