Serving The World

 

 

Seekers Church

A Christian Community

In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Pentecost 2005

 

Serving the World

CIRCLE TIME

 

ENTRANCE

 

REFLECTION

We have places of fear inside of us, but we have other places as well – places with names like trust and hope and faith.  We can choose to live from one of those places, to stand on ground that is not riddled with the fault lines of fear, to move toward others from a place of promise instead of anxiety.  As we stand in one of those places, fear may remain close at hand and our spirits may still tremble.  But now we stand on ground that will support us, ground from which we can move toward a more trustworthy, more hopeful, more faithful way of serving the world.

Adapted from Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak, pg 94.

 

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:      A wind breathes among us,

                  calling us to gather

                  in the name of the Holy One.

 

People:      A fire burns within us,

                  calling us to service,

                  calling us to prayer.

 

Leader:      A spirit moves around us,

                  calling us to turn in joy

                  toward the sorrows of the world.

 

All:             Burning, breathing, Spirit of Compassion,

                  we bring our lives to you.

 

 

INVOCATION

 

HYMN

 

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

 

SILENCE

 

RESPONSIVE READING

Leader:      God, you search me and know me.

                  Before I sit, you know when I will rise.

 

People:      God, you search me and know me.

                  Before I speak, you know what I will say.

 

Leader:      God, you search me and know me,

                  in my joy and despair,

                  in my breathing in and breathing out.

 

People:      God, you search me and know me.

                  Your knowledge is too deep to reach,

                  too vast to comprehend.

 

All:             God, you search me and know me.

                  Search me, O God, and know my heart.

 

SILENCE

 

PRAYERS

CONFESSION

Leader:      God asks more of us than faith.

                  God asks us to serve.

 

Voice 1:     Too often we feel

                  unequal to the task.

 

Voice 2:     Our faith wavers,

                  and our energy wanes.

 

Leader:      We long to find

                  our inner hope and trust.

All:             Incline your ear, O God

                  for we have places of fear inside us.

 

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

 

ASSURANCE

 

Leader:      God is the ground that will support us.

                  God is our refuge and strength,

                  a very present help in trouble,

                  and will not forsake us.

 

 

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

 

JESUS PRAYER

All:             Eternal One, Father and Mother of us all,

Holy is your name.

 

Let justice and mercy fill all Creation

and let us recognize

that every thought and thing belongs to you.

 

Feed us with the bread we need for today.

Forgive our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Stand with us in trial and temptation.

Free us from the grip of all that is evil.

     

For you alone are creating our universe,

now and forever.

     

Amen.

 

HYMN

 

THE WORD

FIRST LESSON

SILENCE

GOSPEL

SERMON 

SILENT REFLECTION

 

OFFERING

 

The first Sunday of each month we switch to a Communion Liturgy here.

 

SHARED REFLECTIONS

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

HYMN

 

BENEDICTION

Leader:      Filled with the wind of the Holy Spirit,

                  let us scatter to all the places where we live and work,

                  turning outward to serve a world hungry for hope.

 

                  Offer yourself in compassion to those in need,

                  a source of hope in these troubling times.

 

                  And may the presence of the risen Christ

                  fill you with the courage to do God's work in the world.

 

Unison:      Amen.

 

 

 

 

WORSHIP RESOURCES

Responsive Reading: From Psalm 139