Recommitment 1996: Freed by Commitment

SEEKERS CHURCH
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour
Recommitment 1996

Freed by Commitment

REFLECTION

The first thing people need to know is that they can have no real life, no real freedom, no real joy in life save as they lay aside the kinds of actions that destroy the very things they are seeking… The second is…that we are being drawn forward toward the day appointed by God when people will indeed avoid these prohibitions, and will love God and neighbor.

Walter Harrelson, The Ten Commandments and Human Rights, pg 188.

PRELUDE

CALL TO WORSHIP

Leader:: In the freedom of commitment,
we come from the daily obligations of our lives.
People:: For this time,
we set aside the tasks of our everyday lives,
both the chores and the rewards,
to celebrate our service to the Living God.
Leader:: As we are free in Christ,
we offer this time to the God who calls us.
Unison:: In the freedom of commitment,
let us worship God together.

INVOCATION

HYMN

WORD FOR THE CHILDREN

SILENCE

LITANY

Leader:: God marked a line and told the sea
its surging tides and waves were free
to travel up the sloping strand
but not to overtake the land.
Voice 1:: God set one limit in the glade
where tempting fruited branches swayed,
and that first limit stands behind
the limits that the law defined.
Leader:: The line, the limit and the law
are patterns meant to help us draw
a bound between what life requires
and all the things our heart desires.
Voice 2:: But, discontent with finite powers,
we reach to take what is not ours
and then defend our claim by force
and swerve from life’s intended course.
Unison:: We are not free when we’re confined
to every wish that sweeps the mind,
but free when freely we accept
the sacred bounds that must be kept.

(from New Century Hymnal, #568, by Thomas H. Troeger, 1986)

SILENCE

PRAYERS

CONFESSION (Unison)

Holy One, although you free us for your service:
We confess that we do not always accept
the freedom that you offer;

We confess that we often want our own way
even when your way would bring us joy;

We confess that sometimes our service to you
feels like work instead of celebration;

We confess that we do not understand
that promises are not prisons,
but pathways to freedom.

Forgive us, Great Lover of Freedom,
and help us to know your ways.

INDIVIDUAL PRAYERS OF CONFESSION

ASSURANCE (Leader)

As God walks among us,
God promises to know and understand our failures,
our forgetfulness
our foolishness.

In God’s amazing radical freedom,
we are loved and forgiven.
We are free to love and forgive others.

PRAYERS OF THE COMMUNITY

HYMN

THE WORD

SCRIPTURE

SERMON

SILENT REFLECTION

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

OFFERING

SHARED REFLECTIONS

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HYMN

BENEDICTION (Leader)

Live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ.
Stand firm in one spirit.
Strive side by side with one mind
for the faith of the Gospel,
for God has graciously granted you
the privilege of believing in Christ.

Amen.

from Philippians 1:27-29

SEEKERS CHURCH
A Christian Community
In the Tradition of the Church of the Saviour

Preparation for Recommitment 1996

Preparation

As Seekers Church prepares for its annual celebration of recommitment to being the Body of Christ, we invite all Seekers to review the call of Seekers Church, and reflect on our call to be church. During your reflection, consider each statement in the call as one aspect of our life together. Here are four questions to guide your reflection.

Questions For Reflection

How are you currently living out each statement in the call of Seekers Church?
In the coming year, do you want to participate differently in this aspect of the life of Seekers Church?
Do you think the community as a whole is living up to this aspect of our call?
How might we more fully embody this aspect of our call in the coming year?

The Call Of Seekers Church

Our call is to be a "Seekers community" which comes together in weekly worship rooted in the Biblical faith, with shared leadership; and disperses with a common commitment to understand and implement Christian servanthood in the structures in which we live our lives.

By "Seekers community" we mean an intentional body which sees Christ as our true life source. Koinonia with one another and genuine self-giving to the world are the ways we can be in Christ today. Seekers are not persons who have arrived, but persons who are intentionally on the way.

By shared leadership we mean empowering the gifts of women and men to help our worship flow out of and feed into the life of the community. We are committed to evoking and giving space to new gifts of preaching, liturgical leadership, creative worship forms, giving, mission and other acts of faith.

For us, Christian servanthood is based on empowering others within the normal structures of our daily lives (work; family and primary relationships; and citizenship) as well as through special structures for service and witness. We desire and welcome participation in Seekers of women and men of every race and sexual orientation. In Seekers Church we will equip and support each other in all of these areas and seek a balance among them.

The Seekers community sees itself called into Christ’s ministry of deliverance from bondage to freedom in every personal and corporate expression. We recognize the value of each individual and seek to heal any wounds of discrimination inflicted by our society and church.

Seekers is committed to participation by persons of all ages. We see children, youth and adults of all ages as valuable and valued parts of our community, and desire their inclusion in our care, our ministry, and our life together.

Revised by Seekers Core Members in May 1991

Recommitment

As part of the Seekers’ celebration of recommitment on October 20th, each of us will be invited to commit ourselves to the community for one year, using one of the statements shown below. Those who attend regularly and who identify themselves as part of this church will use the first statement. Those core members who have made the deeper commitment to Seekers Church will use the more detailed statement shown on the following page.

We encourage you to reflect on your commitment to Seekers, using these questions. Pray over the call of Seekers Church and the recommitment statements during the coming weeks to clarify the level of commitment you can make with integrity, based on your current circumstances or on the challenge you feel to deepen your life of faith.

If you are not now a committed core member but feel called to that deeper level of stewardship for the Seekers Church, please let us know. Membership is open to all who are called, and who have completed the preparation.

Seekers’ Staff Team: Peter Bankson
Kate Cudlipp
Sonya Dyer

Recommitment Statement For All Seekers

I am a Seeker. The Seekers Church is my community of faith.

I acknowledge that I am called by God to be part of this community. I have joy and pain to share, and joy and pain to bear.

As part of the Seekers community, I am a growing Christian. I will be intentional and accountable about naming my relationship to this community, sharing my gifts from God with the community and the wider world, and living out my commitment of faith.

Seekers Church Core Members’ Commitment Statement

I come today to make my commitment to the Seekers Church, a Christian Community in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour. Seekers Church is an ecumenical body of Christians who are linked with the people of God throughout the ages. We worship God as triune being. We believe:

That the Creator — father and mother to us all, ground of our being — loves, sustains and calls us;
That Jesus is the Christ, who for our sake lived, was crucified, died, rose from the dead, and now bids us to a ministry of love and justice;
That the Holy Spirit, as the empowering presence and breath of God, confronts and inspires us to do God’s work in the world;

We believe that we are all ministers of the Church, which is both universal, grace-filled body of Christ, and fragile earthen vessel.

I commit:

To be a faithful witness to God’s presence among us;

To nurture my relationship with God and Seekers through specific disciplines;
To foster justice and be in solidarity with the poor;
To work for the ending of all war, personal and public;
To share responsibility for the spiritual growth of persons of all ages in my community;
To respond joyfully with my life, as the grace of God gives me freedom.

When I move from this place I will join another expression of Christ’s church.