PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP
October 1, 2023
Greeting
All you who labor in the Father’s vineyard, come,
and receive your work orders for the week ahead.
Penitential Prayer
Father,
for our false promises,
for our constant complaints,
for taking coffee breaks in the vineyard
when there was work to be done,
for failing to carry out Your instructions,
Father, we humbly beg Your merciful pardon.
Blessing
Go now, there is a work to be done.
Lord, what a work!
And the laborers — the faithful laborers —
are few!
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP
October 8, 2023
Greeting
“It is marvelous to behold.”
The Kingdom of God is at hand.
Let us join together and worship
the Lord, our God.
Penitential Prayer
Father, we make many bad choices:
in our family relationships, when compassionate silence is called for, we choose to speak harshly;
in our business relationships, when equity is called for, we choose to deal ruthlessly;
in our leisure hours, when close attention to Your Word is called for, we choose to listen to other voices;
in neighborhood disputes, when compromise is called for, we choose the hardline position; in our weekly Prayer of Confession, when repentance is called for we choose to remain as we are.
Father, we ask that we may be forgiven for these and all the other bad choices that reflect our unwillingness to harmonize our attitude and approach to life with Your saving Word.
Blessing
Go, proclaim the Good News
or hide your faith under a bushel
Go, shout it from the housetops
or keep it hidden behind our Church walls.
The choice is yours.
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP
October 15, 2023
Greeting
What binds us together as Church is our firm and common conviction that performing the works of human reconciliation is our appointed way of making things work — according to Divine Plan.
Come, let us celebrate the commonality of our faith in the Divine Plan of Salvation.
Penitential Prayer
Father, You have prepared the banquet of life for our fulfillment, yet …
we ignore Your invitation;
we pursue our own plan;
we pass up the true Bread of Life;
we eat the forbidden fruit, still …
Your invitation is never withdrawn, and because this is so we are here
to humbly accept Your merciful forgiveness;
to humbly accept Your invitation —
Your standing invitation —
to the banquet of New Life.
Blessing
You are cordially invited to
“go out into the highways and byways”
and “round up everyone you meet”
and fill God’s earth with banqueters to feast together on New Life in Jesus Christ.
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP
October 22, 2023
Greeting
Jesus came to evoke change in our lives.
“I have come to set the world on fire,” He says.
Unlike the Pharisees of old who resisted change, we come together as eager, enthusiastic, dedicated builders of the New Kingdom.
Penitential Prayer
Jesus has said …
“give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.
but give to God what is God’s.”
This is a “hard saying” for us, Father, and we find ourselves resisting its meaning for our lives with great intensity.
It can truly be said …
“Caesar is getting more than is Caesar’s
but God is getting less than is God’s.”
When it comes to our money and possessions,
we bow and scrape to Caesar,
we want God out of this area of our lives.
Father, we realize that our part in Jesus’ mission to set the world on fire requires more than mere words and good intentions. For our failure to identify and appropriate our resources as God’s and not Caesar’s, Father, forgive us.
Blessing
Venture out into something new and risky!
Jesus wants movement!
Jesus wants improvement!
Jesus wants to set the world on fire!
PRAYERS FOR WORSHIP
October 29, 2023
Greeting
Come, let us express our love for God
with our whole heart,
with our whole soul,
with our whole mind.
Penitential Prayer
For the times we have come together seeking reconciliation with God, without being disposed to reconciliation with all our brothers and sisters in God’s human family,
Father, forgive us.
Blessing
Because you are infinitely precious in God’s sight, you have certain feelings about how you want to be treated.
Then, Jesus turns this around and says, you will treat others that way because they are infinitely precious too!
