PRELUDE/ENTRANCE/LIFE OF THE CHURCH
*OPENING SONG
"Lord, I Want to Be a Christian" UMH 402
*CALL TO WORSHIP
Family of God, we gather today to unite our voices and our lives in praise to God! How good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity!
We gather to celebrate how God binds us together to live, work, play, and rest as the Body of Christ! How good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity!
We gather to remember how God has worked through us to share Christ’s love with one another and our neighbors through our prayers, our presence, our gifts, our service, and our witness. How good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity!
Family of God, today we come as diverse and unique members of the Body of Christ to learn and grow not in uniformity but in unity to love God, self, neighbor, and all creation. How good and pleasant it is when we live together in unity! Thanks be to God! Amen.
Written by Dr. Lisa Hancock, Discipleship Ministries, May 2026.
Opening Prayer
Maker of Our Days, you created each of us unique beings with differing strengths and weaknesses. Help us not only to use our strengths to assist others but also to allow others to use their strengths to meet our weaknesses. Restorer of Our Souls, you have seen the parched places we have made in our lives, along with the devastation thrust upon us by the action or inaction of others. Meet us in the places of our deepest pain so that our facades of self-sufficiency might fall away, and we might be drawn into right relationship with you and one another. Breath of Our Lives, without you, we are but a mound of clay. Fill us with your presence, invigorate our worship, set us on fire so that others might be drawn into your light and nurtured by the warmth of your loving care. Amen.
Written by Rev. Dr. Bob Gross and posted on the Worship Ways website of the United Church of Christ at https://www.ucc.org/worship-way/pentecost-11-august-16-united-church-of-christ/.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
WORDS OF ASSURANCE
SHARING GOD’S PEACE
GOD SIGHTINGS AND INTERCESSIONS
THE LORD’S PRAYER
PROCLAMATION AND RESPONSE
A TIME FOR CHILDREN
SPECIAL MUSIC
*FIRST LESSON Isaiah 56:1, 6-8
*GOSPEL LESSON Matthew 15:21-28
MESSAGE
RESPONSE TO THE WORD
SONG OF RESPONSE
“I Need Thee Every Hour" UMH 397
*OFFERING OF OURSELVES
BAPTISM UMH 39
*DOXOLOGY UMH 95
*PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
SENDING FORTH
*SONG OF DISMISSAL
“Standing on the Promises” UMH 374
*BENEDICTION
*PEACE
“God Be with You till We Meet Again “ UMH 672
Verse 1