May 13, 2018, Cross+Gen Worship Order and Prayer Stations

For this first Sunday of our summer combined Sunday worship service schedule, we gathered in the Fellowship Hall (the space where our praise service and Saturday services usually happen). Rather than our usual “Praise” or “Traditional” worship services, we tried for a more Cross+Gen, interactive worship experience.

In fact, rather than the usual Lutheran worship order of Gather, Word, Meal, Sending; we shaped this worship service around the Faith5 practices of Share, Read, Talk, Pray, Bless. See Faith5.org for much more about each of these practices. I also explained more about them a week earlier in my Saturday service message for the last day of Sunday School, which you can read here.

To give an idea of a Faith5 worship service order, here’s what we did. We’ll try something similar two more times this summer. We also had these Faith5 bookmarks available for people to follow along and to reassure the congregation that this wasn’t just some crazy idea I came up with!

Also, I did preach a “normal” sermon on Saturday night – you can read that here.

A few notes: As you’ll see, we arranged the worship space in small clusters of about 5 chairs, and for the share, talk, and bless times, people interacted within their clusters. For the sermon time, I read a few verses, invited people to discuss, read a few more verses, asked for discussion, etc. The questions were projected on the screen. Also, pictures of our prayer stations (the first time we’ve tried anything like this!) are after the service order.

Welcome

*Confession
P: We begin our worship in the name of the Father, and of the ✝ Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen

P: Let us pray. Almighty God, you know all the thoughts of our hearts, our desires and our fears, our faithfulness and our failings. Nothing is secret from you. Have mercy on us, and send your Holy Spirit to purify our hearts so that we may love you in faith, word, and deed, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
C: Amen

Silence for reflection and self-examination.

P: Gracious God,
C: Have mercy on us. We confess that we have turned from you and given ourselves into the power of sin. We are truly sorry and humbly repent. In your compassion forgive us our sins, known and unknown, things we have done and things we have failed to do. Turn us again to you, and uphold us by your Spirit, so that we may live and serve you in newness of life through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen 

P: People of God, hear this good news: God who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in sin, and made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. In the name of ✝ Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Almighty God strengthen you with power through the Holy Spirit, that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.
C: Amen

*Gathering Song – “Step by Step”

Share

Sharing of Highs and Lows

Prayer of the Day
P: Let us pray together for the highs and the lows of our lives:
Dear God, thank you for ______, please help me with _______.  We pray in Jesus’ name,
C: Amen

Read

Gospel – John 17:6-19

Talk

Reflecting on God’s Word: John 17:6-19 (NIRV)

6 “I have shown you to the disciples you gave me out of the world. They were yours. You gave them to me. And they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 I gave them the words you gave me. And they accepted them. They knew for certain that I came from you. They believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world. I am praying for those you have given me, because they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. Glory has come to me because of my disciples. 

• When has someone else prayed for you?

• When have you prayed for someone else?

• How do you feel about Jesus praying for his disciples, including you?

11 I will not remain in the world any longer. But they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe by the power of your name. It is the name you gave me. Keep them safe so they can be one, just as you and I are one. 12 While I was with them, I guarded them. I kept them safe through the name you gave me. None of them has been lost, except the one who was headed for ruin. It happened so that Scripture would come true.

• What reminds you that this world is not all there is?  

• Where do you see signs of God guarding you in this world?

13 “I am coming to you now. But I say these things while I am still in the world. I say them so that those you gave me can have the same joy that I have. 14 I have given them your word. The world has hated them. That’s because they are not part of the world any more than I am. 15 I do not pray that you will take them out of the world. I pray that you will keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to it. 17 Use the truth to make them holy. Your word is truth. 

• Why might the world “hate” followers of Jesus? Have you ever experienced this or known someone who has?

• How does following Jesus give you joy?

18 You sent me into the world. In the same way, I have sent them into the world. 19 I make myself holy for them so that they too can be made holy by the truth.

• Where is God sending you to make a difference in this world?

• What is a way you respond to God’s call?

*Hymn of the Day – ELW #574 “Here I Am, Lord”

Pray

Praying for God to Work in Our Broken World

Apostle’s Creed

Offering

Special Music During Offering – You Are Mine

*Offering Prayer
P: Let us pray. Holy Father,
C: Sanctify us in your grace like the disciples whom Jesus commissioned. Send us into the world as your people. Open our hearts and our hands to respond to your word. Give us the courage to live according to your teaching, rather than in the ways of this world. Receive these gifts offered in faith, in Jesus’ name. Amen

*Lord’s Prayer

Bless

Announcements

Benediction

*Sending Song – I Will Follow

*Dismissal
P: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God!

Here are the pictures of the prayer stations.

Praying and coloring a footprint as you consider how Jesus is sending you into the world. Fits with our focus verse for the day from John 17:18 – “As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”

It was also Mother’s Day, so this prayer station invites people to pray for their mother or other important women in their lives as they tie a knot in the fleece blanket.

Part of what stuck out to me in this reading about Jesus praying for his disciples (and I preached about this the night before) is that they can hear him praying for them. How powerful that must have been! For this prayer station, I made cards for everyone on our weekly congregational prayer list, and then asked people to both pray for them and to sign the card so they would know in a tangible way that they are being lifted up in prayer.

This prayer station consisted of a bunch of news articles(local, national, and international) for people to read, praying for the people involved in each situation.

Finally, we invited people to pray for a place in the world, and then circle or mark wherever they prayed for. (This was intended to be done with an inflatable globe, but what we thought was a globe in the Sunday School resource room turned out to be just a beachball. Maybe next time!)